The General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in Ireland concluded last Wednesday evening.  I was disappointed that the webcasting was discontinued before the concluding worship service because I found the opening worship moving and inspirational.  (Deepest thanks to Alan at Alan in Belfast for alerting me to the BBC Ulster broadcast of the opening worship.)

At the opening worship the outgoing Moderator, the Rt. Rev. Dr. Donald Patton, preached on Philippians 2:1-11 and talked about his time as Moderator and the theme of “Journeying” — how Jesus journeyed by “emptying himself,” being “born in human likeness,” and being “obedient to death – even death on a cross” as the scripture passage talks about.  In his sermon he identified some renewed sectarian violence in Northern Ireland as a threat the church must address and not let get out of hand.  He also commented on the implications of the Presbyterian Mutual Society situation for members of the church that have money now “locked up” in the Society.  And in the sermon, and throughout the Assembly, blame for the run on the Society was placed with the British Government when they increased the guarantee on banks and other financial institutions but not on the Mutual Society leading people to move money to safer locations.

One of the joys of having the audio or video webcast of GA worship is the opportunity to hear hymns not usually used in my regular circles.  For the opening worship the singing was full, the music and musicians inspiring, the musical arrangement and orchestration uplifting, and the selection complimented the worship very well.  In particular, I found the singing of “There is a Higher Throne” by Keith and Kristyn Getty as a response to the time remembering the 12 ministers that have gone on to their heavenly reward in the past year a very moving moment.  (I was also interested to hear from the radio host that Keith Getty has served as the musical director for Assembly worship in the past.  And you have to love the radio host saying that “Praise to the Lord, the Almighty” is one of his favorite hymns but he desisted from singing along.)

Following worship the new Moderator, the Rt. Rev. Dr. Stafford Carson was formally appointed by the Assembly, introduced and installed.  The PCI Twitter messages said that during the opening worship Rev.
Carson was outside talking to those protesting the Mutual Society
situation and lack of church response.  For his installation he was escorted into the Assembly hall by all the former moderators in attendance.

Acknowledging the controversy of this Assembly, Mr. Carson in his opening comments referred to the situation with the Presbyterian Mutual Society and how it relates to his theme for the Assembly and the coming year: “Passion for Christ; Compassion for People.”  He noted how the crisis had touched people in every congregation.  How their cry for help had been heard.  How it called for a uniquely Christian response.  He talked about the threat to the unity of the church:

It is this awful situation that the Presbyterian Mutual Society unfolds some of us are fearful that as a church our unity is under serious threat.  That what Satan has failed to achieve through arguments about theology or about ecclesiology he now seeks to achieve through this financial crisis.  He wants to divide us.  He wants to neutralize our effectiveness as a witness to Christ in this community.  And that is why we need to resolve that however this situation develops we will support and love and care for each other.  Make no mistake about it, we are all in this together. (applause)

The references to the work of Satan, while scriptural, strike me as a bit strong for a Presbyterian preacher and probably in some part reflect Mr. Carson’s pentecostal upbringing.  William Crawley at Will and Testament talks a bit about this statement and some of the theological implications, such as whether the protesters are “unwitting pawns in the Devil’s plan to disturb the unity of the Presbyterian Church?”  

William Crawley also notes that there was a second much smaller protest outside addressing the new Moderator’s expressed opinion against the ordination of women as clergy.

Throughout the Assembly it was hard to miss the implications of the Mutual Society collapse.  During the Mission In Ireland report it was noted how the Mutual Society collapse hastened the decline and demise of the Sankill Road Mission.  The United Appeal Board noted how giving to local churches for the United Appeal had been placed in the Society until forwarded on to the Board and were now lost or tied up.  (They also noted that this practice of placing it in an investment account while a common practice was against the policy for the handling of the United Appeal funds.)  And throughout the Assembly there were other stories of what “could have been” if funds invested with the Society were available.

Tuesday afternoon’s debate on the Presbyterian Mutual Society was orderly if passionate.  Many of the leaders of the church shared that they and their churches were also heavily invested in the Society and had their money tied up.  The debate was opened by reminding the commissioners that the debate was not legally privileged and that statements made in the discussion could be used in future litigation so be careful what anyone says.  While there were lots of reports of the many individuals and churches that have been affected by the crisis easy answers were not forthcoming.  The PCI and the Society, while affiliated are legally separate entities.  But there were still protests that the church had promoted investing in the Society for the good of the church and that the investments were presented as lower risk than they actually were.  In the end the Assembly expressed concern for all those impacted by the situation and agreed to continue their aggressive efforts to have the British Government guarantee the Society as they have done for almost every other financial institution.  In addition, a committee will look into the theological and moral implications of the situation.  William Crawley has his report on the Society debate as well.

[There have been some developments in the last few days in this situation including a preliminary mild admission of regulatory problems in this situation.  And there is discussion if this is a matter for the British or Northern Ireland government.  But British Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s comments about his “Presbyterian conscience” at the time of the Assembly, in regards to an unrelated issue of MP expense reimbursements, has not generally gone over well in this situation.]

There was a much more encouraging theme running through the Assembly as well and that was SPUD.  SPUD is the name of a program that began with a youth conference earlier this year to which two youth members of every congregation were invited.  That conference included the discussion, debate, and forwarding of business to the Assembly.  But the 14 items of business were not presented during a unified report on Spud, but during each of the board reports there would be a section where youth representatives would present their business that fell under the area for that board.  It was a great way to handle this business, not just from the point of view of grouping the business, but from the aspect of having youth delegates before the Assembly on a regular basis throughout the meeting.

Among the presented items were

• That the General
  Assembly encourage Congregations in the process of formulating Mission
  Plans, to ensure young people are involved in a meaningful way in the
  development of each local plan.
• That the General
  Assembly encourage the appointment of youth representatives in
  Congregations and Presbyteries to promote engagement and participation
  of local congregations in global mission.
• That the General
  Assembly encourage Congregations and Presbyteries to reassess buildings
  and resources by June 2010 to see how they can most effectively be
  utilized in and by our communities.
• That the General
  Assembly encourage Congregations to ensure the empowerment of young
  people in meaningful and appropriate participation in every aspect of
  Congregational life and witness.

In addition, there was a report with a video presentation on SPUD and the Youth Assembly.  The term SPUD was used as an acronym for “Speaking Participating Understanding Deciding.”  In particular, the SPUD delegates also voiced their concern for the elimination of two peacemaking posts in the church.  The Assembly agreed with them and left the posts for another year.

In the Peacemaking report there was a story I found particularly powerful of a church that got a call from the local guard post asking when their Holiday Bible Club would be held.  After some discussion the pastor learned that the guard post could let some of their officers take vacation during the time the Club met because past experience had shown it was a time of reduced crime.

In other business the Assembly:  Agreed to study the admission of children to the Lord’s Supper.  Discussed the training of different forms of ministry including Recognized Preachers and Evangelists.  Heard reports on Peacemaking, especially in the wake of the recent sectarian killings.  Received a property report where the tweet says “Adrian McClernon
likens property performance over past 2 years to the alleged
performance of the Irish swimming team ‘Nobody drowned’.”  Associated with this was passed a proposal to renovate the headquarters building Church House.  And there was ample discussion of general financial conditions and implications for pastors’ salaries and pensions and keeping individual churches open.

The Moderator has now posted two articles to his blog about the Assembly.  The first is a general summary and includes the observation that the Assembly showed a great sense of unity as demonstrated by the fact that no standing vote card vote was taken in this assembly.  The second article is about the Wednesday night rally/worship where the Revival of 1859 was remembered and celebrated.  At the rally Mr. Carson’s friend, the Rev. Phil Ryken, pastor of Tenth Presbyterian in Philadelphia, preached.  In addition, the official Twitter messages were plentiful providing a detailed narrative of what was happening at the Assembly, in all totaling 486 messages.

It is interesting to follow this Assembly because unlike North American Presbyterian branches this church, while suffering some effects of secularization, is still woven into the fabric of the society.  One evening there was a very interesting panel discussion about health care and the ministries of the church and the respect those ministries are shown by the political leaders on the panel was a cause for celebration.  While the Assembly was marked by the Mutual Society crisis, which is unique to this church, the general global financial downturn and the decreasing importance of the church can be seen here as they are in many Presbyterian branches throughout the world.  But the enthusiasm and commitment shown by the youth representing SPUD was another point of celebration.  At one point a commissioner asked a youth delegate if they wanted to be more specific about how to incorporate youth into the life of the church.  The youth answered that “the resolution was intentionally vague.  Dream Big!”

I encourage you to dream big for all of us.