Following The FIFA World Cup – Or – As A G.A. Junkie What I Like About Association Football

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For me it is a very unfortunate coincidence that the FIFA World Cup falls at the peak of General Assembly Season.  I must confess that my GA tracking has gotten a bit distracted by following the beautiful game.  Sometime I will blog about how being a soccer referee has informed my theology and how I turned that into a children’s sermon – but that is not today.  Right now I wanted to give a few more general thoughts about the game and, hold on, Presbyterian polity.

To give a brief background I grew up in a city known for its support of soccer with an NALS team and now a team in the “revived” NASL.  As a youth we played pick-up games, a couple of which resulted in injuries requiring significant medical treatment to friends of mine.  While I only played organized soccer one year on a Jr. High team I have followed local teams, college and professional, where I have lived.  I am a trained soccer coach and referee.  It is the latter that connects with my passion for Presbyterian polity.

The first point I want to touch on is the origin of the “organized” game.  While the exact origins of the game are debated, and many cultures seem to have similar style games, the rules that the present game derives from come from a series of rules developed between British public schools who played similar style games but each with their own specific differences.  (See where I’m going with this about different Presbyterian branches?)  The rules of what we now recognize as Association Football and the predecessor to the modern Laws of the Game were agreed upon in 1863 with the formation of the Football Association.  Some of the schools’ versions of the games involved the use of the hands and an alternate game, based on the game played at Rugby School , was codified in 1870 as rugby football. (Note the not-so-subtle inclusion of the rugby goal in the banner picture on the Rugby School web site.)  So bottom line for polity: rules were agreed by collections of individuals representing the different schools and where different rules were favored different branches of the sport developed.

Association Football is sometimes referred to as The Simplest Game because the objective and core rules are easy to explain.  As one colleague of mine puts it, you could give the whistle to someone who has never seen the game before and tell them to blow it when they see something wrong and they would get 90% of the fouls and restarts. (But they would not know what to do after they blow the whistle.)  There are 17 Laws of the Game which take 47 pages to explain in the official, nicely illustrated, rulebook .  And yes, there are also pages and pages of interpretation and other stuff that go with it.  But, it takes Major League Baseball 12 pages just to explain the Objective of the Game and the equipment.  Or, compare the rules for a soccer kickoff versus an NFL kickoff:

Soccer Football
Kick-off

A kick-off is a way of starting or restarting play:
    • at the start of the match
    • after a goal has been scored
    • at the start of the second half of the match
    • at the start of each period of extra time, where applicable
A goal may be scored directly from the kick-off.

Procedure
   • all players are in their own half of the field
    • the opponents of the team taking the kick-off are at least 9.15 m (10 yds) from the ball until it is in play
   • the ball is stationary on the centre mark
   • the referee gives a signal
    • the ball is in play when it is kicked and moves forward
   • the kicker does not touch the ball a second time until it has touched another player
After a team scores a goal, the kick-off is taken by the other team.

Infringements/Sanctions
If the kicker touches the ball a second time before it has touched another player:
   • an indirect free kick is awarded to the opposing team to be taken from the place where the infringement occurred * (see page 3)
For any other infringement of the kick-off procedure:
   • the kick-off is retaken

 Kickoff

  1. In addition to a kickoff, the other free kick is a kick after a safety (safety kick). A punt may be used (a punt may not be used on a kickoff).
  2. On a safety kick, the team scored upon puts ball in play by a punt, dropkick, or placekick without tee. No score can be made on a free kick following a safety, even if a series of penalties places team in position. (A field goal can be scored only on a play from scrimmage or a free kick after a fair catch.)
  3. A kickoff may not score a field goal.
  4. A kickoff is illegal unless it travels 10 yards OR is touched by the receiving team. Once the ball is touched by the receiving team or has gone 10 yards, it is a free ball. Receivers may recover and advance. Kicking team may recover but NOT advance UNLESS receiver had possession and lost the ball.
  5. When a kickoff goes out of bounds between the goal lines without being touched by the receiving team, the ball belongs to the receivers 30 yards from the spot of the kick or at the out-of-bounds spot unless the ball went out-of-bounds the first time an onside kick was attempted. In this case, the kicking team is penalized five yards and the ball must be kicked again.
  6. When a kickoff goes out of bounds between the goal lines and is touched last by receiving team, it is receiver’s ball at out-of-bounds spot.
  7. If the kicking team either illegally kicks off out of bounds or is guilty of a short free kick on two or more consecutive onside kicks, receivers may take possession of the ball at the dead ball spot, out-of-bounds spot, or spot of illegal touch.


As a soccer referee I find the soccer rules simpler and shorter than other sports’ rulebooks.  And taking this one step further, you could almost consider the FIFA Laws of the Game as a confessional standard since that basic rulebook is applicable from the Jr. High games I referee to the World Cup.  An amazing continuity throughout the game as the Westminster Standards provide a document many Presbyterian branches look to.

The other thing about the soccer rules is their flexibility, intended like the new revised Form of Government for the PC(USA).  While certain things are hard and fast, like the procedure above for the kick off, other things are left up to the particular situation.  For example, in the Laws of the Game there is no specified size of field, only a range: 90-120 meters long and 45-90 meters wide.  The only requirement is that the field must be longer than wide.  Yes, for international matches there is a smaller range, at the larger end, and individual tournaments, like the World Cup, can specify exact field dimension.  Also, the referee is not to stop play for a foul if stopping the game would cause the fouled team to lose an advantage (unlike basketball which always stops for a foul which drives me crazy). And the famous (at least in the soccer world) Advice to Referees 5.5 says:

5.5 TRIFLING INFRACTIONS
“The Laws of the Game are intended to provide that games should beplayed with as little interference as possible, and in this view it isthe duty of referees to penalize only deliberate breaches of the Law.Constant whistling for trifling and doubtful breaches produces badfeeling and loss of temper on the part of the players and spoils thepleasure of spectators.”

There is a degree on interpretation, like AI’s or PJC decisions, that a referee makes to strike a balance between flow and control of the game.  One would hope that our application polity would be similar.

Which brings me to my final point and that is to point out that in soccer a nil-nil draw is a perfectly acceptable outcome to a game.  A soccer game does not require a winner.  The exception is tournament situations where after the extra time (over time) we have the shootout which most soccer fans, players, coaches and referees consider a dreadful way to determine a winner — but nothing better has been worked out yet.  The reason that many find it dreadful gets back to the philosophy that the game does not require a winner.  It is among the lowest scoring of sports and the play for the 90 minutes as the players work to put the ball in the back of the net is just as important as actually putting the ball in the back of the net.  Like Presbyterian assemblies, the process is as important as the outcome.  How we discern the will of God together is important to our life together.

There is one more similarity between the two disciplines which is unfortunate.  The intent is that an Assembly is one team working together but with different members with different understandings that help inform the process.  It is unfortunate when an Assembly or Synod takes on the feel of a soccer match with two different teams on the pitch (field) each trying to push the ball over opposite goal lines.

I do not intend to argue an analogy between the two areas but only to point out a few of the parallels.  Something to ponder as I keep #ga219, #30ga and #pcaga on my Twitter feed while live streaming Brazil v. PRK over lunch.  Your milage may vary.  Play on!

How Much Presbyterianism Can You Handle In One Day?

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How much Presbyterianism can you handle in one day?  While I think I could probably manage consecutive General Assemblies and Synods for a long time, it appears that my limit is two concurrent… the third I’ll have to handle by “tape delay.”

Yes, the last couple of days there have been three meetings of the highest governing bodies of different branches going on at the same time and I did indeed saturate.

The General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in Ireland finished up this morning.  I think that the notification of the conclusion of the Assembly on Twitter from @pciassembly – “The Overtures were agreed. The 2010 Assembly is over. Thanks for following.” – probably came none too early as I checked in on the live streaming and saw the numbers in the Assembly Hall steadily dropping as the final session went on.  I won’t speculate if they maintained a quorum and no one seemed ready to ask that question.

The session was prolonged by a significant amount of business held over from previously arrested reports.  In particular, I was curious about three items from the Panel on Ministries ( in the General Board report ) where the GA approved general schemes for part-time ministry, auxiliary ministry and the appointment and training of evangelists.  In one of the more interesting moments of the session the Assembly heard a request from the Presbytery of Monaghan which, after having its boundaries extended, requested to change its name to the Presbytery of Monaghan Plus.  There was a serious question asked “Is that the best you can do?” and the speaker outlined the geographic and theological basis for the presbytery committee’s choice of name.  The motion died for lack of a second so they will ponder anew a name change.

At the same time I was following the Presbyterian Church in Canada General Assembly on Twitter hashtag #ga136 and on their Cover It Live board.  No lack of interesting polity and parliamentary action there either.  Got to love the discussion board comment just now posted by GMRoss saying “book of forms revisions during the duldrums of the heat of the afternoon – Don’s checking them off. are we asleep, complacent, or making real changes?”  Sounds like the complaints about the heat in the Assembly Hall during the Church of Scotland GA a couple of weeks ago.

Like the Irish, there was a parallel discussion in the Assembly in Canada about flexible ministry.  The Assembly agreed to the plan put forward by the Clerks of Assembly to explore the possibility of commissioned ministry that I talked about earlier.  There was significant discussion about the Life and Mission Agency’s recommendation 15 regarding three overtures dealing with Educational Requirements for Candidates from Other Theological Schools.  The committee submitted a recommendation that they report back next year.  When an amendment was proposed that would specify certain requirements the Moderator, correctly in my opinion, ruled that it was a separate motion and therefore what was proposed from the floor was a “notice of a motion” ( see page F-9 in Practice and Procedure ) or as sometimes poetically referred to a “notion of a motion.”  This is part of the standing rules to give commissioners a chance to ponder the action before having to vote on it and requires that notice appear in advance of the debate itself.  The Moderator’s ruling was challenged, but the Assembly upheld the ruling of the Moderator with the result that there will be an extra session this evening to consider the motion.  (N.B. this would not have worked yesterday for there was clear indication on the Twitter feed that there was a more important event yesterday evening. )

Finally, I have not had a chance to keep up with the third meeting, the 206th meeting of the General Synod of the Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church finishing up today.  I’ll go back and have a look at that business later but for regular updates I would refer you to Brian Howard, Tim Phillips, and Seth Stark who are all at the meeting.

Yes, GA season is in full swing.  Enjoy it while you can all you G.A. Junkies.

General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church In Ireland

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I awoke this morning to find a flurry of tweets and checking in found that the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in Ireland has convened.  If this year is anything like last year, and the the first day is proving that to be the case, the PCI GA meeting will generate the most official tweets of any of the Assemblies.  So far today alone we have had 137 tweets from @pciassembly since the session began including the tweet “Twitter got overloaded.”  No wonder.

The Assembly actually began last night with worship and the installation of the new Moderator the Rev. Dr. Norman Hamilton.

So if you want to follow along it helps to have the documents.

What has caught headlines so far is the address of the incoming Moderator last night where he condemned sectarianism.  He actually talks about this in a larger context involving the church.  After beginning by enumerating a number of pressures on the world at the current time he turns to the hope of the church:

All of this may seem rather downbeat and maybe even depressing — not what we all come to the opening night of the General Assembly for! Yet it is in this new context that there is great opportunity for the light of the Bible, the love of God and work of the Spirit to bring hope,encouragement and much needed grace to individual lives, local communities and indeed the whole land. So let me sketch out very briefly a little of what this might look like.

The OT prophet Jeremiah was quite explicit when he made it clear to God’s people that one of their key roles was to seek the welfare of the whole community where God had placed them, and that included the welfare of those who had even oppressed them. Jesus followed this through with his astounding command in the Sermon on the Mount (Matt 5.44) to ‘love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you’. The apostle Peter repeated the message when he wrote to a church under serious pressure that Christian people were to be a blessing to others as a pre-requisite to being blessed by God themselves. (1 Peter 3.9)

A bit later he goes on to say:

We really do need to resist the temptation — and it is a strong one –that man lives by politics alone. We do not. Politics is certainly important. Indeed democracy is one of the jewels of a good Christian heritage — and I want to say that publicly here tonight with some of our political reps present.

We value you personally, and we value the work that you do. But the privilege of choosing political leaders and representatives can — and often does — degenerate into passing the buck to them for every perceived problem and evil, and then criticising them when they appear powerless to fix them for us. How often do so many of us who are Christian people complain about our leaders – long before we even think it proper to pray for them and ask for the Spirit of God to guide themin their work. Giving in to the temptation to always expect Stormont or the Dail or Westminster or the local council or the doctor or the teacher or the social worker or the community group (the list is endless…) to fix things for us is to deny the power of prayer, the work of the Spirit and the Biblical imperative of active warm hearted Christian citizenship which was regarded as normal – right throughout the Scriptures. (emphasis added)

For the non-PCI reading this be sure to read that section, especially the part I put in bold, with the Presbyterian Mutual Society failure in the back of your mind.  But the Moderator’s primary concern here is not the Society situation.  He goes on to talk about Christians being engaged in their political world and says “we want to bring our best insights into scripture to public policy.”  He continues:

For the claims of atheists and secularists to have the truth themselves or to argue that they are in some neutral faith-free zone — such claims too need to be vigorously challenged and properly refuted. And, it has to be said, the church throughout this whole island is desperately short of people able and willing to do this… which is itself a terrible commentary on our spiritual and theological weakness.

But what he has in mind the problem of sectarianism.  Here is an extended portion of that section as he approaches his conclusion.

One of the most pungent areas where we desperately need a recovery of righteousness in public is in the area of community relationships, both inside communities and across communities.

You might expect me to say this, coming as I do from 22 years in North Belfast, but the healing of relationships is a real Christian priority for every single one of us here this evening, whether we live in the city, the town or in a rural area, – whether we live in Cork or in Coleraine — Dublin or Derry.

Let me give you an example from the areas OUTSIDE of Belfast.

The latest figures from the PSNI – and I have them here – show that in 10 of the 25 District Council area outside Belfast, there had been arise of over 25% in sectarian motivated incidents between 2008/09 and 2009/10. In only 2 of those councils had there been a reduction of more than 25%.

There is a problem with sectarianism right across much of Northern Ireland, and it is acute in what might be seen as some very surprising places.

The failure to agree a community relations agenda and community relations strategy is, in my view, a public disgrace, given our history.That disgrace is heightened by the apparent failure of much of wider society to even be concerned about it, never mind outraged by it.

And it is a huge discouragement to the many individuals and groups whose vision and work for a healthy and integrated society over the years continues to be so unappreciated and undervalued. Our apparent contentment with widespread social apartheid is, to quote again those words from the book of Proverbs, a disgrace to the nation.Made no less by the fact that this is not a new issue at all — St Augustine, 1600 years ago, wrote: ‘For it is one thing to see the land of peace from a wooded ridge, and another to tread the road that leads to it’

I would love to be part of a public discussion, carried out with grace and with rigour, as to how to face this demon in our midst. I might even be bold enough to say that I would like to help kick start the moribund, even non existent, public discussion about what a coherent,shared and healthy society looks like. And I would want to do so, on the basis of bringing my best understanding of Scripture to that discussion. Every generation, every society, every individual… we all need to bring our failures to the Lord and have them exposed — for as Jesus told us plainly in John’s Gospel (8.32) it is the truth that liberates… Isn’t it strange that such liberating truth from the lips of Jesus seems so unattractive at times? As does the call of Micah(6.8) in these profoundly discomforting words… He has showed you Oman, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.

I look forward to seeing how he works with this theme in the Assembly and throughout his Moderatorial year.

136th General Assembly Of The Presbyterian Church In Canada

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The 136th General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in Canada convenes in Sydney, Cape Breton at 7:30 pm this Sunday, 6 June 2010.  (Some preliminary meetings and activities will begin the day before.)  Here is what you need to know to follow along:

Business before the Assembly
As I look through the reports I have not seen anything that strikes me as a high-profile or “lightning rod” issue.  I could easily be wrong because I read it too fast or I am not familiar with the current concerns in the church.  (And I am sure that someone will let us know if I did miss something.)

There are a lot of interesting items coming to the Assembly.  One of those is the recommendation against having biennial assembly meetings.  Some of the committee reports weigh in on the question but one of the most interesting, at least to me, is the response from the Committee on History.  In their extended response they cast it in the historical perspective and legacy of the church and one of their sections says:

2. The legacy of church union has something to teach us about the unique situation of The Presbyterian Church in Canada. As Prof. Keith Clifford says in The Resistance to Church Union, 1904-1939 (p. 142), the Presbyterian Church Association worked around the courts of The pre-Union Presbyterian Church in Canada appealing to the membership directly and suggesting an inbred hostility to the clerical establishment which was regarded by many lay people opposed to Union as having predetermined Church Union. After 1925 there was an inbuilt suspicion of the centralization of authority resulting sometimes in an inchoate democratization (and laicization) of the power base of The Presbyterian Church in Canada. One can only imagine what the Presbyterian Church Association would say today about biennial Assemblies.

Another very interesting item is the revisions to the judicial process.  The judicial process chapter of the Book of Forms was modified in 2006 and will be reviewed in the future after there has been more experience with it.  However, the Clerks of Assembly are recommending (recommendation 17) an immediate addition that would permit an investigating committee to make the determination that insufficient evidence exists and they could unilaterally decide not to proceed with a disciplinary case.  The other interesting recommendation related to judicial process is that the Assembly Council is recommending (recommendation 7) the Clerks of Assembly be instructed to consider recommending to the Assembly appropriate legislation to establish a standing judicial commission.  I was disappointed to see that the Life and Mission: Communications unit is considering closing down the Being Presbyterian blog, but I do personally know the work involved in keeping multiple blogs active and can understand the concern.  And where the PC(USA) has developed a Social Media Policy for its GA, the Life and Mission Agency report contains a proposed (recommendation 4) General Assembly Digital Images Policy.  And in another parallel, I found an interesting response in the Clerks of Assembly report to Overture 14 (recommendation 16) asking for the elimination of synods:

The framers of Overture No. 14, 2010 suggest that the synods of our church have become ineffective, expensive in terms of both time and money, and a source of disenfranchisement for many elders and ministers.

The Clerks of Assembly remind the Assembly that across the country synods function in different ways. Some provide an important source of collegial community for ministers and elders who are serving in remote parts of the country; some provide strong governance oversight; and some play substantial roles in overseeing the work of thriving camping ministries and that of regional staff.

Synods, that would like to reduce the scope of meeting both in terms of the number of individuals attending and costs involved, now have the option of functioning as commissioned synods.

There are two items that particularly jumped out at me.  The first is interesting because of my being a polity wonk and the issue raises an interesting polity question at the intersection with the effort to be more flexible in how the church does things.  In the Clerks report there is a response to an item that began as an overture in 2008 requesting the option to commission lay missionaries to administer communion in hardship situations such as in remote and rural churches.  The Life and Work Agency returned a recommendation concurring with the overture and the 2009 Assembly then sent it on to the clerks to have the polity wording worked out.  The recommendation from the Ministry and Church Vocations unit in 2009 was against this course of action. (And the report notes that some presbyteries, based on the 2009 approval, had begun commissioning missionaries which the clerks quickly let them know that this has to be done decently and in order and it was only approved in concept and the Assembly had yet to approve the details.)

In their report the clerks note that they find themselves in a bit of a polity dilemma — while it was the will of the 2009 Assembly to move forward with this action this was in conflict with previous Assemblies, as recently as 2008, affirming as a theological doctrine of the denomination that only Ministers of Word and Sacraments celebrate the sacraments.  So here is their proposal:

While hearing the need articulated for an alternative method of providing the communion in areas where ministers of Word and Sacraments are not readily available, the Clerks believe it would be highly irregular to reverse this aspect of the church’s doctrine and practice by creating what could be deemed a new order of ministry without the usual theological reflection by the denomination. Normally, a document outlining a new position is sent to the church for study and report. The responses to the study and report are taken into account and the “new position” may be modified according to wisdom received by the process.

Therefore, while the Clerks have proposed legislation as requested, they, together with the Life and Mission Agency: Ministry and Church Vocations, offer a study paper that is designed to encourage the church to contemplate this important issue from a theological perspective. Before guidelines for education or other requirements are proposed, the Clerks would like to hear from the church through responses to this document.

The formal recommendation (recommendation 3) is that the study paper and proposed legislation be sent out to the church for study and comment and the clerks will return in 2011 with their recommendation, revised according to the responses.

The other item that caught my attention was the study paper reported by the Committee on Church Doctrine and posted as a separate document on the web site.  This sixty-page study paper titled “One Covenant of Grace: A Contemporary Theology of Engagement with the Jewish People,” is also being recommended for study and comment by the church in advance of formal adoption by the 137th Assembly in 2011.

It should be no surprise that this caught my attention because of all the publicity that the Report of the Middle East Study Committee to the 219th General Assembly of the PC(USA) is causing.  But, let me be clear that these are two very different documents in scope and purpose.  While the PC(USA) report would be characterized in the peacemaking and social witness focus, the PCC document is focused on doctrine, specifically the issue of supersessionism, that is, how Christians and Jews are related as God’s chosen people.  The PC(USA) report focuses on modern relationships between ethnic groups and biblical implications for the land.  The reports are related to the extent that they each have an extensive discussion of the biblical background of the Jewish nation and how the biblical narrative demonstrates their special relationship with God.  The two discussions provide nice compliments to each other in many ways.

The concluding doctrine statement in the PCC report, which will be studied this year and considered for adoption by the 2011 Assembly reads in part:

In stating our relationship with the Jewish people we reaffirm a central tenet of our Reformed faith expressed in the Westminster Confession of Faith, that there is one covenant of grace embracing Jews and Gentiles and therefore, not “two covenants of grace differing in substance, but one and the same under various dispensations” (VII, 6).
Accordingly, we affirm that the Jewish people have a unique role in God’s economy of salvation and healing for our world. Jesus himself taught that “salvation is from the Jews” (John 4:22) and the Apostle Paul stated: “to them belong the sonship, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the worship and the promises; to them belong the patriarchs, and of their race, according to the flesh, is the Christ, God who is over all be blessed forever. Amen” (Romans 9:4-5). The Jewish people have a pre-eminent place in God’s covenant, John Calvin, finely said, for they are “the firstborn in God’s family.”

We affirm that God has graciously included Gentile Christians, rightly called “posthumous children of Abraham” (J. Calvin), by engrafting them into the one people of God established by God’s covenant with Abraham. This means that Jews have not been supplanted and replaced by Christians in the one covenant. As Paul teaches, God has not rejected or abandoned them: “I ask, then has God rejected his people? By no means!” (Romans 11:1).

Lots of interesting stuff here.  I look forward to the discussion of these and other topics at the Assembly.  Stay tuned.

Governing Body Reaction To The PCA Strategic Plan

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There has been a tremendous level of reaction to the Strategic Plan that the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in America will be considering at its meeting in just about four weeks.  The reaction has been dominantly concerned, skeptical or negative with the explanation and defense of the Plan coming almost entirely from official channels.  If one had to judge the prospects of this Plan based only on the blogosphere it faces a very difficult path to approval.  BUT, there is no telling what the mind of the commissioners to the Assembly is on this and, maybe more important, what will happen with the movement of the Holy Spirit as the body discusses and discerns together this proposal.  Comment in the blogosphere is not a scientific sampling.

Having said that, there is now an important development on this topic in the form of an Overture (Overture 24 – “A Call for PCA Renewal”) that will be coming to the Assembly from Northwest Georgia Presbytery.  I would suggest checking out the post on the Aquila Report which includes not only the text of the overture but a very helpful introduction by Jon D. Payne.

Where the PCA Strategic Plan is mostly administrative and mechanical in its recommendations the Overture is pastoral.  As TE Payne says in the introduction:

The “Alternative Plan” is not an attempt to cause further division in the PCA. On the contrary, the overture is simply meant to unite and renew our denomination in the theology and practice of Westminster Presbyterianism.

and

We believe that many PCA elders will identify more with this “Alternative Plan” and be pleased to have before them a positive, biblically-based alternative to the elaborate “PCA Strategic Plan” of the Cooperative Ministries Committee (CMC).

And one of the overtures whereases says:

Whereas, the greatest and most urgent need of the Presbyterian Church in America is not a complex strategy, but a clarion call to renew our avowed commitment to the Biblical, Reformed, Confessional, and Presbyterian Faith – a system of doctrine which has, for centuries, cultivated God-glorifying unity,humility, worship, spiritual/numerical growth, mission, service, sacrifice, giving, and cooperation all over the world;

The heart of the overture is a 17 point plan for renewal of the PCA.  Here are the 17 points without editing:

A renewed commitment to the centrality of the God-ordained, efficacious means of exegetical, Christ-centered, application-filled, expository preaching(Is. 55:10-11; Ez. 37:1-10; Jn. 21:15-17 Mk. 1:38; Acts 2:42; 20:26-27; ICor. 1:22-25; 2 Tim. 4:2-4; WLC 67, 154-5).

A renewed commitment to the centrality of the God-ordained, efficacious means of baptism and the Lord’s Supper (Gen. 17:9-11; Ex. 12; Mt. 26:26-29;28:19; I Cor. 10:16-17; 11:17-34; Col. 2:11-15; I Pet. 3:21; Rev.19:6-9; WLC 154; 161-177).

A renewed commitment to the centrality of the God-ordained means of private,family and corporate prayer (Ps. 63; Mt. 6:5-15; Mk. 1:35; Acts 6:4;Eph. 1:15-23; Phil. 1:9-11; I Thess. 5:17; I Tim. 2:1; WLC 154;178-196). 

A renewed commitment to – and delight in – the Lord’s Day (Gen. 2:1-3; Ex.20:8-11; Is. 58:13-14; Mk. 2:23-28; Jn. 20:1;19; Acts 20:7; Rev. 1:10;WCF 21). ;

A renewed commitment to worship on God’s terms, according to Scripture (Ex.20:4-6; Lev. 10:1-3; Deut. 12:32; Jn. 4:23-24; Acts 2:42; Col. 2:18-23;Heb. 10:24-25; 12:28-29; WCF 21.1).
  
A renewed commitment to private, family, and public worship (Ps. 63; Mt. 6:6,16-18; Neh. 1:4-11; Dan. 9:3-4; Deut. 6:4-6; Eph. 6:1-4; Ps. 100:4; Acts2:42; Heb. 10: 24-25; WCF 21.5-6).

A renewed commitment to wed our missiology to Reformed ecclesiology (Mt.28:18-20; Acts 14:19-23; 15:1-41; 20:17, 28; I Cor. 11:17-34; The Pastoral Epistles; Titus 1:5; WCF 25; 30-31).
 
A renewed commitment to loving, Word and Spirit-dependent, prayerful and courageous evangelism (Mt. 5:13-16; 28:18-20; Acts 4:1-13; I Peter3:15-16; WLC 154-7).

A renewed commitment to biblical church discipline (Mt. 18:15-20; I Cor. 5:1-13;11:27-29; II Thess. 3:6, 14-15; I Tim. 5:20; WLC 45; WCF 30).

A renewed commitment to biblical diaconal ministry (Acts 6:1-7; Phil. 1:1; I Tim.3:8-13). 

A renewed commitment to catechize our covenant children in our homes and churches(Deut. 6:4-6; Prov. 22:6; Mk. 10:13-16; Eph. 4:12-13; 6:1-4; WSC).

A renewed commitment to biblical masculinity and femininity (Gen. 2:18-25; Deut.31:6-7; Prov. 31:10-31; I Cor. 16:13; I Peter 3:1-7; Eph. 5:22-33; I Tim. 2:11-15; WLC 17).

A renewed commitment to entrust the leadership of the Church into the hands of the ordained leadership (Jn. 21:15-17; I Tim. 5:17; Heb.13:17; I Pet.5:1-3; WLC 45).

A renewed commitment to the Reformed Confession which we have avowed, before God and men, to promote and defend as our system of doctrine (I Tim. 6:12;Heb. 4:14; 10:23; Jude 3; Westminster Standards). 

A renewed commitment to the mortification of sin and worldliness (Rom. 6:11-14;8:13; 12:1-2; I Cor. 6:12; Gal. 2:20; Eph. 4:20-24; I John 2:15-17; Gal.6:14; WLC 76-7).  

A renewed commitment to the doctrine of justification by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone, apart from works of the law (Gen. 15:6; Hab. 2:4; Rom. 1:16-17; 3:21-26; 4:1-5; 5:1; Gal. 2:15-16; 3:10-14;Phil. 3:1-11; WCF 11).  

A renewed commitment to rest, by faith, in Christ alone for salvation, without minimizing Gospel obedience (i.e. the third use of the law) / (Rom.1:5; 6:1-2; 8:5-8; II Cor. 7:1; Col. 1:28; Eph. 4:1; 5:1-21; Phil. 3:12;I Thess. 5:23; Heb. 12:14; I John 5:3; WCF 19.5-7).

As the title of the overture says, this is a call to renewal not a step-by-step business plan to implement new programs.  This overture has more to do with what happens on the individual and congregational level and the Strategic Plan is more focused on the General Assembly and the denominational ministry units.

I would note two things about this overture.  The first is that while it is proposed as an alternative proposal to the Strategic Plan, the actions that are proposed in each are not mutually exclusive as I read it.  As I said, each has a different focus for its implementation.  Yes, the overture specifically singles out some items for concern, specifically the “safe spaces,” but the 17 points are more general.  The second point here is that it puts forward the points and leaves the details of implementation and follow-up to the congregations and presbyteries.  It asks for “A renewed commitment to biblical diaconal ministry” but the specifics of what this means will apparently be left to the current discussion, overture process and presbytery review process.  When there is a disagreement over exactly how to interpret this we are left with the status quo.

But in support of this proposal, at least in terms of the general idea underlying it, I have recently run into two research studies that would seem to agree with what is being suggested here.

The first is the May 16, 2010, edition of the program The White Horse Inn.  On that show they spoke with Prof. Christian Smith, a sociology professor at the University of Notre Dame, about his latest book Souls in Transition: The Religious and Spiritual Lives of Emerging Adults.  Lots of interesting stuff in that broadcast but there was one observation that particularly struck me and seems relevant to this discussion.  Dr. Smith made the observation that one of the most important factors in the religious development of young people, even if they have left home, are their parents.  He says in the interview “Even after the kids have left home, out of tons of variables, the second most important factor in forming what the religious lives of 18 to 23 year olds looked like was the religious, the faith lives, of their parents back when they were teenagers.”  (It may have struck me because I have a household full of teenagers.)  He says a bit later “If we see something troubling among young people it is probably because the generation raising them has something troubling going on.”  The implication is that if we lose the current 18-23 year old generation it is because we lost their parents’ generation.  So this gets right to the heart of a couple of these points that call the church to renewal through religious disciplines at not even the congregational, but at the family level.

The second source is the book Vanishing Boundaries: The Religion of Mainline Protestant Baby Boomers by Hoge, Johnson and Luidens.  In this book the authors review and consolidate a lot of other research studies about the decline of the Mainline Protestant churches, compare it with their own work, and draw some interesting conclusions while arguing away, legitimatly in my reading of it, some of the conventional wisdom about the reasons for the decline.  After the GA season when I have time to devote to other topics I’ll write a much longer post about the book.  For the moment, let me say that the “vanishing boundaries” of the title are the vanishing distinctions between the mainline church and the culture around it.  Referring to earlier studies and conclusions by another researcher, Dean Kelley, they write:

Kelley had emphasized that the mainline denominations were not set apart by distinctive lifestyles or values from the rest of middle-class America.  “We believe Kelley is right” [one of the book’s authors wrote in an earlier paper] “when he says that denominations most embedded in the surrounding culture are most subject to favorable or unfavorable shifts in that culture.  These denominations benefited from a favorable cultural context in the 1950s but suffered in the late 1960s.”

The findings from our study of Presbyterian confirmands and from other recent research have convinced us that Kelley was right to describe the mainline Protestant denominations as weak and to emphasize the critical importance of belief – or “meaning,” as he puts it – in creating and sustaining strong religious bodies. [pg. 181]

Let me note two things:  First, the book’s authors begin this section by saying “When we began this study we were unclear about the usefulness of Kelley’s theory…”  [pg. 180]  They did not come in looking to prove this theory.  I should also mention that in this terminology “strong” and “weak” refer to an organization’s ability to mobilize members and their resources to accomplish a shared objective.

Religions of highest strength are, in Kelley’s words, agencies for “transforming men and groups into vigorous, dynamic, conquering movements.”  In their early days, the Anabaptists, the Methodists, and the Mormons were religions of this sort. [pg. 181]

I would note that this is a sociological, not theological, result that explains the data but does not place any intrinsic merit on the organizations themselves and their belief systems.  However, within that constraint the model provides one possible, and to these authors the best, explanation of what has been happening in the long-term membership patterns of the mainline churches.

So what does this have to do with the Strategic Plan and a possible alternative?  As I noted in an earlier post it seems that the PCA may be close to making a transition to the next larger size of denomination organization and function.  If you accept the authors’ conclusion that to grow the denomination must be an agency for transformation, then what is the best way to accomplish that?  Can that be accomplished with a call to renewal, with changes in the administrative structure, some combination of both or something else entirely?  Let us pray for the leading of the Holy Spirit as the Assembly discerns this.

The 2010 Assemblies Discussing Central Points Of Presbyterian And Reformed Thought

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This past weekend the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland held a special session to celebrate and remember the 450th anniversary of the Reformation in Scotland that produced the Presbyterian church.  (You can watch the two hour long session on the Church of Scotland web site.)  And for those who keep track, this past Thursday (when I started writing this) marked the 446th anniversary of John Calvin’s death.  It seems to me the various Assemblies this year in their business have more ties to Calvin and Knox than happens in most years.

As I think back on the Church of Scotland Assembly I’m sure that for many of us who followed the meeting there was an interesting sense of paradox (or irony or outright contradiction even) having to do with the fact that on the one hand the Assembly endorsed the Third Article Declaratory defining the Kirk as a territorial church with a mission to the whole of Scotland, while on the other hand cutting ministerial staffing 10%.  I probably can not state it any better than Davidkhr who says in his blog post about the Assembly:

It’s all very well making potentially visionary statements looking at alternative forms of ministry, but the education process within the membership will be impossible. Let’s face it, and the Committee/commission didn’t, the vast majority of ordinary members expect a form of ministry that may have happened 40 years ago, and the only ‘visit’ from the church that is valid is the dog collar. That is plainly ridiculous in today’s situation. Parishes will get bigger, more vacancies are planned for, more churches needing covered with interim ministries, it’s a recipe for meltdown….

Or have I missed something in all this ?

And this in a Presbyterian branch which has been proactive about considering the church of the future with their Church Without Walls initiative and the various Commissions and Panels on restructuring the church.

I’ll return to this in a moment, but as I consider the Assembly meetings now adjourned and those yet to convene it strikes me that more than most years there will be a lot of discussion, more than usual, around the application and relevance of several points which many of us consider central to what it means to be Reformed and Presbyterian.  Some of these are…

Worship
We are all familiar with the “worship wars” but the echoes this year seem to be very much concerned with the original Reformed understanding of divine worship and the inspiration and value of the Psalter.  At their Assembly, the commissioners of the Free Church of Scotland agreed to a special Plenary Assembly later in the year to discuss the possibility of permitting flexibility in worship and providing for a congregation to include music other than unaccompanied exclusive psalmody.

But I found it meaningful how much unaccompanied Psalm singing there was at the Church of Scotland Assembly, not just at the special session but throughout the week. A significantly larger amount of the music sung that week was unaccompanied Psalms, more than I remember from previous years.

Teaching and Ruling Elders in Joint Ministry
This gets to the heart of many discussions this year and especially part of the solution of the Third Article and the ministry cuts paradox.  The Special Commission on the Third Article Declaratory in their report made it clear that to accomplish that mission would require new ways of being the church.  And as Davidkhr makes clear above it will fail, meltdown in his language, if there are not new ways.

But that is the beauty of the model of shared ministry that we see in the Presbyterian and Reformed system.  Under no circumstances is leadership for the teaching elder alone.  Authority, responsibility, and accountability lie with both the teaching and ruling elders.  And while there are plenty of service roles for others in the church, in times of reduced staffing there is opportunity and responsibility for the ruling elders to live into their role and help leading the church where there is now need.  Yes, there is need for training regarding some areas, but a great opportunity for ruling elders to be part of the joint leadership the Reformed tradition recovered.

And I would say that many Presbyterian branches would benefit from being intentional about the joint ministry of teaching and ruling elders.  This is not necessarily a budgetary argument but an understanding of call.

But in this regard there are a couple of other points where our GA’s are touching on this joint ministry.  One of these is in the balance of teaching elders and ruling elders standing for Moderator and Vice-Moderator of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.).  Five of the six Moderator candidates are teaching elders and all four of the announced Vice-Moderator candidates are teaching elders.  Only one in ten, 10%, is a ruling elder.  Now I actually think this says something about how the PC(USA) structures these position and I will rant about discuss that another time, but at a minimum it does implicitly say something about how the church looks at this joint ministry.

Another branch where this joint ministry has been mentioned as lacking is in the Presbyterian Church in America.  Commentators have pointed out that having teaching and ruling elder parity at GA is a problem with more conflicts and less incentive for ruling elders to attend.  This is one of the “back stories” to the Strategic Plan…

Connectionalism
This leads us into one of the areas that is constantly being worked out in Presbyterian branches, and that is our connectionalism — how each governing body is connected to the others.  I have to think that if we were not a fallen and sinful people this would come naturally, or even be unnecessary, but having our sinful nature it does not come as easily for us to determine what of our authority, power and treasure we are to reserve for one governing body and what portion is properly exercised by higher or lower bodies.  Just as we believe that our human nature is such that authority should not be concentrated in one individual but rather in a body, we also believe authority should not be concentrated in one governing body but shared (not necessarily equally) across higher and lower governing bodies with review and appeal between them.  (And this is just the polity argument and not the role of connectionalism as representative of the Church as the Body of Christ.)

Having said this, the connectional level of Presbyterian polity is one of the most sensitive issues in several branches right now and for the PCA Strategic Plan the several ways that it proposes to improve connectionalism may be the most controversial and contentious points.  One thing the report considers is how the Administrative and Assembly functions of the denomination should be supported and how to assess churches for the financial support of these areas.  There are numerous analyses and a counter proposal being circulated so at the Assembly we will have a significant discussion on the specific implications of connectionalism.

At the upcoming Assembly of the PC(USA) a different situation will be on the floor.  The PCA Strategic Report begins with the position that growth has slowed and started to reverse and asks the question “What do we need to do to start growing again?”  The PC(USA) discussion begins with the fact that the current structure was designed for a church roughly one million members larger and asks the question “How do we need to structure ourselves for our smaller size?”  There are proposals for specific tweaks, like abolishing synods, to requests for creating a committee or commission to study the role of higher governing bodies and suggest, and in the case of the commission implement, changes to the presbytery and synod structure of the denomination.

As a parallel proposal, there is also a PC(USA) overture for a “New Synod,” and flexible presbyteries, that would allow connectionalism along the lines of theological affinity.  But the PC(USA) is not alone here because the Evangelical Presbyterian Church also has a proposal before it for presbyteries to have, in my words, “fuzzy boundaries,” to allow for congregations to align themselves in presbyteries that have a similar stance but on one very specific issue, the ordination of women as teaching elders.

And finally, the Church of Scotland, in several reports including the Panel on Review and Reform, is looking at devolving responsibilities from the General Assembly level to the presbytery level.  We will see more of these specifics as the year unfolds and they are discussed and implemented.

Confessions
I would be remiss if I did not mention one more traditional item and that is our confessional nature as Presbyterians.  The PC(USA) GA will be discussing a recommendation to add the Belhar Confession as a confessional standard.  I will leave it at that for now as I am working on a much more extensive post on the PC(USA) and its confessions.

So that is what I am seeing.  In my memory I can’t remember so many Presbyterian branches dealing with so many of the characteristics that we of the Presbyterian and Reformed tradition consider core to our doctrinal framework.  So hold on — it looks to be an interesting summer.

Ecclesia reformata, semper reformanda secundum verbum Dei

The 219th General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (USA) — Sixth Candidate For Moderator And Other Details

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Having hit a short break between Assemblies, the GA of the Church of Scotland finishing this morning (my time) and the Presbyterian Church in Canada scheduled to convene in just over a week’s time, I need to get caught up on some recent developments in the PC(USA).  The first is the announcement of a sixth candidate for Moderator of the 219th General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.).

The Presbytery of Santa Barbara has issued a call for a special presbytery meeting on June 9 to act on the endorsement of the Rev. Julia Leeth, pastor of the First Presbyterian Church of Lompoc, to stand for Moderator of the General Assembly.  In the letter accompanying the notice Rev. Leeth writes:

I feel called to be the Moderator of the 219th Assembly because I love His Church. I feel comfortable and have some experience moderating meetings that are both pleasant and challenging.  I have skills that lend themselves to moderating a meeting that may be at time [sic] pleasant and at others challenging.  I want to be a good steward of my gifts and this is a very tangible way to respond to God’s call.  In the same way that I have tried to foster relationships with every person in our presbytery, including those who may have a different theological perspective than I, I plan to foster relationships at this General Assembly.  In this way, we can all see the wonderful things that God is doing in and through His people across the denomination.

She continues:

Finally, I stand on the Lordship of Jesus Christ.  I hope to proclaim this truth in everything that I do and say and am and am to become.

The Layman has an article on her candidacy published on May 19 that lists the called presbytery meeting for June 1.  The Outlook article of May 20 just talks of a June meeting.  And Robert Austell has added her to his list of Moderator candidates on his GA Help site.  I don’t see an article from the Presbyterian News Service yet, which is interesting because they were quick to jump on the news of the fifth candidate before he was endorsed by his presbytery.

Regarding the Moderator election most of the Moderator candidates have now named their Vice-Moderator designees.  These Vice-Moderator candidates are:

Rev. Landon Whitsitt with Elder Cynthia Bolbach
Rev. Theresa Cho with Rev. Maggie Lauterer
Rev. Marilyn Gamm with Rev. Eric Nielsen
Rev. Hector Reynoso with Rev. Julia Leeth

The General Assembly web site is filling out nicely, including the Moderator Election page with the first five candidates.  Most of the site is basic information for commissioners and the docket is not much more than the planned times for meetings but no listing of which committees will be reporting when.

In addition to GA Help there are a few other GA specific web sites coming on line.  In an individual effort, Bob Davis is putting together material at Presbyblog.  There are also advocacy group web sites tracking GA including Covenant Network,  More Light Presbyterians, Presbyterian Coalition, Presbyterians for Faith Family and Ministry, Presbyterian Peace Fellowship, and Presbyterian Voices for Justice.  I’ll add the PC(USA) to my GA Junkie wiki in the near future.  And let me know of resources I’ve missed.

Well enough PC(USA) for now – that GA is still 38 days away.  There is lots more action before then.

General Assembly Of The Church Of Scotland — Being The Churh Where You Are

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Today’s business of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland had some interesting threads about the geographic nature of the church and what it means to be the Church where you are.  There is also an interesting “personality” thread that I will return to in a moment.

The morning worship began with a nice metric setting of Psalm 24 from the 1929 Scottish Psalter (“Ye gates lift up your heads on high”) and included holy communion.  (The morning video update contains a lengthy section of that Psalm singing. And according to the order of worship the Sanctus in the Great Thanksgiving was sung.)

The balance of the morning and part of the afternoon was spent discussing the Report of the Special Commission on the Third Article Declaratory.  (Due to the time difference I was not able to follow much of the morning session live and so am depending on the video update and to a much lesser extent the archived real time updates.) Since I have previously discussed this report at length I am not going to revisit the written report.  The comments from the convener of the Special Commission, the Very Rev. Dr. Alan D. McDonald, included pointing out that as the Special Commission traveled around and talked with people and congregations they found that “being a territorial church is regarded as a privilege.” As Mr. McDonald is quoted as saying, “The Kirk is not a supermarket, in business only where there is a customer base.”  As the morning update puts it, the Commission came to the point where the question was not whether the Third Article should be retained or deleted but rather, “how can the principles it enshrines be implemented not in 1929, but in the present context?”  In response to a question about how the Kirk, with its already tight resources, can continue to minister everywhere.  The convener is quoted as replying that where there are people but no minister “the people fulfill the remit.”

In the end the deliverance was approved with only minor modifications in wording.

In the afternoon session one of the items following the Special Commission report was the Report of the World Mission Council.  For this discussion I would like to cast a very narrow focus on item 9 in the deliverance:

9. Noting the desire of the congregations of St Andrew’s Nassau and Lucaya Kirk, Freeport to affiliate to the Evangelical Presbyterian Church (USA) as an interim step towards the formation of a Presbyterian Church of Bahamas, agree to their severance from the Church of Scotland, commend them for their Christian mission and service over the past two hundred years and wish them God’s continuing blessing as they take forward their life and witness in the Bahamas.

Let me press rewind for a moment because this item has been hitting the press the last few days.  Consider this headline and lede from heraldscotland:

Congregation quits Kirk in protest over gay ordination

17 May 2010

An entire congregation has quit the Church of Scotland in the Bahamas after its minister resigned over the issue ofthe first gay ordination.

Around 800 members of the Kirk will hear at its annual General Assembly in Edinburgh this week that after the Reverend John MacLeod resigned from St Andrew’s in Nassau, the capital of the islands, his congregation has opted to leave the Church.

It is also expected that the 200-year-old parish will be followed by another in the Bahamas, Lucaya Kirk at Freeport, at a time when the Church of Scotland faces potentially its greatest schism in its 450-year history – over the issue of gay ordination.

The World Mission Council of the Kirk will reveal that the congregation in Nassau voted in favour of leaving the Kirk, almost immediately after approval of the assembly to join the fundamentalist Evangelical Presbyterian Church of America, which takes the position homosexuality is against the Scriptures and is opposed to women being ordained.

It is interesting, having watched the full Assembly discussion on this item, that I did not hear one comment regarding the current controversies in the Church of Scotland.  And they clearly did not do their homework when they call the EPC “fundamentalist” (if they should be using that term at all) since it is, to put it one way, the most liberal of the conservative Presbyterians in the U.S. allowing the ordination of women under “local option.”

Yesterday’s Tribune article tries to set this straight:

Presbyterian Church breakaway ‘not linked to gay issue’

Published On: Thursday, May 20, 2010

REVEREND Scott Kirkland has rejected claims that the ordination of gay ministers in the Church of Scotland drove Presbyterian kirks in the Bahamas to break away.

The minister of Lucaya Presbyterian Church in Freeport announced at the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland in Scotland this week that Presbyterian congregations in the Bahamas had voted in favour of leaving the “mother church” after 200 years to align with the Evangelical Presbyterian Church (EPC) in the United States.

A total of 39 church members voted in favour of joining the EPC and three against after Rev John Macleod resigned from St Andrew’s Presbyterian Kirk in Nassau and admitted it was partially over the Church of Scotland’s ordination of its first openly gay minister, Scott Rennie.

So yes, we are dealing with two different churches and two different clergy on only one was represented at the Assembly.  But, the Rev. Kirkland gave a nice speech from the floor of the Assembly about the realignment of the church.  As I said, neither he nor anyone else in the Assembly session, linked the departure of these two parishes to controversies.  The decisions are related to geography, proximity to their new presbytery in Florida, and the EPC’s experience with developing new foreign presbyteries with the vision of one day having established stronger churches in those areas.  He specifically mentioned the work the EPC is doing with St. Andrews Presbytery in Argentina and the five-year cooperative agreement there between the EPC and St. Andrews.  The plan that is being proposed is a similar one to build up the church to do mission in the Bahamas.

I will close with comments from the Very Rev. Andrew McLellan on both these topics.  Regarding the subject of territorial mission, the video update relates his telling two stories from his own experience related to the importance of the Kirk “being there.”  One was from his work with prisons and a particular inmate who did not know he had a pastor until the pastor from his home parish came to visit him.  As Mr. McLellan told the story, the fact that he had a pastor and the pastor had visited him meant a lot to that individual.  The second story was about an employer/employee tribunal and a colleague of Rev. McLellan’s who was asked to be with the employee, but found he was welcomed as well by the employee’s supervisor because he was trusted by both of them.  Those stories were offered as examples of what territorial ministry means.

Regarding the Lucaya Presbyterian Church in Freeport, Rev. McLellan spoke of his father who was at one time the pastor of that church and is buried in the church yard there.  He spoke of his father’s devotion and stubborn loyalty to the Church of Scotland and paraphrasing Rupert Brookes he spoke of how even though the church may realign with the EPC, “There will forever be some part of that foreign field that will for ever be Church of Scotland.”

As I write this over my lunch hour in L.A. the evening session is under way in Edinburgh and the section with the past Moderator’s address is closing with the hymn “As A Fire is meant for burning.”  I leave you with the first verse which ties all this up nicely –

As a fire is meant for burning
with a bright and warming flame,
so the Church is meant for mission,
giving glory to God’s name.
Preaching Christ, and not our customs,
let us build a bridge of care,
joining hands across the nations,
finding neighbours everywhere.

The General Assembly Of The Church Of Scotland

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The General Assembly of the Church of Scotland will convene tomorrow, 20 May, in Edinburgh at 10 AM local time.  The occasion will be marked by the unique honor of a 21-gun salute from Edinburgh Castle. The Assembly continues through 26 May.

There is plenty of on-line information to keep a G.A. Junkie entertained for the next week:

  • There will be a live audio and video webcast.
  • For the scheduled business check out the Daily Agenda page and to follow along you can find the Committee Reports on another page.
  • You can get the information on what has taken place from the Official Press Releases (already in high gear) and the Daily Updates which should include both an archived version of the daily web updates and a once or twice a day audio recap.
  • For all the other stuff that is going on for Assembly week check out the Events page.
  • This year there is an official 2010 General Assembly blog.
  • The Assembly does a great job on Twitter and you can follow the official feed @generalassembly and all the rest of us using the hashtag #ga2010 (although a couple other Presbyterian branches and a couple of non-Presbyterians seem to be using it as well.
  • Youth delegates from the Church of Scotland Youthwork program will be participating in the Assembly and blogging on the COSYBlog, as well as on Twitter at @cosy_nya and on Flickr.

The Moderator of this Assembly will be the Right Reverend John Cairns Christie of St Andrew’s Church, West Kilbride.  The Lord High Commissioner will be Lord Wilson of Tillyorn KT.  (I had to look it up – KT is the suffix for the The Most Ancient and Most Noble Order of the Thistle.)

I have already mentioned a couple of items on the docket for this Assembly – The Third Article Declaratory, a Ministries Council report that reduces ministerial staffing by 10% over four years, and the strategic plan for property management and disposal.  And we must remember that the Special Commission considering ordination standards does not report back this year.  But there is plenty more on the docket to be considered.

So tune in and follow along because it should be a good meeting.

General Assembly Of The Free Church Of Scotland

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The General Assembly of the Free Church of Scotland convened this evening with opening worship and installation of the Moderator, the Rev. David Meredith. The Assembly will begin with business sessions tomorrow following the address from the new Moderator.

This year the Free Church has made it easier to follow the Assembly with real-time updates on their web site.  Begin at the church web site and click on the news box for the day that you are interested.  (For active business you will need to refresh the page.)  The stub for tomorrow’s business has been posted.

There are pages for reports to the Assembly and for Assembly news.

I will dig into the Assembly reports a bit more soon, hopefully tomorrow, but the highest-profile, and maybe the most controversial, item of business is the Supplementary Report on Worship.  At the last Assembly the Board of Trustees was given the remit to consider if the church should allow flexibility in worship from the status quo, particularly regarding music and permitting music other than exclusive psalmnody.  This report discusses the differences of opinion that the Board found regarding this issue, specifically 2/3 of the sessions favoring the status quo and one third supporting more flexibility.  In light of the division and the advice from presbyteries to go slow the Board is recommending a Plenary Assembly later this year where every minister and equal numbers of ruling elders could gather only for the purpose of discussion and dialogue on the issue.  This would provide a basis for later legislation.

In addition to significant press coverage (example 1, example 2 ) the provision for some flexibility has been a major cause of the editor of the official publication, The Record.  Last week the Rev. David Robertson published on his blog an extended version of an editorial he placed in the publication that argued for more flexibility in worship and contrasted the need for the Free Church to be permissive about worship with the larger Church of Scotland’s policy about ordaining women which was supposed to be permissive but has now become required.  This is not his first editorial advocating for a more permissive stance on worship singing — he published an editorial in the July 2009 edition that suggested flexibility so the denomination could become an option for Church of Scotland congregations to realign if they were concerned over that branch’s stance on ordination standards.  It is also amusing to note that the press headlines usually say something about the denomination considering “lifting the ban on music.”  To be precise, unaccompanied singing of “inspired songs,” meaning the psalms, is permitted now.  The question being discussed is the use of instruments and the singing of other “uninspired” hymns.

Finally, I have been intending to develop a reference space for my personal use but have decided to make it publiclly accessible if others are interested.  Over at gajunkie.wikidot.com I have started a Wiki where I hope to consolidate the basic information about the polity of Presbyterian branches and information to help you follow the developments in those branches.  It is not intended to be as comprehensive and focused on General Assemblies as Robert Austell’s GA Help site is about the PC(USA).  As GA season progresses I am hoping to build out my listing and if I miss a critical piece of information please let me know.

So, keep watching as we see what the Free Church of Scotland is about this week as their Assembly meets.