Tomorrow we will reach the six-month point ahead of the meeting of the 221st General Assembly (2014) of the the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). As we look ahead to the meeting of that Assembly a number of things are already in place but so much more is to come.
The GA will meet from June 14-21, 2014, in Detroit, Michigan, and while the city has had some highly publicized problems all concerned with the Assembly are assuring us that the issues will not affect the Assembly. The Office of the General Assembly (OGA) issued a statement of support following the city’s bankruptcy filing and the Committee on the General Assembly (COGA) visited the site this fall and was satisfied with the preparations and location. Regarding the situation with the city, the Rev. Tom Hay, OGA’s associate for assembly operations, made the following analogy in the article:
Detroit has much to teach the church, Hay said. The city is an
institution that trusted in old patterns after they stopped working.“In many ways, that’s something like us,” he said.
In addition, in a bit of a test run, the Fall Polity Conference was held in Detroit in October. However, that was a much smaller gathering and so was held in a hotel and not in the conference center.
The Committee on Local Arrangements (COLA) is up and running and has a web page on the Presbytery of Detroit site, a Facebook page and a Twitter feed (@DetroitCOLA). They have a 23 minute video, Abound in Hope, that introduces the church to Detroit and the PC(USA) ministries and history of the area.
“Abound in Hope” is the theme of the Assembly and will be reflected in the worship. One of the more interesting and significant changes this year is that the Sacrament of the Lord’s Supper will be a part of each daily worship service. In addition, GA Moderator Neal Presa has announced on Facebook the individuals who he has invited to preach at these services:
Delighted that Mark Labberton (President of Fuller Theological Seminary), Anne Emile Zaki (Evangelical Presbyterian Church of Egypt & Calvin Institute for Worship), Luke Powery (Dean of the Chapel, Duke University), and Martha Moore-Keish
(Associate Professor of Theology, Columbia Theological Seminary) have
accepted my invitation to serve as the preachers and presiders at the
daily celebration of the Eucharist at the 221st General Assembly of the
Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) next June 2014 in Detroit, MI.The
five of us will preach from the Assembly gathering text Romans 15:13
and theme “Abounding in Hope” with each of us connecting that text to a
Gospel reading.Jazzed!
Including Mr. Presa, it appears that the list is all Teaching Elders in academia, but it should be good preaching.
The business is accumulating and the PC-Biz system is up and running. It currently lists 31 overtures on the usual wide variety of topics that includes boycotting HP, to a study of drug control policy, to the consultation before redrawing presbytery boundaries. I have so far spotted four overtures related to the definition of marriage in the Directory for Worship and two regarding divestment in companies – one related to involvement in the Middle East and another for fossil fuel producers. There are also those of the “blood on every page” nature suggesting changes to the Book of Order that originated from particular polity issues that have arisen over the last couple of years. I hope to have a closer look as some of those soon.
Along with the overtures the affinity groups are starting to get their priorities together. The one that I have seen published so far is from the Covenant Network. More are sure to come (or I have missed them).
At the present time there are two announced and endorsed candidates standing for Moderator of the 221st General Assembly – RE Heath Rada and TE John Wilkinson. If typical patterns hold there are one or two more waiting in the wings.
A number of special committees and task forces are trying to wrap up their work. Maybe the most closely watched is the Mid-Councils Commission (Continuing) that the last GA rearranged a bit but as of the September meeting it looked like they would be recommending fewer/larger synods but their additional recommendations were still being considered. Likewise, the Special Commission on the Belhar Confession has still not decided on a formal recommendation whether the church should again consider it’s inclusion in the Book of Confessions. It has however produced a study guide, The Bible and Belhar, for the church to look at. In addition, a study document on marriage has been produced and congregations and other groups in the denomination are encouraged to participate in this six-week study ahead of the Assembly. A special committee looking at the Preparation for Ministry Process has released an interim report. These, and a couple other groups, have until February 14 to submit their final reports and recommendations.
Finally, there is a unique video project called Were You There? being curated by Andrew Yeager-Buckley. It is a bit more than Snapchat in that all of us who have been to previous GA’s are invited to share our experiences in up to 60 second videos. As the web site says:
Record a short video on your cell phone or video camera – no more than
60 seconds – that tells what lessons you learned as a commissioner or
advisory delegate. What do you wish someone had told you before the
Assembly, or what would you have done differently during the gathering?
And, don’t forget to tell us your name, presbytery and the Assembly you
attended.
(And the Assembly we attended? For some GA Junkies that could be all 60 seconds. 
)
Finally, for those of us thinking of going it looks like registration and housing info is not up on the sites yet, but there is a handy link to the tourism site at VisitDetroit.com.
I am personally still mulling over whether I will be there in person but I will certainly be watching as the business and news items build up. Stay tuned…
UPDATE (12/29/13): An interesting article from the LA Times about Detroit becoming a tourist destination to view the decline and abandoned buildings.