It is now the month of June and the General Assembly Season is about to get busy. First up, the 2021 General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in Canada is underway. It convened yesterday with worship and the installation of their new Moderator. And it is being held online this year after being canceled last year.
The meeting will continue through Wednesday 9 June 2021.
A few things to know to help follow along:
- There is the live streaming of the Assembly meetings on the YouTube channel and the recordings are archived there.
- The Assembly will be using the PC-Biz platform for tracking business and it is available at assembly.presbyterian.ca.
- With the reports on PC-Biz it does not appear there is a downloadable Book of Reports this year but from the PC-Biz Resources Tab you can download the Summaries of Reports and the GA Schedule. A Provisional Agenda and the Practice and Procedures can also be found there. But note the caution on the Practice and Procedures cover that it presumes an in-person Assembly and some sections may not apply to an online meeting.
- Official news updates are available on the news feed and that includes the highlights from each day. We can probably expect a follow-up after the meeting in the PC Connect e-newsletter.
- The General Assembly Resources page is where you will find the important doctrine and governance documents including the Book of Forms and a link to the Acts and Proceedings page.
The theme for the meeting is “Do Not Fear, I Am With You”.
The Assembly can be followed on social media through the PCConnect Facebook page and through their official Twitter feed @PCConnect. The hastag for the meeting is #pccga2021. And maybe there will be pictures on the PC Connect Flickr feed although an online Assembly is not as photogenic as an in-person one.
The Twitter traffic is fairly light so far, but a bit of traffic including from Daniel Scott the new Moderator (@ScottDdscott). In addition, his congregation St John’s Bradford West Gwillimbury (@StJohnsBWG) and his son Jonathan Scott (@J_Scott_) have been tweeting. Pleased to see that another GA veteran John Borthwick (@jborthwik) is tweeting. And some commenting from Kristine O’Brian (@bloomingrev) and John Borthwick’s congregation St. Andrew’s Guelph (@standrewsguelph).
Over the last few years, the continuing discussion has been on human sexuality and what path the church is going to take. The process towards inclusion has been moving forward and there has been a team crisscrossing the country that has been listening to stories from those in the church. They will be reporting and it is anticipated that apologies will be adopted.
In related actions, the Bills and Overtures committee reports there are 30 overtures related to Gracious DIsmissal from churches concerned with the direction of the denomination. The recommendation from Bills and Overtures is that they be referred to the Assembly Council, in consultation with the Clerks of Assembly.
The other topic which is currently in the news is the history of the residential schools some of which were run by the Presbyterian Church. The Assembly will include times of apology and lament for that history.
So prayers and best wishes for the members of the 146th General Assembly and as they address issues so difficult, but so important to the future witness of the church. May you indeed be guided by the Holy Spirit in these substantive matters of witness and ministry.