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In a short while today, Friday June 26, the plenary sessions of the 224th General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) resume. Looking ahead at the GA business on the docket it will be interesting to see how the next two days develop.

Meeting Structure

The approved docket has the meeting starting at 11 am EDT on both Friday and Saturday. On Friday it begins with Worship followed by a recess of one hour. On Saturday it begins with an order of the day for the election of the Stated Clerk to serve another four-year term.

The order of business, proposed by the Business Referral Committee, is posted and awaiting Assembly approval.

The objective is to do two hours of work followed by an hour recess to help avoid videoconference fatigue.

On Friday the meeting is docketed to recess for the day at 6 pm EDT and on Saturday the adjournment is docketed for 6:30 pm EDT. There are a total of nine and a half hours of business meeting time listed. Will that grow?

Growing list of business

Coming into the meeting the Assembly Committee on Business Referral and the Committee on the Office of the General Assembly (COGA) brought a list of business items sorted into categories of Information Only, Critical Business, and Referred to the 225th General Assembly.

From that, the Business Referral Committee constructed a consent agenda from which a few items were pulled last Friday night so that 17 items remain.

Also last Friday night some more items were added to the list of GA business. The first was a list of late-submitted items to add to the Critical Business list. Most of these were information items or routine but necessary matters.

From that list, there is a new item from COGA “On the Church in this Moment in History” [00-29]. There is also a separate item from Business Referrals that was added: “On Responding to the Covid-19 Pandemic” [00-30].

And from the opening night, while there were several items proposed to be moved from the referrals, only two items related to Native American ministry and related property were approved to be pulled from the referral list. These are now numbered [00-95] and [00-96].

After that work on Friday night, on Saturday morning the motion has been made to reconsider the action on Item 01-04 that contains the list. At the time the Assembly closed debate on the item on Friday night the Moderator let it be known that there were up to eight commissioners waiting to move that other items be pulled from the referral list. I am not sure what all of these items might be, and I suspect that there are multiple people proposing the same ones, but a clear favorite is one of the actions to add the requirement for family leave to the Book of Order. ( Items 02-092 and 02-122) Another item I have heard a suggestion of is fossil fuel divestment, maybe Item 02-126. And I would expect at least one more social justice-related item to be moved. It will be interesting to see how some of these topics are handled when there are multiple overtures or recommendations related to them in the referral list. UPDATE: The motion to reconsider was not approved by a commissioner vote of 97 to 377.

So we will first see if the motion to reconsider is successful – it is one of the first items when business resumes, right after adopting the order of business. Then we will see which items are requested and whether the Assembly agrees. And as most of these are not routine matters but will probably have a certain amount of debate, we are most likely looking at extending the meeting if a couple of them get added.

Assembly Operations

One of the interesting things to watch in Plenary 1 (last Friday night) and Plenary 1A (the election of the Co-Moderators) was how the Assembly operated in the virtual format. As noted previously, the Co-Moderators of the 223rd General Assembly, Ruling Elder Vilmarie Cintrón-Olivieri and Teaching Elder Cindy Kohlmann, did a great job of running the meeting from their multiple screens. What we learned is that extra time is needed because of the latency and time delays in the videoconferencing system as well as the time necessary for translation for some commissioners.

The other component is that commissioners and advisory delegates have none of the visual and audio ques that they have in person. Cindy Kohlmann had to announce that there were still eight individuals waiting to make a motion rather than commissioners looking around to see the lines at the microphones and what color cards each waiting speaker was holding. The other interesting thing is that with an in-person meeting it was common for an advisory delegate to find a commissioner to make a motion for them to get something on the floor and then they could speak to it. In the virtual setting we discovered that this assistance is harder to get and it seems that some networking has been established in the last week.

So considering everything mentioned above, I have to wonder if an extra session will be tacked on tonight or tomorrow night to get everything accomplished. The good news is that there is no physical conference center that the Assembly has to be out of at noon on Saturday. But with the anticipated extra business and the necessary deliberative pace of the Assembly we saw last Friday night, how much will the Assembly fall behind schedule? We will see that as today goes on.

UPDATE (Friday afternoon): So yes, the business agenda is sliding. Plenary 3 has gone almost two and a half hours and the only business completed was 00-29 “On the church at this moment in history.” The Assembly agreed to recess for just over an hour and pick up the other three items on the Plenary 3 agenda. At least it will be caught up in the morning.

The other thing that would extend it, of course, is a long debate or set of parliamentary motions on controversial items. Right now nothing strikes me as controversial enough to add significant amounts of time, but maybe if something like fossil fuel divestment makes it into the necessary business a longer debate might be in the offing. As understand the rules of ~~engagement~~ the Assembly, on a controversial business item there will probably not be a minority report and the time necessary for that process to happen. And will the SFTS/COTE debate arise again? I suspect it will, but based on the tone of the Assembly Friday night it will probably not get very far. That topic will be left for the remedial case now before the GAPJC.

So get ready and buckle your seat belts out there all you GA junkies. As the first virtual General Assembly, today will be interesting even if everything proceeds smoothly today. And will one of these days go long? I have to think it will. But we will see if it is for technical reasons, parliamentary reasons, or because a lot of GA business needs to be accomplished in a relatively short amount of time.

Stay tuned…

PC(USA) 224th General Assembly – Election Of The Moderators

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The session for the Moderator Election was delayed a day due to the length of time dealing with business Friday night, but the election evening went smoothly and finished a bit ahead of what some of us expected.

It helped that we had the Co-Moderators on the first ballot with Elona Street-Stewart and Gregory Bentley receiving 304 of the 459 commissioner votes. And yes, the YAAD’s called it with 41 of the 71 Young Adult Advisory Delegates recommending that team.

For more on Elona and Gregory, you can look back at my Moderator Team Introduction of them.

Elona Street-Stewart and Gregory Bentley at the Press Conference after the Moderator election — Elona Street-Stewart and Gregory Bentley, Co-Moderators of the 224th General Assembly (screen shot from the post-election news conference via Zoom)

The election process began with short statements by each of the teams, and the teams generally echoing their pre-Assembly materials. Marie Mainard O’Connell and Arthur Fullerton talked about the denomination continuing to moving forward and their skill-sets to help make that happen. Elona Street-Stewart and Gregory Bentley emphasized their backgrounds and heritage and place in the Presbyterian heritage and how they want to move forward in the context of the Matthew 25 initiative. And the third to present, Sandra Hedrick and Moon Lee, emphasized addressing inequality and inclusion in the context of sharing the Gospel and being empowered by the Holy Spirit.

There was time for five questions from the commissioners to the candidates.

How do you envision yourself being an agent for change? What three things would you do immediately?
How can we as a church come together and unite as a people and make everyone feel included and feel the love of God?
How can we expand the work within congregations and communities?
In light of the current unrest, what is the role of the Presbyterian Church regarding racism? And how do the local churches address the issue of racism in light of being mostly white?
So far we have been discussing domestic issues. The center of Christianity has been shifted to the Global South. How can we learn from them?

The first four questions were submitted in advance by video and of these four only the fourth question was asked by a person of color. The fifth question was asked live by a Mission Advisory Delegate. The responses to the question included that the world is becoming a globalized place, that we have a lot to learn from them, and important to visit to get to know them. Answers to this question did avoid some of the rough patches that the PC(USA) has had in the last decade in its relationships with other churches regarding ordination standards, for example with the Mexican Presbyterian church.

Following this, it was time to vote and as noted above 41 (57.7%) of the 71 Young Adult Advisory Delegates voted for the team of Elona and Gregory. With the commissioners, the support was even stronger with 304 (66.2%) of the 459 commissioners voting for them.

Veteran GA observers might note that the first ballot election is the less frequent occurrence and 66.2% is a fairly high level of support. Since reunion 11 of the 29 moderator elections have been decided on the first ballot. Of those, only one was a two person or team choice (the 222nd in 2016). The only Moderator since reunion to receive a higher percentage of votes was Robert Wayne Bohl in 1994 with 73.9%. It is important to point out that for three years, 1985 to 1987, the posted minutes do not include vote totals. Therefore, the support for first-ballot moderators William H. Wilson (1985) and Benjamin Weir (1986) are not readily available.

And in terms of firsts, it is important to celebrate that Elona Street-Stewart is the first Native American to serve as a Moderator of the PC(USA) General Assembly.

Sankofa bird symbol for Elona and Gregory (from the Moderatorial Candidate booklet) — *Sankofa bird symbol for Elona and Gregory (from the PC(USA))*

At the post-election press conference, one of the early questions was about the team’s symbol of the Sankofa bird. The bird itself is a mythical animal and symbol from the Akan tribe of Ghana with the feet facing forward but retrieving, or carrying, an egg while looking back. The Elona and Gregory chose to place the bird in water, representing the Mississippi River, a river that flows across the nation with importance to both the indigenous peoples and the African American culture. The symbolism of the bird is the bringing of the best of the past to what lies in the future. As their statement in the Moderatorial Book says “Like the Sankofa bird of our logo, we look back beyond this time of uncertainty and fear to learn from those who have gone before, even as we look forward to a faithful and fruitful future.” At the press conference, it was discussed that the symbol ties the best of cultures together merging Native American and African American cultures.

Since a major emphasis of their materials and comments has been the Matthew 25 initiative that was also a major topic of the press conference. They emphasized the number of resources that have already been developed and that one of the three parts of the initiative is congregational vitality. Gregory Bentley emphasized that the church in general, and individual congregations, need to align priorities with the initiative. This is another add-on – it’s purpose is not to supplant but to supplement. In terms of getting the initiative into churches, Elona Street-Stewart emphasized that we “need a beachhead.” The initiative gives clarity and focus to our mission and what the defining features of Christian ministry are.

In talking about the business of the Assembly, especially the business that will be referred to the next Assembly, Elona discussed how the church needs to understand that there is the formation of work going on all the time. There is a fear that if we don’t deal with it at the GA it won’t get done.

Asked about whether GA has too much business to deal with and whether the volume is a problem for people in the churches to understand or participate with GA actions, Elona discussed the nature of GA. She said that many in our churches view GA like they view the civil government, particularly a legislative body. If you have a problem you send a request to GA to fix it. Rather, GA should be viewed as a fellow participant in ministry and should reflect on-going work. If there is a ministry a church is involved in and participation or resources from the national level would be useful – that is the role of GA.

And it was no surprise that when asked about how the church can support them the response was “Pray for stamina, perseverance and patience.” But they added that they are aware of and will need to address and overcome stereotypes. They are not what some people imagine a moderator would be. Elona Steet-Stewart said that they will be “Going to go to places where we are unimagined yet.” They are aware that they won’t fit the profile and will need the whole church to be able to talk about the stereotypes.

And so, as the General Assembly prepares to return to business sessions tomorrow, we do pray for them and many hours ahead. They have now travelled from their respective homes to Louisville so they can moderate in close proximity to their polity and technical support. May they indeed have the stamina, perseverance, and patience for the task ahead.

For more on the Election of the Co-Moderators and Elona Street-Stewart and Gregory Bentley, there is the PC(USA) News article, as well as an election article and a press conference article from the Presbyterian Outlook.

Friday Evening At The 224th PC(USA) GA

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Well that was an interesting evening.

The 224th General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) has begun and the opening session certainly is one for the history books.

Under normal circumstances, the opening session of the General Assembly on Saturday afternoon is mostly training and business done as a formality. This includes the adoption of the Standing Rules, report of the outgoing Co-Moderators, the first report of the Nominating Committee and information on challenging a nomination, and a formal vote on distributing the business to the Assembly commissioner committees. It is mostly routine business to get the meeting going and do the decent and in order stuff to be sure the business and polity is set for the rest of the week. Then everyone comes back Saturday evening to elect the Co-Moderators.

For this Assembly it was already known that things would not be that routine. A special set of standing rules had to be adopted to facilitate a virtual GA with less time to do business. There were none of the regular committees so the business had to be tailored to fit a meeting that was always in plenary. And with the limited time some items had to be removed from the docket so the load was manageable.

The docket originally had scheduled one hour for this work. At a meeting yesterday afternoon the Business Referrals Committee – the only committee at this assembly which will handle the schedule and polity matters – added an extra hour to the opening business. So into tonight we went…

Four and a half hours later the GA finished the opening business. Since it was 11:30 pm on the east coast the Business Referrals Committee recommended adding another session by moving the election of the Co-Moderators to tomorrow night and the commissioners agreed by a vote of 349 to 120. So, another meeting and a change to my dinner plans.

The good news for the week was that only two closely-related items were removed from the list of business that was not considered critical or necessary enough to squeeze into this year’s abbreviated meeting. That is good news in the sense of the business load for this meeting has only increased by a little. It is bad news for the eight commissioners who were waiting in the queue to make motions removing other items from the list to refer. In particular, multiple individuals expressed disappointment that the Family Leave provisions would have to wait a couple more years. (And since it was a Book of Order change, two years beyond that.)

In the midst of all this there we a few interesting polity issues that arose.

The first are the necessary steps to allow this General Assembly to happen online. With an in-person GA not practical for a number of reasons, and with the Book of Order requiring a GA, pretty much the only option was to go online. The problem is that the PC(USA) does not have the bylaws or standing rules in place to make this happen so it was mentioned by a couple of individuals that this meeting is sort of happening outside Robert’s Rules of Order but everyone was trying to be clean and transparent about the whole thing. As the polity wonks know, this can be cleaned up by having the next regular, in-person meeting of the body – which would be the 225th GA in two years – ratify all of the actions taken by this assembly. (And I think it is a good bet that some language will be proposed to provide the option for virtual GA’s again if the need should arise.)

Another polity issue that was of concern and on the floor a couple of times was one of the special standing rules for this meeting that prohibited commissioner resolutions and new business to be brought to the assembly. The first instance was when the rules were being adopted and multiple commissioners had concerns about that prohibition. A motion was made to amend that standing rule to add an exception to allow motions to create “an Assembly-wide committee to discuss how PC(USA) will address social injustice prior to the 225th General Assembly.” The motion was defeated by 132 yes to 335 no. From the debate, the opposition to the amendment included both those who did not think adding such a significant item to a short meeting was wise and those that felt that carving such a narrow loophole was the way to go.

The second instance was when the Business Referrals Committee made a motion to suspend the standing rules to add two items of new business to the list of business for the meeting. That passed with the necessary 2/3 super-majority for suspending the rules. And one of these new business items helps address the issues for which the loophole noted above was concerned with.

And it was pointed out a couple of times that this latter approach is a permissible way for new business to be introduced. If the standing rules don’t allow it then move to suspend the rules and see if you can get the 2/3 vote.

The hot topic of the evening was the relationship of the San Francisco Theological Seminary (SFTS) to the PC(USA) through the Committee on Theological Education (COTE). The first instance was when a commissioner moved that the Dean of SFTS, the Rev Dr Jana Childers, be seated as a corresponding member as the other seminary leaders are. Turning to the Stated Clerk for advice, J. Herbert Nelson explained that when SFTS was “bought” (yes that is the term he used) by the University of Redlands they ceased to have status as a Presbyterian Seminary. As he said, “At this time there is no standing that would allow them to be seated.” The moderator ruled that the motion was out of order and moved on.

A couple minutes later the motion was made to challenge the ruling of the Moderator and after some discussion and explanation of this parliamentary procedure the ruling of the Moderator was sustained 334 to 133 and the challenge failed.

A bit later in the meeting when the business sorting was before the Assembly, the motion was made to not refer the Assembly Organization for Mission section related to COTE to the 225th GA but to deal with it in this Assembly to help sort out the status of SFTS. This move was defeated by a vote of 102 yes to 363 no.

So, the first plenary of the 224th General Assembly is suspended and will resume at 7 PM tomorrow, Saturday June 20th, with the only item of business being the election of the Co-Moderators.

But in a general sense, this was a slow start to the meeting and it raised some concerns in some peoples minds about whether the pace would pick up later in the week. A couple of the SMADs (Social Media Advisory Delegates) on Twitter wondered if the 224th GA would finish by the time the 225th begins. As I pointed out, at least with a virtual GA there is no convention hall that has a hard limit for the meeting to clear out on Saturday.

So that’s the opening night. Big credit to the Co-Moderators of the 223rd GA who handled the online meeting with grace, humor and a steady hand. Best wishes to them as they finish their term tomorrow – and I hope they enjoy this extra day. And prayers continue for all of those standing for Co-Moderators of the 224th GA. Being ready for the pressure of the election and suddenly having it moved back 24 hours can not be easy. Blessings on you as you regroup and get ready to do it again tomorrow.

Sleep well everyone.

Standing For Co-Moderators Of The PC(USA) GA 3 – Marie Mainard O’Connell & Arthur King Fullerton

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Co-Moderator team of Arthur Fullerton and Marie Mainard O'Connell — Arthur Fullerton and Marie Mainard O’Connell (picture from the PC(USA) GA website)

Arthur K. Fullerton announced his intention to stand as a candidate for Moderator of the PC(USA) 224th General Assembly in the first half of May and he was joined in this Co-Moderator team by Marie Mainard O’Connell about two weeks later. Both candidates have not been endorsed by there presbyteries – a customary but not required step – having not had the opportunity due to the disruption of the COVID-19 pandemic. UPDATE: As noted in the comments, since the PC(USA) news article both candidates have been endorsed by their presbyteries in virtual meetings.

For detailed information about them and their sense of call to serve as Co-Moderators, there is the regular General Assembly Moderator Candidates Information Booklet and they also have a team Facebook page and team website in Mr. King’s name. The team material lists only Arthur’s personal Twitter account. In addition, there is the Presbyterian News Service story as well as the Outlook’s Q&A piece covering all the Moderator candidates, and a similar piece following their online “Meet the Candidates” event.

Marie Mainard O’Connell is a teaching elder and currently the pastor of Park Hill Presbyterian Church in North Little Rock, Arkansas. According to the website bio, she is a native of Arkansas but grew up in Texas. She holds a Master’s Degree in College Administration and she worked as Program Coordinator for the Office of Student Engagement at Mary Baldwin College in Staunton, Virginia before going to seminary. She was ordained as the pastor of First Presbyterian Church of Little Rock and before moving to Park Hill she served as a Young Adult Volunteer Coordinator in the area. She has worked with community organizations, including the local Industrial Areas Foundation, and served on her presbytery’s Committee for the Future and currently moderates the Committee on Representation.

Arthur K. Fullerton is a ruling elder at Westminster Presbyterian Church in Albany, New York. According to his bio, he is also a native of Arkansas but his life journey has taken him across the country and he has been active in Presbyterian churches from California, to Florida, to New York City, as well as Arkansas. He has a Harvard MBA and a Master in Applied Positive Psychology from University of Pennsylvania. He has worked and taught in the field of Applied Positive Psychology but also has worked as a consultant and a fundraiser for various organizations. He has served as Moderator of Albany Presbytery and currently serves on the Presbytery PJC.

Their theme is “Preparing the way for a Future Church” and their website has a page dedicated to that. That page is their answer to the first OGA question to the teams about living into the GA theme of “From Lament to Hope.” In their response they say:

Before the virus struck, the PCUSA was like the ancient Israelites wandering in the Wilderness, pining for Egypt. Egypt was the post WWII era of full pews, bouncing children, and overflowing budgets; a reality long past, but still preferred. Of course, that Egypt also oppressed with segregation, marginalized women, and criminalized LGBTQ folks. As a gay man born in 1962 in the segregated South, and a Xennial minister-mom, we’re glad we left Egypt behind. Thinking back, we know God has been with us through many joys and perils, as God is with us now.

And they continue a bit later in the response:

We are not going back to Egypt. We may still be wandering in the Wilderness, but the coronavirus has given us a glimpse of a potential Promised Land. A future Church focused more on relationships than right beliefs; a Church beyond four walls; a Church that seeks to Love God and Love our Neighbor in more than words. A Church that hears Jesus call us to be fishers of people, not building preservationists. A Church unafraid to try and fail and try again at new technologies and practices to reach seekers old and new.

All three teams give the commissioners something to think about and discern tonight. Several possible firsts among the teams and many cumulative years of experience in the PC(USA) and skills in many different directions. We look forward to the election process as the questions that are asked tell us as much about the commissioners, and by extension about where the church is at right now, as the answers tell us about those standing for the positions of Co-Moderator. Stay tuned, and just maybe more tonight after the election.

Standing For Co-Moderators Of The PC(USA) GA 2 – Elona Street-Stewart & Gregory Bentley

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Co-Moderator Team of Gregory Bentley and Elona Street-Steward — Gregory Bentley and Elona Street-Stewart (Photo from PC(USA) Moderator Candidates Information Booklet)

The team of Elona Street-Stewart and Gregory Bentley – typically using the form “Elona and Gregory” – announced their candidacy in mid-March. Elona is a ruling elder and serves as the Synod Executive of the Synod of Lakes and Prairies. (She was endorsed by the Presbytery of the Twin Cities Area.) Gregory Bentley is a teaching elder and the pastor of Fellowship Presbyterian Church of Huntsville, Alabama.

For detailed information about them and their sense of call to serve as Co-Moderators there is the regular General Assembly Moderator Candidates Information Booklet and they also have a team Facebook page and team website through the Synod. There is also the team Instagram and Twitter accounts which have not been too active. In addition, there is the Presbyterian News Service story as well as the Outlook’s Q&A piece covering all the Moderator candidates, and a similar piece following their online “Meet the Candidates” event.

Elona Street-Stewart was born and raised in Philadelphia but has also lived in California, Oregon, and now Minnesota. Professionally, she has been involved in education and advocacy on a number of levels. She also has been professional staff at the synod and national levels of the PC(USA) including 11 years as the Associate for Racial Ethnic Ministry. Her many community positions include the distinction of being the first Native American to serve on an urban school board in Minnesota. (She is a member of the Delaware –Nanticoke Tribe.) Other PC(USA) work includes being a long-time member of the Self-Development of Peoples Committee.

Gregory Bentley is a graduate of Stillman College and Johnson C. Smith Theological Seminary but did not come directly to the ministry, from reading his bio in the Information Booklet. He worked as a dental assistant in the Army Reserves and a physical science and biology teacher before being ordained to the Ministry of Word and Sacrament in 1988. His church work has included serving as the Moderator of the Committee on Representation and the Commission on Ministry and he is a Past-President of the National Black Presbyterian Caucus. He has also been active in community affairs and advocacy including serving as the Chair of Minority Affairs for a local branch of the Democratic Party and the President of the local chapter of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference.

Their theme is “Learning from the Past… Living in the Present… Looking to the Future!” In the statements in the Moderator Candidates Information Booklet, they often reference the past as in this comment from Elona:

“Gregory and I represent the people who have been a part of this church from the beginning—but often not in roles that have allowed them to bring their full selves.”

Another theme in their responses is the PC(USA)’s Matthew 25 initiative. In response to the question in the booklet about the COVID-19 virus and “How can the church’s witness be strengthened as a result of COVID-19 Gregory responds, in part, by saying:

“In many ways, COVID-19 is the crisis that reveals the crisis we were already in. It has, in a manner of speaking, democratized the suffering of the poor and people of color whose conditions, concerns and challenges have been ignored for generations. With so many more now being affected, it can no longer be ignored. Instead of pining and wishing fora return to the status quo ante, we have to commit ourselves to a fundamentally different way of being in the world that is life giving and life sustaining for all God’s children and all of creation. And the Matthew 25 Initiative of the PCUSA is one of the ways that we readdressing this as a denomination by promoting congregational vitality, the dismantlement of structural racism, and the eradication of systemic poverty.”

As the commissioners ask their questions of the candidates this evening our prayers are with them for clarity and discernment and with the candidates as they respond to the questions. God’s blessings on you all.

Standing For Co-Moderators Of The PC(USA) GA 1 – Moon Lee & Sandra Hedrick

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The start of the 224th General Assembly of the PC(USA) is a few hours away and in these days of reconfigured meetings, it will be interesting to see how a virtual GA operates. The opening night has been moved from Saturday to Friday and like every year the headline event will be the Election of the Co-Moderators. I posted my intro to the GA last night and I will have more thoughts on the GA coming soon, but first a look at the Moderator Teams, in order of their announcements.

Sandra Hedrick and Moon Lee - Co-Moderator Team — Sandra Hedrick and Moon Lee (Photo from their Moderatorial Facebook Page)

The first team to announce was Moon Lee and Sandra Hedrick in mid-January. Moon Lee is a ruling elder at Community Church of Seattle in the Presbytery of the Northwest Coast. Alexandra “Sandra” Hedrick is a teaching elder and the pastor of Kirkwood Presbyterian Church of Jacksonville, Florida, and also serves as the stated clerk of the Presbytery of Saint Augustine.

For detailed information about them and their call to serve as Co-Moderators there is the regular General Assembly Moderator Candidates Information Booklet and they also have a team Facebook page and website. In addition, the Outlook included the Presbyterian News Service story as well as a Q&A piece covering all the Moderator candidates, and a similar piece following their online “Meet the Candidates” event.

Moon Lee describes a bit of his faith journey in his bio on the website, talking about being a preacher’s kid, part of a family with deep ties to the church, and headed to a career in pastoral ministry himself. Instead, God called him into a different form of ministry in his career in psychology involving neuroscience research and teaching. That did not distract from his church works as he has been active in three different PC(USA) presbyteries in many roles including as moderator, stated clerk, and COM chair. He has served in synod roles as well and also was a member of the Advisory Committee on the Constitution.

Sandra Hedrick’s path was a bit of the reverse as she is a second-career pastor having spent many years as an attorney involved in employment law and dispute resolution. About 15 years ago she sensed a strong call to transition to the ministry and has served as a pastor along with presbytery stated clerk and service on multiple presbytery committees and other bodies.

Their theme is “God’s Call, Our Passion,” and they describe this in an opening paragraph in the Moderator Candidates booklet:

“As co-moderator candidates from opposite coasts, we feel called to serve as ambassadors of our church with all that we are and all that we have! Our vision is a ministry of prayer, presence, listening, encouragement and reconciliation, always seeking to reflect and proclaim the active love, grace and justice of our living God. We see this time in the life of our church as our opportunity and responsibility to reframe our practices and reimagine our role.”

Our prayers are with them and all the commissioners for clarity and discernment in the Moderator elections this evening.

224th General Assembly Of The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)

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One of the few General Assemblies to be held on schedule this year will be gavelled to order about this time tomorrow and it will be an interesting experience in a number of respects. First, it will be virtual with all business and events happening online. Second, it will be significantly shortened, both in daily schedule and in the length of business meetings. So with the time limitations, a lot of business is getting pushed off to the next Assembly two years from now.

And so, we welcome the 224th General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), set to convene at 7 PM Eastern Time tomorrow, Friday, June 19. While the formal business will then take a break for a week there are other events that will be included in the general program during that hiatus. To accommodate time zones the two days of formal business will run from 11 AM to 6 or 6:30 PM EDT. The plan is to do business in two-hour time slots followed by a one-hour break.

The site of the meeting was supposed to be in Baltimore before it got transferred to the ether. Instead, the Presbytery of Baltimore will now be the online host for the meeting

As usual, the source for information on all this business is the on-line PC-Biz system. It is important to remember that with the condensed meeting schedule there will be no committee action this year. The one actual Assembly committee, the Assembly Committee on Business Referrals, has acted upon a recommendation of the standing Committee on the Office of the General Assembly (COGA) that has divided all business into three parts: Information (received, no action), items of a critical or necessary nature (to be acted on this year), and everything else (which gets pushed to the 225th General Assembly). Changes to these lists can be made from the floor so keep an eye on that on opening night.

Other items of note on the docket include the election of the Co-Moderators from the three teams standing for the position on Friday night beginning at 9 PM EDT (new time from a meeting today) and the vote to renew the call of the Stated Clerk for another 4-year term on Saturday, June 27, at 11 AM EDT.

The schedule, including the docket and the other events, can be found on PC-Biz under Resources. There is also the Manual Of The General Assembly available there but also a recommendation from COGA for suspension of most of the standing rules and adoption of special rules to apply to this assembly, including that there shall be no new business. Finally, the information booklet on the Moderatorial Candidates can be found there as well.

For the doctrine and polity documents, you can get the Book of Confessions and the Book of Order as free downloads from the PC(USA) Store, or you can find them at this handy website.

The commissioners will be operating using videoconferencing technology, and for the rest of us who want to follow along the proceedings will be streamed on the GA website and on the Spirit of GA Facebook page.

The theme for this Assembly is “From Lament to Hope” based upon Lamentations 5:20-21. To go along with the theme a Bible study will be offered online on Wednesday. There are two sessions on Wednesday June 24 at 7 and 10 PM EDT. The study will be led by James Elisha Taneti and Mary Florence Taneti.

In addition, there are a series of video testimonials related to the theme posted on the GA website where various people from around the PC(USA) talk about the GA theme and their experience.

And just a note that before the pandemic, the chosen theme was “Called to a Movement Beyond Institution,” based upon Romans 12:2.

Another event that will be happening between the business sessions is the Poor People’s Campaign event that was to be a march on Washington but is now a digital rally at 10 AM EDT on Saturday, June 20th. The Stated Clerk, J. Herbert Nelson, will be one of the speakers. Note that there is a registration link, but not clear if registration is required.

There is also the Youth Rising Coalition event at 3 PM EDT on Tuesday, June 23. This is a group in Baltimore that is joining with the GA participants “To hear the voices and stories of Baltimore area youth who have compelling ideas about creating a more just and opportune environment for young people.”

To follow the action on official Twitter feeds the PC(USA) does have a general Twitter account (@Presbyterian). Usually, during the Assembly, the General Assembly feed (@presbyGA) provides more play-by-play, but it has not been active for six months. There is also the Presbyterian News Service on Twitter (@PresbyNews). The hashtag for the meeting is #ga224.

News items will also appear on the GA224 news feed as well as the Presbyterian News Service feed. There are also updates on the Facebook page.

For individuals of note let me start with the accounts for the Co-Moderators (@GAModerators) and for the Stated Clerk (@PCUSAstatedclrk) as well as J. Herbert Nelson’s individual account (@jherbertnelson) which seems to be fresher. Watch the #GA224 hashtag and we will see who else is active for the meeting. (And I will update here.)

Out in the press corps, keep an eye on the Presbyterian Outlook on their website (pres-outlook.org) and Twitter (@presoutlook) as well as their special correspondent Leslie Scanlon (@lscanlon).

I plan to be on all the live-streamed events and tweeting (@ga_junkie) and maybe some live blogging. The Outlook printed one article I wrote for them on business coming to the Assembly related to overtures concerning Constitutional changes but all those items have been referred to the 225th GA. One of the controversial items for this Assembly will be how the Committee on Theological Education has reclassified the San Francisco Theological Seminary following their merger with the University of Redlands. My article for the Outlook on that business looks at the situation, at least at the time of publication. It is an evolving situation and it will be interesting to see how it evolves further in the hands of the GA. I will have a bit more to say on that in a couple of days as well as a couple of other evolving items before the Assembly. I would also mention my Outlook article “GA or Not GA? That is the Question” where I mused about what a virtual GA would look like. Personally, I think I got pretty close.

Finally, I expect this summary to be a living document over the next week and I will update at various points throughout the week as systems and patterns develop. I also hope to get out a modified GA Bingo card appropriately modified for a virtual GA.

So it will be an interesting week in the virtual assembly hall. We pray for patience for all involved as new technology is navigated and technical glitches are confronted. And there is some very important business, like the Way Forward Commission and the Vision 2020 group, that did not make the cut and have had their reports referred to the 225th General Assembly. It will be interesting to see if some other items docketed to be referred do creep back into the agenda for this meeting.

With all that going on we offer our prayers for the commissioners and for the leadership of this meeting. May they be guided by the Holy Spirit, particularly to discern God’s will as a body while not actually gathered in one physical space. It will certainly be an interesting GA week. Blessings upon you.

And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.
Colossians 3:17

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224th General Assembly Of The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)