Greetings — I am semi-live blogging this session of the
General Assembly (2009) of the Church of Scotland.  I apologize to those with e-mail feeds or a feed
reader since you will probably only get the first section of the post
since I’ll be adding updates throughout the session.  Also, if you are
reading this on a browser live you will also need to refresh the screen
since I don’t have push technology on my blog.  It’s tough being Web
1.99999 in a Web 2.0 world.  Thanks for your patience.

This blogging is semi-live since I am not there and since only part of the session will be webcast.  This evening session is to deal with two related items of business.  The first is the protest of the call of the Rev. Scott Rennie to Queen’s Cross Church in Aberdeen.  This is the business titled “Dissent and Complaint Against A Decision of the Presbytery of Aberdeen.”  Since this is a judicial case the tradition of British judicial cases will be honored and there will be no webcast.  There will be no official twitter comments either but there may be some from inside the Assembly Hall on the Twitter subject #ga2009.  The second business item is a related overture from the Presbytery of Lochcarron-Skye proposing specific standards for these cases.  Webcasting is announced to resume for that portion.

10:45 PDT (6:45 PM local)-  At this point the business should have been going for about 15 minutes.  An earlier Twitter comment indicated that the gallery was full and that the overflow room was going to be used.

10:55 – There are some Twitters (or is that tweets) from the Assembly Hall including Stewart Cutler.  With Stewart in attendance I know of two bloggers, Stewart and Chris Hoskins at GA.  Watch their blogs after the session for thoughts.  UPDATE: My mistake, those tweets, including Stewart’s, are not coming from the Hall.  Still, Stewart has good connections so read what he has to say when this is over.

11:05 – With nothing else to talk about there is a Twitter discussion going on about the session not being webcast but having observers and the media in attendance in the gallery.  It seems to me the point is tradition, precedence, and the freedom for commissioners to speak freely in their debate as they try to discern the will of God on this matter.  There is  some question about impartiality of commissioners if they have already spoken out, but in the Presbyterian tradition they are now working together to discern the will of God.  In fact, their opinions can come into play in the debate.  They are not asked to be impartial.  They are asked to be open to the Spirit’s leading as they discern the will of God.

11:45 – The Assembly Hall continues to maintain “radio silence” with no updates yet.

12:33 PDT (8:33 local) – Stewart reports on Twitter that there is a break and the “motions are about to be called for.”

12:51 – Then again, another on Tweet implies a decision is not close.
12:53 – Update from Stewart that the parties have presented their cases and now discussion/debate begins

2:35 PM PDT – Twitter has come alive to report that the Assembly has voted to refuse the complaint and dissent regarding the Presbytery of Aberdeen’ approval of the Rev. Scott Rennie’s call to Queen’s Cross Church.

Conclusion:  The General Assembly of the Church of Scotland passed the following motion (from the Update page, but that will disappear at the next business session.)

The following motion is agreed by the Assembly:

a)
refuse the dissent and complaint of Aitken and others and sustain the
decision of the Presbytery of Aberdeen on the basis that the Presbytery
followed the vacancy procedure correctly in Act VIII 2003.

b) affirm for the avoidance of doubt that this decision does not alter the Church’s standards of ministerial conduct.

The business regarding the overture has been remaindered (postponed) until 4:00 PM Monday.

UPDATE:  A couple more thoughts
1)  In good Presbyterian manner the motion that was passed is really about the process not the candidate.  While I have not yet gotten info on the debate it appears that the GA, correctly in my opinion, separated the individual from the issue and at least acted only on the issue.  And the issue here appears to be the process.  The debate on the overture will deal with the issue of standards.

2)  According to an early article in The Herald the vote was 326 to 267.  It will be interesting to see how Monday’s vote compares.

It will be interesting to see both the reaction to this decision and the debate on Monday.  I will follow up on both.