Tag Archives: General Assembly

Church of Scotland General Assembly 2019

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It is General Assembly week in Edinburgh. It was a great experience being there last year and visiting all three of the Assemblies going on that week. Once again, my thanks to all of them for their official and unofficial hospitality. This year we are back to normal and tracking them from the other side of the world.

A few hours from now, on Saturday morning 18 May the 2019 General Assembly of the Church of Scotland will convene in Edinburgh – with all the traditional pageantry – for their annual week-long meeting. And it is looking to be an interesting meeting with major implications for the Kirk in the years to come.

Church_of_Scotland_Logo

If you are interested in keeping track of the business and activities this year, here are the starting points:

  • There will be live streaming of the proceedings and you can connect to the stream appropriate for your device from the media page.
  • Most of the Documents pertaining to the Assembly are linked from the General Assembly Publications page. This includes the Assembly Reports volumes, known as the Blue Book in several different electronic formats including the traditional PDF as well as MOBI and EPUB formats for your eReaders. For eReaders, the Blue Book is available combined with the Order of Proceedings included. There is also a separate Order of Proceedings. The Daily Papers will contain late-breaking changes and are available on the Assembly Papers page. There is an option at the bottom of the page to subscribe to notifications of new documents being posted.
  • If you only want the action items, there is a Proposed Deliverances Page with a link to a PDF with all the Deliverances together.
  • If you need to refer to the documents about how they do this decently and in order most of those are linked from the Church Law page. This web page also used to have the useful “An Introduction to Practice and Procedure of the Church of Scotland” but it was being revised and seems to have disappeared. While dated, I have a copy of the 2009 Third Edition available from my Resources Site.
  • A detailed Programme page tabbed by day provides a schedule of docketed reports and events for easy look up.
  • And from the Daily Updates page there will be regular daily updates in print, audio and video.
  • There is usually an official photo gallery of the Assembly. Will add that here when it goes live.

What we all want to know of course is how to follow along on social media and there will be no lack of that. You can begin with the Church of Scotland’s official Facebook page as well as the Facebook page for the National Youth Assembly. There is also the Kirk’s Instagram feed and YouTube channel.

On Twitter, the starting point is the Kirk’s main feed at @churchscotland and the official hashtag #ga2019. (And be alert – there is an event called Gamers Assembly that is using the same hashtag so don’t be surprised at the first person shooter video(s)) There is an official account for the Moderator of the General Assembly, @churchmoderator, but during the Assembly, we will have to see how many opportunities there will be to tweet. And while the incoming Moderator, the Rev. Colin Sinclair, does not appear to be on Twitter, you can follow his church – Palmerston Place Church – @ppc_edinburgh. The retiring Moderator, the Rev. Susan Brown, can be followed at her personal account, @VicarofDornoch. Similarly, the Church of Scotland Youth may be tweeting at @cosy_nya, although the account has been inactive. The official account for the NYA Moderator, currently Tamsin Dingwall, is at @NYAModerator, and that is probably a better starting point. The church’s official publication, Life and Work, is also a good source for information on the web, on Facebook and on their Twitter feed @cofslifeandwork. In addition, while it is a personal account, you can follow the editor, Lynne McNeil, at @LifeWorkEditor, who usually does the most comprehensive live tweeting of the Assembly.

I add to this list a semi-official account with a good potential for close live tweeting of the meeting: The curated account Church Scotland Voices with weekly rotating contributors at @churchscovoices says they will have someone covering GA. And worth mentioning the Kirk innovative ministry incubator, Go For It (@GoForItCofS)

In suggesting personal accounts to follow, let me start with three past Moderators of the General Assembly, besides Susan Brown who I mention above. The first is the Very Reverend Lorna Hood who is always an interesting read at @revlornascot and has been very active the past few years with projects related to Srebrenica justice and remembrance and also serves with YouthLink Scotland. The second is the Very Reverend Derek Browning at @DerekBrowning2. Add to the list the Very Reverend Albert Bogle at @italker who has been getting some recent traction with the Sanctuary First ministry (@sanctuaryfirst) and whose charge is now related to online church. Finally, I will include the Very Reverend Angus Morrison (@angusmorrison6) has been an interesting and entertaining read and frequently tweets in Gaelic, but he has not been active for a while.

In suggesting other personal accounts let me begin with the Rev. Peter Nimmo of Inverness who is a member of the Church and Society Council (@ChurchSociety01) and always a good source of information at @peternimmo1. And his choir from St. Stephen’s Church ( @invernesschurch) will be performing at Heart and Soul. Also from the Inverness area will be the Rev. Susan Cord at @sue_cord. Others I regularly follow from the Kirk include Darren Philip (@darphilip), Alistair May (@AlistairMay), Neil Glover (@NeilMGlover) who chairs the church’s Ministry Council, Liz Crumlish (@eacbug), RevShuna (@shunad) and Angus Mathieson (@angusmathieson). As reform and renewal will be a major topic again this year, following Douglas Gay (@DougGay) should be helpful. He has helped drive this discussion with his three-part 2017 Chalmers Lectures, and his book, Reforming the Kirk, released a couple years ago. Life and Work published a piece by him about this year’s Radical Action Plan initiative. More on that in a minute.

And stay tuned – as usual once GA gets rolling I will update the list.

UPDATE: Should have added this sooner, but through the tweets found Scott Paget has a blog called Reading the Blue Book, 2019 Edition, where he breaks down reports from the Blue Book individually with his comments. You can follow him on Twitter at @smpaget.

Once again the Assembly will have its annual Heart and Soul festival on the Sunday afternoon of the Assembly week that will again be happening in Princes Street Gardens near the Assembly Hall. The theme of both the Assembly and the Heart and Soul event this year is “Jesus Said: ‘Follow Me'”. It is reflected on the cover of the Blue Book. There is a Programme of events, including the multiple stages and venues, and the website suggests a broadcast, but I don’t see an active link for that yet.

Concerning the business before the Assembly there is a nice summary of each report on the Life and Work site. In addition, each of the conveners has recorded a short video introducing their report.

The challenge of how to reform the church to remain viable for the future is front and center this year. Last year the Assembly made a bold move when it rejected the Council of Assembly’s proposed ten-year strategic plan in favour of a countermotion calling for “a radical action plan.” The group working on this radical action plan is reporting and as I mentioned above, Doug Gay gives a nice summary of the plan in that Life and Work article. For the full details, check out the Council of Assembly report. It also headlines the Kirk’s GA preview news article.

The proposal makes major changes in the structure and work of the church. The proposal is to cut at the top to provide greater focus and resources for the churches and the communities. For example, one detail is to cut the number of presbyteries from 45 to 12. It would establish a Growth Fund between £20 million to £25 million for church planting and community outreach work. Administrative costs at the top level would be cut, maybe as much as 40%, and the number of councils would be reduced from four to two. In addition, the church’s social care arm, Crossreach, could be given greater autonomy. The debate on the Radical Action Plan is scheduled for first thing Wednesday morning (which means I will have to set an alarm).

So here we go as we kick off a packed week for GA. The other two Assemblies begin Monday evening and I will have more on those Sunday evening or Monday morning.

Stay tuned…

Election Of The Moderator For The Presbyterian Church In Ireland 2019 General Assembly

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In the second Moderator selection of the day yesterday, the Presbyterian Church in Ireland conducted their annual voting process where all of the presbyteries meet on the same night – the first Tuesday in February – and vote for their next GA Moderator.

This year there were four nominated candidates:

So, when the dust settled last night Mr Henry was the overwhelming favourite, being endorsed by 11 of the 19 presbyteries. Mr Bruce was endorsed by four presbyteries, Ms Stanfield by three presbyteries, and Mr Rankin by one.

The Rev William Henry, Moderator-Designate for the PCI 2019 General Assembly. (source: PCI)

Mr Henry has been the installed pastor at Maze Presbyterian Church for almost 22 years, moving there in 1997 after being ordained as an assistant pastor at Whiteabbey Presbyterian Church in 1994. In 2001 he was given the additional responsibility of serving as the Stated Supply minister of near-by Ballinderry Presbyterian Church.

He was born in Belfast and grew up in Mallusk, County Antrim. He began his higher education at Queen’s University, earning a BSc in Chemistry. Sensing a call to ministry he prepared at Union Theological College in Belfast. He was licensed to preach at his home congregation, Hyde Park Presbyterian Church.

Mr Henry has served the wider church as convener of the Home and Irish Mission/Strategy for the Mission Committee for six years beginning in 2006. He also served as convener of the Union Commission beginning in 2012 and continued when it became the Linkage Commission in 2015. His service there concluded last year.

At the age of 50, he will be the youngest Moderator of the General Assembly in, as the press release puts it, “living memory.” (At this morning’s press conference it was confirmed that the youngest Moderator was Very Rev Dr Gilbert Patton, who was 49 when he began his term as Moderator in 1930-31. )

If you are interested in hearing Mr Henry preach, you can find an archive of sermons on the church website.

His nomination has received good coverage in the mainstream media including the BBC Northern Ireland, the Belfast News Letter, the Belfast Telegraph, and itv.

In the follow-up coverage on the Wednesday morning press conference, the topics predictably included the church’s stance on same-sex relationships, Brexit, and the relationship between Union Theological College and Queen’s University as one of the constitute schools in the Institute of Theology.

Regarding Brexit, he declined to answer the question from the News Letter reporter about where he stood but included in his remarks “We’re an all-Ireland church [with an] all-island perspective. We’d be wanting to make sure there is something workable on both sides, in both jurisdictions…”

The BBC coverage of the press conference was terse and focused almost exclusively on the church’s stance on same-sex relationships. Their lede is:

The next moderator of the Presbyterian Church in Ireland (PCI) said he supports the church’s opposition to gay marriage.

But, he added the church “abhors” homophobia and is “open and welcome to anyone”.

Regarding Queen’s University suspending enrollment in Union Theological College over concerns of the breadth and diversity of teaching, the News Letter has this quote from Mr Henry responding to inquiries about that:

“I’m certainly disappointed with the decision, because what that does is it denies some of our young people the choice to follow their dream, and to study theology at the highest academic level…

“My middle daughter had an 18th birthday just recently. Even at a relatively small gathering in our house… in that one social gathering, there were three 18-year-olds who wanted to apply to study theology at Queen’s this year and that’s been denied.”

[UPDATE 7 Feb 2019: Expanded coverage of the press conference appeared today in the Belfast Telegraph. And this story made their front page. They also have an editorial titled “New Moderator William Henry will prove a steady hand.” The piece begins by listing the issues in the PCI in the last year and then states, “But if [William Henry] continues in the vein displayed in his first major interview in this newspaper today, he may well be a healing balm in an institution in need of cool heads and strategic thinking.”]

Returning the original press release, Mr Henry speaks in there about his perspective on the PCI and that it has a specific purpose in 21st century Ireland. He includes this comment

“Our younger generation, and how they demonstrate their commitment to Jesus, will be key to that future. Having observed plenty of examples in my own congregation of the vital and real faith our young people demonstrate, I will want to highlight many more demonstrations of this throughout our wider church. I pray that God might equip me with the gifting I need to model servant leadership in His Church this year,”

Speaking more broadly, elsewhere in the press release he is quoted as saying:

“For me it comes down to this experience of ‘Enjoying God,’ and perhaps that is what I’d like to develop into a theme for my year in office. When we enjoy God, prayer and worship become real and meaningful because there is a sense that God has come near. That will result in practical service for Jesus.

“Encountering God is always radical and disruptive. However, the Church can become casual and forgetful of the presence of God; and wider society has a tendency to be self-contained or self-reliant – the effect for both is that they attempt to live without a recognition of dependence upon God.

“I would wish to use the year ahead that I have to speak about this message and explore with people what it means to ‘Enjoy God,’ both to the Church and wider society. I want to bear witness to what I might call the surprising and unsettling presence of God – the one who offers fullness in Jesus.”

We wish the Rev William Henry well on his Moderatorial year of sharing the message of Enjoying God. Our prayers for him as he prepares for, and moderates the GA beginning on 3 June 2019.

Moderator-Designate For The Free Church Of Scotland (Continuing) 2019 General Assembly

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Yesterday, February 5, was a busy day for Moderator selections and I will begin with the first news we got, that being from the Free Church of Scotland (Continuing).

Rev William Macleod, from the Free Church (Continuing) website

The Free Church (Continuing) announced that the Rev. William Macleod, pastor of the Knightswood Church, Glasgow, was selected as the Moderator-Designate for their 2019 General Assembly in May.

Mr Macleod is one of the original members of the Free Church of Scotland (Continuing) when it divided from the Free Church of Scotland in 2000. At that time he was serving as the pastor at Portree on the Isle of Skye. He began his pastoral service when he was ordained and inducted at the Patrick Free Church in 1976, and translated to Portree in 1993. He moved to his current pulpit at Knightswood, at that time known as Thornwood FCC, in 2006.

He has provided significant service to the Free Church (Continuing) including having previously served as GA Moderator in 2005. He also served as the editor of the Free Church Witness magazine from 2000 to 2017, and as Principal of the Free Church Seminary from 2003 to 2014 where he still serves as a lecturer in Systematic Theology.

He began his college studies at Aberdeen University where he earned a BSc in 1972. (On a personal note I was interested to see on his church bio that his studies included geology.) He began his pastoral training at the Free Church College in Edinburgh (now Edinburgh Theological Seminary) earning a diploma in theology in 1975. He continued his theological training, specifically in Systematic Theology, at Westminster Theological Seminary (Pennsylvania, US) being awarded a ThM from there in 1976.

William and his wife have three adult children and four grandchildren. His son Murdo is a filmmaker and directed the highly-acclaimed documentary Knox, about the reformer John Knox. The working title was “Give Me Scotland” and there is some good background to the film from Head Heart Hand that features Murdo. Their son Alasdair is the pastor of Knock and Point Free Church (Continuing) on Lewis. Their daughter Christina is married to Ian and they have two young children.

As I mentioned at the beginning, Mr Macleod was part of the original group when the Free Church of Scotland (Continuing) divided from the Free Church of Scotland in 2000. He wrote the forward to John W. Kiddie’s account of that and the events leading up to it, A Divided Church. Permit me to close with a few of his words from that Forward.

I have been asked whether I regretted the stand I made and the actions in which I was involved. Looking back, with the wisdom of hindsight, would I follow the same course again? Without a shadow of a doubt I would. True, there were times when I and others could have shown more humility along with firmness when more gracious words could have been used, but wrongs had to be opposed.

At the end of the day what matters is not what people think of us, our success or our popularity but rather doing what is right in the eyes of the Lord, dispite the cost. Soon we will all have to stand before the Judgement Seat. The things that are important to many people today will mean little then. Our concern must be to hear the Lord say to us: “Well done, good and faithful servant” (Matthew 25:23).

(From A Divided Church: An account of the division in the Free Church of Scotland in 2000, p. 7-8)

We wish Rev William Macleod well as he moderates the upcoming General Assembly set to begin on May 20, 2019, and our prayers are with him. For more biographical details you can check out his church’s web page, the Free Church (Continuing) minister page, as well as the details in the official announcement. You can listen to his preaching on sermonaudio.com.

Moderator Designate For The 2019 Church Of Scotland General Assembly

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This past Tuesday the Church of Scotland announced that its selection committee has chosen the Rev. Colin Sinclair as their Moderator Designate for the 2019 General Assembly.

Colin Sinclair, Moderator Designate, Church of Scotland GA

Colin Sinclair, Moderator Designate, 2019 Church of Scotland GA (Photo: Church of Scotland)

Mr. Sinclair is the pastor of Palmerston Place Church, just west of the Old Town section of Edinburgh. He was ordained as an Assistant at that parish and moved on to be the solo pastor at Newton on Ayr. He returned to Palmerston in 1996 and has been on the staff there ever since.

He grew up in Glasgow and as a student at Glasgow Academy he first became associated with Scotland Scripture Union. As he tells it, he first attended a film to promote one of their camps as an escape route to avoid a reprimand in the school hallway. The film resonated with him and he attended the camp that year and again the following year. As he says in the Kirk announcement, “I went back to camp the next year and decided then to follow Jesus Christ. So started an exciting adventure of faith that has lasted over 50 years.”

After completing his Honors Economic degree at Stirling University he spent three years as a Scripture Union training officer in Zambia, travelling around the country living out of his car. He says of that time:

“Those three years changed my life. Being away from everything familiar I was able to sort out which parts of my faith were mine, and which were not. I encountered people from many different countries and with many different beliefs. I met all the Church of Scotland missionaries there and everyone was very supportive. I learned to trust God.”

His association with Scripture Union has continued since that time. He served as a General Director in Glasgow, and he recently concluded several years of service as the International Chair of Scripture Union. Scripture Union Global has a nice video where he recounts his time with the organization and how it has influenced him.

Besides his significant involvement with Scripture Union, he has served at both local and national levels of the Church of Scotland, most recently as Convener of the Mission and Discipleship Council.

In the Kirk announcement, he speaks of his experience as a minister. In the concluding quote he says:

“I think that has become my philosophy over the years. What’s lovely is seeing young people who started off as SU campers become leaders themselves. I have loved seeing folk grow up, whether it is to become elders in the Church or to go into vocational ministry or to take their Christian faith into different avenues of public service.”

Not surprisingly, his theme for his moderatorial year will be Discipleship.

If you are interested in hearing more from him you can check out the Plamerston Church sermon page, as well as an oral history recorded by the University of Stirling.

Mr. Sinclair’s wife, Ruth Murray, is a medical social worker.  They have four children – all of whom are involved in Christian ministry – and three grandchildren.

And finally, his nomination continues a recent trend of Moderators having a brush with celebrity. While the current Moderator officiated a celebrity wedding, Mr. Sinclair appears (as an extra) in the 1975 film Monty Python and the Holy Grail. As that article says, “He spent the day running up and down a hill at Doune Castle in ­Perthshire with hundreds of other extras dressed as soldiers – only to be “attacked” by police in the film’s final scene.”

There is significant press coverage of the announcement: Besides the Church of Scotland official announcement and the official Life and Work article, other online media includes the Edinburgh Evening News, the BBC, Premier, and some local outlets like the Oxford Mail.

Our congratulations to Mr. Sinclair and our best wishes as he prepares for his moderatorial year. We look forward to his service as Moderator during General Assembly week and our prayers are with him. And I leave you with his thought which has been picked up by all the media stories I have read and seems to sum up his philosophy of ministry well…

“Our message is still Good News and it still changes lives.”

 

Moderator Designate For The 2019 Free Church Of Scotland General Assembly

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The Commission of Assembly of the Free Church of Scotland has announced the selection of The Rev. Donald “Donnie” G. MacDonald of Portree and Bracadale Free Church in Skye as the Moderator Designate for the 2019 General Assembly.

Donnie G MacDonald - Moderator Designate

Donnie G MacDonald – Moderator Designate (photo: Free Church of Scotland)

Mr MacDonald, who is widely known as “Donnie G”, was ordained as a pastor 26 years ago, and his 25-year anniversary was marked by the Free Church last year. He began his ordained ministry at Ferintosh and Resolis Free Church where he spent 11 years. In 2003 he moved to his current charge. He is a native of Fort William but grew up on Skye, attending Borrodale Primary School and Portree High School. His college work in Glasgow included Chemistry and Molecular Biology, but he continued his education in preparation for the ministry at Free Church College, now Edinburgh Theological Seminary.

In response to the nomination, Mr MacDonald is quoted as saying “It is very humbling to be asked to be Moderator Designate of the Free Church of Scotland General Assembly for 2019. It is an honour to serve Jesus in any capacity and I will do my best to fulfil this responsibility simply but diligently.”

He reflects on the position of the Free Church in another quote: “The many Free Church congregations scattered throughout the country are working hard to bring that Gospel message to both the urban and rural settings of Scotland, revitalising the old and planting the new. We also remain committed to looking beyond our own borders to explore innovative ways of supporting mission work.”

On a side note, what jumped out to me in this last quote was the mention of ministry in a rural setting, a topic of some discussion and encouragement at the 2018 General Assembly.

Finally, you can see more about his Portree Congregation at their Facebook page, which does include the news of his nomination. He has recordings of his sermons available on both the church website as well as some preached elsewhere on Sermon Audio.

And so, we congratulate Donnie G and wish him well for his moderatorial year. Our prayers are with him as he prepares to moderate the upcoming GA and we look forward to following the GA in May, unfortunately on the live stream this year. Best wishes.

 

 

Exceptional Comments By The 2018 Lord High Commissioner

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I am working to make time to catch up on a bunch of blog posts related to my visit to Scotland in May for three General Assemblies. Here is a post on what may have been one of the most interesting points in the GA’s for me. Stick with me through the whole post.

For every Church of Scotland General Assembly the monarch is invited to be a part of the proceedings. Needless to say, she usually does not attend in person but appoints someone to be her personal representative and carry all authority of the monarchy for the week. This is the Lord High Commissioner (LHC) and sometimes the LHC is a member of the royal family, like last year when HRH The Princess Royal represented her mother. This year a family member was not expected due to a prior commitment, and so a distant cousin of the Queen, His Grace Richard Walter John Montagu Douglas Scott, The Duke of Buccleuch and Queensberry, KBE, DL, FSA, FRSE, was appointed as the LHC.

The Duke is well known as Scotland’s largest landholder and his appointment was not without some controversy. In his appointment and in comments during the week he was recognized for his dedication to conservation and sustainability in his land management. And a 2017 profile in the Financial Times [maybe subscription] highlights his conservation efforts. But his landholdings have come under scrutiny as the breakup of estates has been discussed, as well as for improper handling of toxic waste at abandoned mining sites. There is also concern over how access to the land is managed with tenant farmers and local communities.

Over the course of the week I had the opportunity to hear the Duke speak on three occasions. The first and last were at the opening and closing of the Church of Scotland General Assembly. The opening address can be read or viewed, and the closing address can be viewed [starting about 45:00] as part of the closing worship. But it is traditional for the LHC to pay a visit to the Free Church of Scotland General Assembly, and while he is warmly received with the honor and formality due the position, the LHC does not carry the same ecclesiastical relationship he does across the street at the Church of Scotland. The video of his comments to the Free Church is available on their website.

His first comment to both bodies was the formal greeting and assurance of the church/state relationship defined in the 1707 Acts of Union. As he said to the Kirk, and repeated something very similar to the Free Church:

Her Majesty The Queen has commanded me to assure you of Her great sense of your steady
and firm zeal for her service and to assure you of Her resolution to maintain Presbyterian
Church Government in Scotland.

In his closing comments to the Kirk he included many elements common to most LHC’s closing address. There was the commendation of the Moderator for the good job they did that week. There was also a review of some of the highlights of the week, which included not just the Church of Scotland events and visits, but he also mentioned the visit to the Free Church GA the previous day. In his additional comments there was significant overlap between the two speeches as he highlighted his participation on the Scottish Government’s Advisory Panel on the Commemoration of the Centenary of the First World War. And he talked about how “Armistice Sunday is not the end of it” and how the tragedy continued, noting especially the sinking of the Iolaire on 1 January 1919, a Royal Navy vessel returning almost 300 service men to the Isle of Lewis after the war. Over 200 lives were lost just short of the safety of Stornoway Harbour. And appropriate to the Kirk’s theme of “Peace be with you!”, he spoke of a planned march on Armistice Sunday to remember the war and it’s casualties, and to work to not let something like this happen again.

Lord High Commissioner addressing the General Assembly of the Free Church of Scotland (photo from the Free Church)

But the Duke included a remarkable set of comments to the Free Church General Assembly that were not part of any of his comments to the Kirk. I found them an admirable insight in to Scottish history and a significant step in reconciliation. I will close with his words that opened his address, very slightly condensed, and with a couple of links added to help with historical references. The opening comments of The Duke of Buccleuch and Queensberry to the Free Church of Scotland:

Moderator, Fathers and Brethren

It is a great privilege to have the opportunity to address the General Assembly of the Free Church of Scotland. And it is a great honour to have been appointed by her majesty The Queen as Lord High Commissioner.

My presence here is to confirm the determination of her majesty to uphold Presbyterian church government in Scotland.

Moderator may I congratulate you most warmly upon your appointment and may I wish you an extremely successful and fulfilling period in office.

Moderator, Fathers and Brethren – please be seated

Looking back at the Lord High Commissioners who have visited you I realize with some anxiety that many had happy links with the church from their own family pasts which they could easily share with you. That is not the case with my ancestors.

I am doubtful about apologies on behalf of those long dead, but I believe it is important to recognize and learn from historical events. I think particularly of my Queensberry forebearers in The Killing Times in the southwest. The first Duke was brother-in-law to the infamous Grierson of Lag, and government colleague of Claverhouse. Their hands may not have been stained with blood, but guilt by association was undeniable. And to read about those times – the summary shootings of Covenanters in remote lands. Or perhaps even worse, on their own doorsteps in front of their families is still truly chilling.

And then coming closer to the 19th century, there was a different kind of harassment for more than a decade after The Disruption in 1843, my forebear refused land for those who wanted to build new churches, leaving your folk forced to worship in the open air.

I am sad and sorry that those from whom I am descended showed such intolerance and such discrimination to fellow Christians.

Today we are hugely fortunate to live in a free society…

223rd General Assembly Of The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) – A Summary Of Summaries

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With the 223rd General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) a couple weeks behind us a number of summaries and reflections on the Assembly have been posted online.

Let me begin with my own Brief Summary of the 223rd General Assembly. With the large number of important, complex, and nuanced actions of the GA this year I found it difficult to decide exactly what would get included on that page.

There is also a Highlights of Actions of the 223rd General Assembly from the PC(USA) itself.

While the Presbyterian Outlook has no specific GA 223 summary online (although they produce a subscription downloadable bulletin insert), you can search their GA223 tag for articles about the assembly.

And among the affinity groups, the Fellowship Community has a fairly comprehensive review and commentary on the Assembly. There are articles on the Covenant Network of Presbyterians web site related to specific actions and events.

I have also found a nice summary from the Presbytery of Philadelphia.

That is what I have at the moment. I will update as additional summaries come to my attention.

38th General Assembly Of The Evangelical Presbyterian Church

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The 38th General Assembly of the Evangelical Presbyterian Church began their business meetings yesterday afternoon at Hope Church, in Memphis. The gathering began Tuesday and continued Wednesday with workshops and classes as part of the Leadership Institute. Business sessions convened yesterday afternoon, Wednesday 20 June, and will continue through Friday afternoon, as needed.

The Assembly meeting is being live streamed.

There is a lot of information online, most linked through the Documents page and the GA 2018 page. Here are some of the links for information about Assembly business and operation:

As for social media, there is a bit of that out there. There is a Facebook page for the EPC that is currently being updated regularly with Leadership Institute and Assembly items. The official EPC Twitter feed is @EPChurch and the active official hashtag (#epc2018ga) has sprung to life. There is also a feed for EPC Student Ministries (@EPCStudentMin), EPC World Outreach (@EPCWO) and the Stated Clerk Jeff Jeremiah (@Jeff_Jeremiah ) -but none has been active for a while. In addition, you can follow the host church at @Hope4Memphis, but again, not a really active account.

I would also mention Ligon Duncan (@LigonDuncan), Chancellor and CEO, Reformed Theological Seminary, who has been hanging around the Assembly and will be the speaker for this evening’s worship. I am looking forward to the live stream of that.

As for individuals, strong live tweeting going from Matthew Everhard (@matt_everhard), Zach Hopkins (@Zhop59), Doug Resler (@dougresler), EPC Presbyter (@epc_presbyter), and David D. Feiser (@therevdocfeis). And if you want a bit more color and correction check out Decent & In Order (@Decent_Orderly).

The theme of the Assembly is Forward! based on Philippians 3:13-14.

It is important to note that the prayer, fasting and efforts to free Pastor Andrew Brunson from imprisonment in the nation of Turkey continue, and are highlighted in the Stated Clerk’s Report under the heading “Praying and Advocating for One of our Own.” He also notes that “An increasing amount of my time has been invested in Andrew’s situation…” and is thankful for his connections in Washington, D.C., with government officials to keep the issue before them and help advocate for his release.

A couple of items of business stand out. One is a recommendation from the Ad Interim Committee on Ministerial Education to substantially modify and expand the section of the Book of Order on the Ruling Elder as Commissioned Pastor (9-11).

In a final report from the preliminary report and proposed draft last year, the Ad Interim Committee on Pastoral Letter is recommending the proposed “Pastoral Letter on Human Sexuality” be adopted by the Assembly. This is an extensive 56 page document that covers many issues within human sexuality and gives Biblical/Theological Foundations, Contemporary Challenges to the Biblical View, Pastoral Guidance, and Recommended Reading for each topic.

With that, I will wish the EPC commissioners well and we will be lifting them up in our prayers as they meet.

Live Blog: 223rd General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) – Election Of The Moderator (Saturday evening)

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Good evening – we are up to Saturday night – the election of the Moderator. Thanks for joining in.

First, I will be live blogging this but the live blog plug-in I used at the last GA has gone silent (and with it I probably lost that content). So I am back to the old fashion method. I will keep typing and regularly hit the update button. You will unfortunately need to hit your browser refresh button to see the new content. Sorry, no push technology this year.

The times are CDT

To follow in a bit more real time you can watch on Twitter the GA hashtag #GA223, if you are OK with 280 character updates. It should be good. I will not be tweeting too much during the evening but I know a lot of others will be.

So here we go.

[Ed. Note: Edited for typing errors and clarity on 7/17/2018]

7:00 PM The house band is warming up the crowd.

7:01 PM The co-moderators call the house to order and ecumenical guests from Asia are introduced.

They are from:
Presbyterian Church in Korea
Presbyterian Church in the Republic of Korea
Christian Council in Hong Kong
Presbyterian Church of Myanmar

The latter brings greetings and a prayer

7:06 PM Commissioning service of the GA commissioners

7:15 PM Necrology – A time to remember all the Ministers of Word and Sacrament who have joined the Church Triumphant since the last General Assembly
Not projected on the screen but copies of the 10 page list distributed
Time to look over the list indivudually
Prayers for those saints

7:20 PM Election of the Moderator – the six candidates (three teams) are escorted onto the stage and an opening prayer is offered

7:22 PM The Committee on the Office of the General Assembly informs us that the proposed nominations of the the teams that intend to be nominated are in order

7:24 PM Nominations made from the floor
Chantal Atnip and Ken Hockenberry (CA & KH)
Eliana Maxim and Bertram Johnson (EM & BJ)
Vilmarie Cintrón-Olivieri and Cindy Kohlmann (VCO & CK)

7:28 Speeches – order by random drawing. Each team has 5 minutes to share as they wish

CA&KH go first
CA talks a bit about her service at the local level
Talks about KH’s polity experience
Tells her story of sense of call along the lines of what is in the printed materials
Finishes by talking about the Book of Acts and the Holy Spirit providing all the early church needed
What it means to be connectional and covenantal
She takes the whole 5 minutes

EM&BJ
They each introduce themselves
EM includes how she met Bertram when he worked in Seattle
BJ talks about what led him to move from a Baptist upbringing to a Presbyterian calling
EM talks about only doing it if BJ would join her. He says he told her no, but she prevailed
EM says they see the PC(USA) reframing what it means to be church, and to see God’s church grow
BJ talks about how the PC(USA) must recapture the vision in Matthew 25
EM talks about how the church must promote justice in our communities and nations
Unison: “Here we are – send us”

CK & VCO
Start with a bilingual welcome
Tell a bit about themselves
VCO – They are bold, unapologetic women. TE and RE pairing represents the parity of the system
CK – In their partnership want to invite church into diversity. Call to embrace Jesus Christ and confront injustice. “We choose welcome”
Invite commissioners to look around at each other.
CK The stories you bring. God is not done with us yet
VCO – Look forward to seeking the will of God and love of the Spirit

7:44 PM – Questions
Stated Clerk give the ground rules: There will be 45 minutes. The teams will rotate in what order they answer successive questions. Each team has 2:30 minutes and can decide who on the team will answer

Question 1 – My small church did the previous moderators’ “One church, one book” challenge. How will you support pastors that have very little experience in handling these issues

CA – From an area that has that experience. Worked on this in a synod gathering bringing back exercises from Big Tent. KH – Continue these conversations. Example from a church where a black couple shared they were denied GI Bill benefits

BJ – Grateful this work has started and to the questioner that he is interested in continuing with his congregation. Need to have these conversations in seminaries to equip pastors. EM – The sin has run rampant for 100’s of years so it will take time and work to address it. Your context will help determine what form the work will take. Needs to happen in denominational structures as well.

CK – She took up the study in the two presbyteries she is the resource leader for. Discovered there are lots of resources – TED Talks, Belhar and C67, papers, people, listening to stories. VCO – Presbytery used Waking Up White which led to wonderful conversations. Need to keep pressing on.

Question 2 – Young adults: Over the last two days a lot of orientation and interaction with YAADs. Great experience here but friends at home don’t have any interest. Spiritual but now religious. How do you bring them back into the fold?

EM – Seattle is very spiritual but not religious. They want to be involved, they want to see it happen. How are lives being transformed. Don’t think about getting them back inside the building. Think about getting them involved where they are. BJ – Amen. (When pushed to use time) A lot of things geopolitically provide an opportunity to model who we are and draw them in.

VCO – Need to listen to each other. Listen to signs of the time. Do church differently? Go out there? We don’t see where they are and what they want. They want connection with God and we are disconnected. Her current church when she arrived. The doors were closed. Doors need to be open. CK – My step-daughters are here, and they got excited about the people who walk for fossil fuel divestment. They are excited about hearing about justice. Partners in making the world a better place.

CA – Need to claim we do good things because we love Christ. We gave an offering this morning and Tuesday we are going to walk because we love Jesus. Need to claim that. KH – His daughter asked that question as she advanced to candidacy. Her answer: seek justice. Seeking justice in local community is attractive. I don’t know if 1001 New Worshiping Communities is still in existence [ed note – it is] but some groups that made things real

Question 3 – Why some co-moderator, and one moderator/vie moderator?

VCO – We portray parity in our equal standing. CK – Important to me as well. Pastors come and go but ruling elders stick around. Also important to have diversity as equals

CA – Told you the story of my call. Heard that she needed to stand as moderator. Call old enough that before co-moderators. Over the years looking for the right person to stand with. God in his/her infinite wisdom led me to Ken late in the process. We are a team, similar view. KH – I got a phone call and I had no desire to serve as a moderator but wanted to support her. May be more sharing than in past. And again, TE/RE parity.

EM – I have always flourished in collegial relationships. Knew I would need to do it with someone I trusted and could call me out. BJ – Had not thought about this, EM drew this out. My ministry has been partnership so a co-mod relationship makes sense.

Question 4 – What is your greatest strength and weakness as a team?

KH – I enjoy parliamentary procedure – I know that sounds weird [ed note – no it doesn’t] – but I enjoy the process. CA – My strength is my relational abilities. KH – Weakness – resist temptation to get burned out and get cynical. CA – This position is way out of my comfort level. Thrilled and excited, but out of comfort level

EM – I love people and move easily between different groups. Weakness, I can over do it and need trusted people to call me out on it. BJ – Strength as a team – work well together and not afraid to call people out. Personal weakness – not always trust myself

CK&VCO – We get in our heads a lot. We both do it. VCO – strength as a team – we are very loving. And I cry a lot. Is that a weakness? CK – vast experience we have – 42 years of ordained ministry. Weakness we have as a team is we forget what it means to be in someone else’s shoes.

Question 5 – In San Francisco Bay area we have people who are third, or even fourth generation out of the church. So we have some evangelism to do. Speak to your theology around that.

BJ – Many mission fields available to us right now. We need to meet people in their needs. Need to pay attention to the community and see what they need. EM – We are not the church of building large buildings anymore. The church of Acts was concerned with building relationships and not buildings. Have people ask “Why to they care about people others don’t care about.” We have to embody it.

CK – God called me to Massachusetts to be of service. Reminded by a friend that they are in the top five of unchurched communities. Talk about an intentional effort to put churches in places with no center place. Took locks off door and became a gathering place. People think of it as their church even if only for community building, and not worship. VCO – Ditto. Need to rethink structures that we have.

CA – We are in a time of Acts again. Ate, prayed, shared all things together. Vision for sharing that with people who are not part of the church. Her church is starting an initiative for community education in parenting. KH – What breaks God’s heart? That is the starting point for ministry.

Question 6 – (Last question) In a society divided by so many issues and believing that if we don’t agree we can’t be in relationship. Who will you handle times when people don’t agree.

VCO – A loss for words because I am often different. But need to concentrate on what we have in common. Need to be able to listen. Continue striving and showing up. CK – Repentance. For breaking down instead of building up. Need reconciliation. Build new bridges. How can I not do that again.

CA – need to set the table. Presbyterian polity says we can have different opinions and worship together. We can share our God and Jesus and break bread together. KH – And then be ready to stay at the table. Stay engaged, stay in relationship. Shift conversation from difference to their stories. Probably find common ground in stories.

BJ – Speaking personally, I often are in settings where I know people disagree with me. I am also a pastor and sense responsibility to speak truth. A burden and a calling to speak to my siblings in Christ about what it means to love God and neighbor as yourself. Put our relationship through lens of Christ, but it is hard work. EM – Our center needs to be Christ but we fill it with other stuff. I want to be in relationship with people who are different than me.

8:37 PM – Announce that Peg, a GA attendee from National Capital Presbytery, fall yesterday and passed away today. Prayer is offered with GA holding hands and gathering around the commissioners from National Capital.

Time is closed with singing Guide Me O Thou Great Jehovah, candidates are dismissed.

8:43 PM – Stated Clerk gives voting instructions

YAADS – CA&KH – 10   EM&BJ – 90     VCO&CK – 33
That’s a winner if YAADs are the usual good predictor

Commissioners – CA&KH – 45   EM&BJ –  250    VCO&CK – 229
No Majority – vote again – Need 262

YAADs – CA&KH – 5   EM&BJ – 98     VCO&CK – 30
Migration to the leader, a usual pattern

Commissioners – CA&KH – 18   EM&BJ –  256    VCO&CK – 248
No Majority – vote again

YAADs – CA&KH – 4   EM&BJ – 101     VCO&CK – 30

Commissioners – CA&KH – 9   EM&BJ –  255    VCO&CK – 261
No majority – Moderator confirms still one vote short

YAADs – CA&KH – 4   EM&BJ – 99     VCO&CK – 29

Commissioners – CA&KH – 9   EM&BJ –  253    VCO&CK – 266
We have Co-Moderators

Interesting to note that this is one of the rare times that the YAADs did not predict. In addition, the shift to another team as voting went on is seldom seen. I fully expected the YAADs to have called it and the migration would be to the leaders in the first round that agreed with the YAADs. Welcome to GA – never know what you will get.

9:10 PM – The new co-moderators enter and we move to the installation of the co-moderators
The affirmations
The questions
The prayer of installation

The symbols of office – the stoles and the crosses – are passed.

Brief comments by the new Co-Moderators.

Presentation of Communion Sets to the outgoing Co-Moderators from the Committee on Local Arrangements

Presentation of gavels to the incoming Co-Moderators from the Committee on Local Arrangements

Thanks to the outgoing Co-Moderators from the Stated Clerk and a memento and moderator’s cross replica presented to them

After the closing prayer from a YAAD the General Assembly is in recess until 2:30 PM tomorrow afternoon. (Using the newly presented gavel)

223rd General Assembly Of The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)

2 Replies

With the largest American General Assembly (about 1300 commissioners) having just concluded it is time to turn to a few more. The big one this coming week is also the highest numbered, and therefore, I guess, oldest or longest running.

logo+pcusaStarting today we have the 223rd General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) in St. Louis which begins on Saturday 16 June and finishes a week later on Saturday 23 June. There is a lot to look forward to in this meeting as the denomination works to connect with the host city, connect with itself, and decide how to position itself for the future.

The source for information on all this business is, as usual, the on-line PC-Biz system. And the PC(USA) event guide for the Guidebook App  is back as well. There are Android and iOS apps and it can be viewed in a web browser. The full program guide with schedules and worship resources is available from the GA web site home page.

A proposed docket is posted is posted as well as a full schedule including the non-business events, and you can also find the schedule, reports overtures/business items on PC-Biz as well as all the Constitutional documents, the Manual of the General Assembly, and other useful items on the PC-Biz Resources tab.

The Assembly will begin with opening worship with celebration of the Lord’s Supper scheduled for 11 AM local time and will be live streamed in the window embedded in the GA home page or directly from ustream.tv. Formal business will begin at 2 PM in the afternoon followed by the election of the Moderator Saturday evening. Sunday is worship in churches throughout the St. Louis area and a plenary session with reports of special committees and commissions in the afternoon. Committee work begins in that evening and it will run into Tuesday afternoon, maybe into the evening for some. During that time PC-Biz is the place to find out what the committees are doing with the pieces of business near and dear to you.

The meeting moves back to plenary on Wednesday morning and then it is a mad push to get all the business done by Friday night or in the wee hours of Saturday morning. But one of the realities is that there is no real schedule of when particular committees report until later in the week when committees have finished their business and they are assembled on the docket like a jigsaw puzzle. The final Saturday morning session is highlighted by worship and the closing business formalities.

One new feature of this Assembly is the Hands and Feet initiative to connect with the local community. This effort is under way and has been part of preliminary meetings in St. Louis, and it is planned to continue in the cities that will be hosting future General Assemblies. At this Assembly many of the Mission Tours are opportunities to get out into the community and help with various forms of service. On Tuesday there will be two different opportunities to participate in rallies/protests. In in the early afternoon there will be an immigration rally and later in the afternoon the “Hands and Feet Community Action.” The offering from today’s opening worship will be used for the local bail relief fund project to help out people in jail for minor offenses because they do not have the money to pay the fine. (And you can donate online if you won’t be there in person.) The community action is an un-permitted public action march to the City Justice Center that will deliver the offering and hopefully bail out some individuals on the spot. Finally, Hands and Feet will be offering a special concert on Thursday evening – Hands and Feet Celebration featuring Kirk Whalum sponsored by Northern Trust Securities. This is the first such concert I can remember since the Dave Brubeck concert in 1997.

Another similar point is the theme of the Assembly. The original theme of the Assembly was from Matthew 6:33 – “But strive first for the kingdom of God and His righteousness.” That has been tweaked slightly to change kingdom to kin-dom and incorporated as the preaching theme – “Kindom building for the 21st century.”

Opening worship and plenary sessions should be live streamed and the viewer can be found embedded in the GA 223 Home Page.

The tracking utility on PC-Biz is the best place to follow business. While the PC(USA) does have a general Twitter account (@Presbyterian), the General Assembly feed (@presbyGA) usually provides more play-by-play. There is also the Presbyterian News Service on Twitter (@PresbyNews). The hashtag for the meeting is #ga223.

News items will also appear on the GA223 web page as well as the Presbyterian News Service feed. There is also a Facebook page, and the daily GA news is now by email – you can register on the main GA web page. The daily news roundup is also available from pcusa.org/ganews.

There are numerous entities of the PC(USA) that have Twitter accounts and you might want to watch the hashtag or check the list I compiled in a post a while back. One not on that list is the Committee on Local Arrangements (COLA) at @StLouisGA.

For individuals of note let me start with the candidates for Co-Moderator and Moderator/Vice Moderator that I know of Twitter accounts for: Eliana Maxim (@elianamaxim), Cindy Kohlmann (@cindykohlmann), Chantal Atnip (@atnipchantal), and Ken Hockenberry (@clerkkennyh). To this let’s add the outgoing Co-Moderators: Jan Edmiston (@jledmiston) and Denise Anderson (@thesoulstepford). There is also a twitter account for the Stated Clerk (@PCUSAstatedclrk) as well as J. Herbert Nelson’s individual account (@jherbertnelson). Moving on to Moderators of previous assemblies we can begin with Bruce Reyes-Chow who tweets at @breyeschow and @brc_live. Neal Presa, can be followed at @NealPresa, and as the incoming vice-chair of the Presbyterian Foundation Board of Trustees his insights could be interesting. And we will see if Heath Rada (@heathrada), is there as well. For previous Vice-Moderators watch for Larissa Kwong Abazia at @LarissaLKA, and Landon Whitsitt (@LandonWhitsitt). In this list of individuals let me throw in the Director of Operations, Thomas Hay (@DirOfOp) and also a true GA Junkie in his own right, Andy James (@andyjames). Finally, for color with a degree of snark (yes, some of us need this during the meeting) you can follow Jodi Craiglow.

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) who will be covering the hot-topic Way Forward Commission.

I will be at the meeting for the opening weekend. I plan to live blog the plenary sessions here, but maybe not as closely as in the past. The rest of the week I will try to be glued to the live stream as much as possible and will post as appropriate and able. (I still have my day job) The Outlook has posted two articles I wrote for them on business coming to the Assembly related to Constitutional Overtures, and a backgrounder on Per Capita. I do plan to tweet extensively but not completely during the Assembly at my regular Twitter handle – @ga_junkie. And if someone is planning to live tweet the Assembly let me know and I will point people in your direction.

Finally, I will once again be passing out my “I’m A GA Junkie” buttons. Find me if you want one. Also, the Bingo Card is available for the meeting.

A few notes on the business of the meeting are in order. First, both the PC(USA) and the Presbyterian Outlook have produced summary articles for the different committees and business categories. There will be lots of the usual with fossil fuel divestment appearing to headline the social justice issues and Middle East issues coming to that committee.

The Assembly will have to deal with some important and controversial internal issues as well. The Way Forward Commission is already hard at work and they are bringing a proposal to unify a lot of the high-level workings of the national structure, something the Presbyterian Mission Board opposes. And as I discuss in my Per Capita article, the Office of the General Assembly originally proposed a 38% increase in per capita, which they scaled back to 10% annual increase each year for the next two years, after some significant negative feedback.

And so I am looking forward to an exciting week in St. Louis, some in person and some on the live stream.

But the decisions facing the commissioners are significant and our prayers are with them as the prayerfully, and critically, discern God’s will this coming week. Best wishes and get your sleep when you can.