Tag Archives: General Assembly

2018 General Assembly Of The Church Of Scotland

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Church_of_Scotland_LogoWe are almost to the Edinburgh GA’s – and I mean that in a couple of different ways as I will explain below.

[Note: revised slightly on Saturday morning 19 May after some consultation and getting a bit of ground truth in the Assembly Hall]

In about 12 hours, on Saturday morning 19 May the 2018 General Assembly of the Church of Scotland will convene in Edinburgh for their annual week-long meeting. This is the mother church for us Presbyterians tracing their Assemblies back to the original one in 1560. But thanks to the spider web produced by the various splits and reunions there are more Presbyterian branches around it and more GA’s in Edinburgh. But that is a topic for another time.

So 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 same is available 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 Papers, minutes, worship, and speeches page. There is an option to subscribe to notifications of new documents being posted. (It appears the GA app has been discontinued this year, but I will update here if I find it.)
  • If you only want the action items, there is a Proposed Deliverances Page which breaks it down by the individual reports as well as a link to a PDF with them all 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 brief order of the docketed events and reports can be found on the General Assembly 2018 page. And new this year is a very well done detailed Programme page which is tabbed by day for easy look up.
  • And from the Daily Updates page there will be regular daily updates in print, audio and video. There will be a new host this year, Laurence Wareing, and we look forward to his work.  For those who are not aware, the long-time host,the Rev. Douglas Aitken, a pioneer in British religious broadcasting, died earlier this year. I will have more to say later.
  • 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.

On Twitter the starting point is the Kirk’s main feed at @churchscotland and the official hashtag #ga2018. There is an official account for the Moderator of the General Assembly, @churchmoderator, but during the Assembly we will have to see how much opportunity there will be to tweet. And the incoming 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 much less active. The official account for the NYA Moderator, currently Robin Downie, is at @NYAModerator. I would add that the NYA Clerk, Catriona Munro, has been regularly tweeting GA related items from her personal account @atrionacmunro. 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 will probably be doing 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 will be hosted by James Bissett, the owner of @mansehound, and he will be 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. 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 outgoing Moderator, the soon to be 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, the Very Reverend Angus Morrison (@angusmorrison6) is an interesting and entertaining read and frequently tweets in Gaelic.

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. He will only be present on one day, but still a good observer. Others I regularly follow from the Kirk include Darren Philip (@darphilip), Alistair May (@AlistairMay), Susan Cord (@sue_cord), Neil Glover (@NeilMGlover), Kristina Hine (@revgal_khine), Liz Crumlish (@eacbug), and Andrew Harris (@aharris2729) . 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 Chalmers Lectures, last year and his book, Reforming the Kirk, released last August.

UPDATE: Let me begin building the list of other’s to watch. Add to the above list RevShuna (@shunad) and Angus Mathieson (@angusmathieson).

As I write this section, I am sitting just outside Inverness watching the ocean and getting ready to jump in the car and drive to Edinburgh. (Another level of meaning in that “almost to Edinburgh” in the opening line.) I will also be covering the GA here on this blog as well as on my twitter account, @ga_junkie.  A quick note on my plan for the week is in order: Since there are three GAs in Edinburgh at the same time I will cover part of each but no complete coverage of any one of them. The Church of Scotland has the advantage that it is almost twice as long as the other two so there will be the most of it. I will be live tweeting whichever GA I am at and will be doing daily wrap-ups and reflections based on what I experienced that day. So stay tuned for more from me.

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 “Peace be with you,” a theme that has extended to the Assembly as a whole. It is reflected on the cover of the Blue Book. The event will be organized a bit differently this year with more distinct areas that group similar organizations and causes together. In addition, a Saturday night electronic dance music style worship event has been added to provide an event of interest to a younger crowd. It is also noted that due to planned renovation of the Princes Street Garden next year changes to the Heart and Soul event will be necessary, at least as far as venue is concerned.

In addition to the “Peace be with you” theme, another theme will be present in Heart and Soul and the full Assembly. The Scottish Parliament has declared 2018 the Year of Young People and this will be woven into the programme.

Concerning the business before the Assembly there is a nice summary of each report on the Life and Work site. A third of the big themes throughout the Assembly will be the 50th anniversary of the Church of Scotland approving the ordination of women for the ministry. While there will be mentions throughout the week, there will be a special celebration on Tuesday afternoon beginning with a procession beginning below the Mound and moving up to, and into, the Assembly Hall for an Order of the Day to recognize the anniversary.

One of the challenges facing the Kirk is how to reform the church to remain viable for the future. Many possible changes are presented in the Council of Assembly report. The Council is also presenting their Strategic Plan for the next decade. The Assembly Arrangements Committee is proposing changes to improve the flow and efficiently of the Assembly. This would include the reduction in time for the various speeches in debate. The Ministries Council will be presenting its new plan for recruiting ministers. The Theological Forum will be presenting a report that discusses the need for children to be baptized before taking communion. This will be of interest to some PC(USA) folks as one of the more debated changes in the new Directory for Worship was the removal of the requirement for baptism for anyone before they could receive the Lord’s Supper.

A significant debate is expected on the Theological Forum report on Thursday afternoon. That same section also includes debate on a presbytery overture regarding the Westminster Confession Confession and its continued suitability as a subordinate standard. It asks the Theological Forum to take a look at that and the possibility of revision, guidance, and possibly going with multiple standards in a book of confessions. (Can be found starting on page 28 of the Order of Proceedings.) In addition, on the opening day, on Saturday afternoon, the Legal Questions Committee will be presenting a report with some anticipated lively discussion. The item of prime interest is their report on details that must be addressed in a proposal on ministers preforming same-sex marriages. It will also call for forming a committee to draft such an act. In addition, they are proposing a new act on church discipline.

So here we go as we kick off a packed week for GA. I will have more on some other GAs in the next couple days.

But that is a topic for later – for now, the opening of the Kirk GA will be shortly in both space and time for me. Tweets tomorrow during the day and a reflection about 24 hours from now.

Stay tuned…

General Assembly Season 2018

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Ah, the circle of life – overtures and moderator candidates are put forward, the General Assembly or General Synod has its say, and the descending overtures are considered by the presbyteries… And it begins all over again.

So here we are on May 1. And while a few Assemblies have already come and gone, we start to ramp up to the really busy season. What is headed our way? Let’s have a look…

First, this is simply the list – further detail will be necessary on a number of important and interesting items of business that will come before the various GA’s this year.

As always, this is the line-up as I know it – I will update as I clarify additional Assembly and Synod meetings. Let me know if I have missed one.


44th General Assembly
Presbyterian Church of Malaysia
2-4 April 2018

 

 


22nd General Assembly
Presbyterian Church of East Africa
9-14 April 2018
St. Andrew Parish Hall, Nairobi, Kenya
(Triennial assembly)

 

 

 

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63rd General Assembly
Presbyterian Church in Taiwan
17-20 April 2018

 

 

Synod Annual General Meeting
Presbyterian Church of Trinidad and Tobago
26-28 April 2018
Naparima College, San Fernando
Celebrating the church’s sesquicentennial

 

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Synod
The Presbyterian Church of Eastern Australia
1-3 May 2018
Manning PCEA Church, Taree, N.S.W.

 

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General Assembly
Presbyterian Church of Tasmania
15 May 2018 (begins)

 

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General Assembly
Church of Scotland
19-25 May 2018
Edinburgh

 

 


General Assembly
Free Church of Scotland (Continuing)
21-24 May 2018
Edinburgh

 

General Assembly
Free Church of Scotland
21-24 May 2018
Edinburgh

 

42nd General Assembly
Korean-American Presbyterian Church
22-25 May 2018
New York City

 

General Assembly & Family Camp
Covenant Presbyterian Church
22-26 May 2018
Trinity, Texas

 

144th General Assembly
Presbyterian Church in Canada
3-6 June 2018
Wilfrid Laurier University
Waterloo, Ontario

 

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General Assembly
Presbyterian Church in Ireland
4-7 June 2018
Belfast

 

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214th Stated Meeting of the General Synod
Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church
5-7 June 2018
Bonclarken
Flat Rock, North Carolina

 

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General Assembly
United Free Church of Scotland
6-8 June 2018
Perth

 

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85th General Assembly
Orthodox Presbyterian Church
11-15 June 2018
Wheaton College
Wheaton, Illinois

 


46th General Assembly
Presbyterian Church in America
12-15 June 2018
Atlanta

 


223rd General Assembly
Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)
16-23 June 2018
St. Louis
(Biennial)

 

143rd General Assembly
Cumberland Presbyterian Church in America
17-21 June 2018
Norman, Oklahoma
Concurrent with the Cumberland Presbyterian Church

 

cplogosmallwithtext200x200188th General Assembly
Cumberland Presbyterian Church
17-21 June 2018
Norman, Oklahoma
Concurrent with Cumberland Presbyterian Church in America

 


38th General Assembly
Evangelical Presbyterian Church
19-22 June 2018
Hope Church
Memphis, Tennessee

 

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General Assembly
Presbyterian Church of Queensland
Including the Presbytery of South Australia
24-28 June 2018
Brisbane Boys’ College
Brisbane

 

Reformed_Presbyterian_Church_of_North_America_(banner)
187th Synod
Reformed Presbyterian Church of North America
26-29 June 2018
Indiana Wesleyan University
Marion, Indiana

 

 

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N.S.W. State Assembly
Presbyterian Church of Australia
in the State of New South Wales
9 July 2018 (begins)
Croydon, N.S.W.

 

International Congress
Free Presbyterian Church
30 July – 3 August 2018
Philadelphia

 

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82nd General Synod
Bible Presbyterian Church
2-6 August 2018
Bible Presbyterian Church of Lakeland, Florida

 

NYA_0National Youth Assembly
Church of Scotland
17-20 August 2018
Stirlingshire
(Technically not a governing
body, but still an Assembly I track)

 


General Assembly
Presbyterian Church of Aotearoa New Zealand
3 – 7 October 2018
St. Andrews College, Christchurch
(Biennial)

 

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General Assembly
Presbyterian Church of Victoria
8 – 12 October 2018

 

 

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111th General Assembly
Presbyterian Church in Western Australia
28 October 2018 (begins)
St. Columba’s Church, Peppermint Grove

 

Thanks to the list from the North American Presbyterian and Reformed Council, I would add these additional two GA’s that I don’t have more information on yet:

  • Presbyterian Reformed Church, 6-8 June 2018, Jasper, Indiana
  • Korean Presbyterian Church Abroad, 30 Oct – 2 Nov 2018, Philadelphia

These are the ones that I am tracking at the moment. I will update as appropriate. If I have missed one, or have information wrong or incomplete, please provide the appropriate information and I will update the list.

And, to make the GA season complete here are two more items…

The first is the series of articles I wrote as an introduction to Presbyterian General Assemblies seven years ago. My GA 101 series consists of the following

GA101: Preface
GA101: Introduction – Why in the world would anybody want to do it this way?
GA101: Connectionalism – The Presbyterian Big Picture
GA101: The Cast of Characters – A score card to identify the players
GA101: The Moderator – All Things In Moderation
GA101: Where does the GA business come from? – Incoming!
GA101: Doing the business of GA — Decently and in Order

Yes, what started as a six part series expanded into seven completed articles with two more unfinished ones (still) in the queue.

And finally, on to the ridiculous. Lest we take ourselves too seriously, a couple years ago I had a little fun with the General Assembly and in the post passed along the GA drinking game and GA Bingo. In addition, Allan Edwards has posted an alternate Bingo card reflecting the polity of the Presbyterian Church in America and Neil MacLennan has created one that reflects the idiosyncrasies of the Church of Scotland. Please play responsibly. 😉

So GA Junkies, it is open season so enjoy! May you have an exciting experience over the next few months of watching us do things decently and in order!

Moderator Nominee For The Presbyterian Church In Canada 2018 General Assembly

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Yesterday the Presbyterian Church in Canada announced the results of balloting for the Moderator Nominee for the 144th General Assembly (2018) to convene in early June. In a moment, the results of that balloting…

But first, a quick introduction to the three candidates on the ballot, in alphabetical order:

The Rev. Daniel Cho, B.A., M.Div. is the pastor of Rexdale Presbyterian Church in Toronto and the Moderator of the Presbytery of West Toronto. He emigrated from South Korea with his family and grew up in Toronto before attending college in Tulsa and Chicago. He returned for ministry training at Knox College and began his service to the church as a youth minister at that time. He has served on boards and committees at all levels of the church and currently serves on the Board of Knox College. In his Q&A section on the candidates page he speaks of the core of the church being Jesus’ teaching of the commandments, reducing them down to two. (But it is worth reading his account of one of his earliest memories of the church.)

The Rev. Peter S. Han, B.A. (Hons), M.Div. is the pastor of Vaughan Community Church, Thornhill, Ontario, where he has served for the last 28 years. He has served the church at all levels including as the Moderator of the Presbytery of Eastern Han-Ca and on the Knox Board. He was a founding member of the Asian Centre at Knox College.  He has structured his current church around a church-wide cell group system that has over 650 adults currently participating. In the Q&A section he singles out refugee work as an area the PC Canada should be more involved in. His bio notes a particular work of his and the singular recognition:

Peter is an advocate for justice. He led a coalition representing Chinese, Filipino, Dutch and Korean-Canadian communities. They successfully petitioned the Canadian House of Commons which unanimously passed Motion 291 to urge the Japanese government to officially acknowledge and apologize for the systematic sexual abuse and slavery against 200,000 women during the Second World War. He received the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal in 2012 for his contributions to the wider Canadian society.

The Rev. Mark R. McLennan, B.A., B.Th., M. Div. is currently the pastor of Knox Presbyterian Church in Woodstock, Ontario, but has served the church widely, in a geographic sense, including in Alberta, Labrador, Quebec, Nova Scotia and at the far western edge of Ontario in Thunder Bay. With that wide placement comes service as the clerk of one synod and multiple presbyteries, as well as serving as Moderator of three presbyteries and two synods. His bio says that “Ministry and mission are at the heart of his church work…” and that includes getting out into the community where he has helped with many community organizations where he has been like the Y and a museum board. He has also written resources for the national church. In the Q&A he has a nice concise statement of the most important features of faithful discipleship: “Compassion for others, Passion for the Gospel, Dirty hands, Open arms, Smiles, Honesty, Integrity. To be the eyes, ears, hands and voice of God in this world.” (And the chuckle I got in his Q&A was in his list of what he is currently reading that includes the book Why Dogs are Better Than Cats.)

For the last three months the elders and ministers of the church have been looking at these three men and discerning God’s call.

Yesterday the Principal Clerk The Rev. Stephen Kendall announced that through the balloting process The Rev. Daniel Cho has been called to be the nominee for Moderator of the 144th General Assembly. The info in that announcement includes the previously published Bio and Q&A that I reference for him above.

From the bio, I would add that he is already scheduled to be the main preacher at Canada Youth 2018. I was also struck in that bio by a paragraph talking about a spiritual mentor and some related writing he has done:

Daniel is blessed to have known the spiritual writer, Henri Nouwen, as a personal mentor. He has been profoundly shaped and impacted by Henri’s teachings which he shares with others. Daniel has written on spirituality in a book chapter and for the Henri Nouwen Society. He also wrote on the intercultural church in the Presbyterian Record and has led seminars on this subject.

And in the Q&A he says he would recommend to everyone in the PCC any book by Henri Nouwen and recommends several specific titles.

Also in the Q&A he talks about his vision for the church going forward. He speaks of spiritual renewal, one of the goals of the PCC Strategic Plan, as personally expanding capacities of faith beyond what is reasonable – like Jesus speaking of loving your enemies – and the church as the faith community through which this is developed for individuals. In another section, he touches on a related issue of what the church should make more time for. His answer is the involvement of the younger generation – their voices, their opinion, their particular wisdom.

The Rev. David Cho will be installed as the Moderator, should the way be clear, at the opening of the 144th General Assembly (2018) on 3 June 2018 in Waterloo, Ontario. Our prayers are with him as he guides what we anticipate will be a most interesting Assembly and best wishes for his moderatorial year.

[Programming Note: As you may have noticed it has been very quiet around here for the last several months. As we approach the GA Season I hope that will change dramatically. As mentioned previously there have been a number of things going on in my life but I believe I am on track for some of that to wind down and I fully anticipate that my blogging will be ramping up significantly. There is some exciting stuff coming in the next few months, which will be shared in due time. So I hope you will be joining me as the GA Season gets underway. Best wishes.]

Who Speaks For The Church – Or At Least The General Assembly?

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In my time doing this blog and watching global Presbyterianism, one of the things that has caught my attention has been the variation between different traditions about who speaks for the denomination.

Now, it is first worth noting that when it comes to pronouncements, particularly social witness stands, many branches recognize that a governing body (judicatory, council – whatever term you use) speaks only for itself and can not bind the next meeting of that deliberative body to that statement or commit other levels of the denomination to it. This is not necessarily the case in all branches, particularly those with strong national infrastructure and definitive decision making at the highest level, but it is true for the polity of many branches that have placed the presbytery as the fundamental governing body and the authority of the other bodies derives from the presbyteries.

The question of who speaks for the church has been an active one recently in the PC(USA) as the Way Forward Commission has wrestled with this. (See the section on Communications in the Outlook article in the link) While not decided yet, something may come out in their final recommendations for consideration by the 223rd General Assembly in June 2018, particularly in the area of communications and the various agencies and offices speaking with one voice.

Globally Presbyterian branches fall into two categories as to who is the voice of the denomination. In general, American branches tend to hand that responsibility to the Stated Clerk of the General Assembly. However, elsewhere in the world the Moderator of the General Assembly or the General Synod tends to be the voice of that body.

I have been working with a semi-quantitative analysis of this over the last few months, but over the last couple weeks I realized there is a reasonable metric to do a quick sort on this. So here are the lists of who provided the official Christmas messages from different branches this year.

Moderators of the General Assembly or the General Synod

Stated Clerks of the General Assembly or the General Synod

Web sites checked where I did not find Christmas messages include the Presbyterian Church of Ghana, CCAP Zambia Synod, CCAP Blantyre Synod, CCAP Livingstonia Synod, Presbyterian Church of Taiwan (English site), Presbyterian Church of Trinidad and Tobago, Free Church of Scotland (Continuing), United Free Church of Scotland, Nonsubscribing Presbyterian Church in Ireland, Presbyterian Church of Wales, Evangelical Presbyterian Church of England and Wales, Free Presbyterian Church of Ulster, Free Presbyterian Church of North America, Presbyterian Church in America (but see below), Orthodox Presbyterian Church, Reformed Presbyterian Church of North America, Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church, Cumberland Presbyterian Church, Bible Presbyterian Church, Presbyterian Church in Australia, Presbyterian Church in Australia in the State of New South Wales, Evangelical Presbyterian Church of Australia, and the Presbyterian Church of East Africa. If I have missed any in this group, or other branches not listed please let me know and I will update.

So the obvious conclusion is that most Presbyterian branches don’t post a Christmas message on their web site. A number of explanations for this: A few of the branches still hold to the Westminster Directory for the Public Worship of God which has an Appendix against celebrating festivals or holy-days. For others, it is simply the expectation of the denomination – it is a nice idea but that is not what the GA or GS is really there for. And for others, the greetings are distributed in other forms and do not appear on the web site.

The other obvious conclusion is that while this quick analysis shows two obvious trends – Christmas messages are posted by the big institutional Presbyterian branches and they come from the Moderator unless you are an American branch – the other part is that a lot are left out. So back to the drawing board and maybe the semi-quantitative approach. (And this shift in focus to the stated clerk in American branches is an interesting phenomenon I am interested in reading more about, or tracking down more historical details if it has not been done yet.)

A few additional comments:

While the Presbyterian Church of Australia did not have a Christmas message, the web site does have a dedicated page for the Moderator’s comments.

The state branch, the Presbyterian Church of South Australia has begun functioning as a presbytery of the Presbyterian Church of Queensland, but their Christmas message last year was written by the last Moderator, the Rev. Gary Ware.

The Presbyterian Church in America did not have a specific Christmas message, but their By Faith news arm does have a piece featuring one of their theology professors that does touch on Christmas theology.

And for the Church of Scotland, the advocacy and discussion of social witness policy is routinely delegated to the Convener of the Church and Society Council. Here are a couple recent examples of Kirk press releases related to “Church welcomes minimum pricing for alcohol ruling” and “Kirk hopes for a budget that will make Scotland a fairer and more equal society.”

Finally, something that was tracking with my other analysis but maybe is best considered an appendix here – a short case study on speaking for the denomination, in this case the PC(USA).

As the top continuing ecclesiastical officer the Stated Clerk speaks for the General Assembly, and not for him or herself, on matters related to policy of the PC(USA). This is covered in the Manual of the General Assembly.

Recently the Stated Clerk, The Rev. Dr. J. Herbert Nelson, II, preached in South Korea as part of an ecumenical visit. The headline of the article said “Stated Clerk pledges repentance for No Gun Ri massacre: Nelson: ‘We’ll not let the silence continue’ about Korean War atrocity.” So the question is, as part of the sermon was he speaking for himself, or as the ecclesiastical officer of the PC(USA) was he speaking for the General Assembly?

Again, this was included as part of a sermon and the headline writer latched on to this for the article. Here is the full context of what the Stated Clerk said when he preached:

I cannot apologize for the government of the United States. However, we who are here today from the United States can pledge to not let the silence of this massacre continue. Just as the Presbytery of Cayuga-Syracuse has called on the denomination to both acknowledge and repent of our silence as a denomination, we [the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)] must call upon the United States government to publicly repent of its actions at No Gun Ri.

He is clearly recounting the actions of the General Assembly, with an overture originating from the Presbytery of Cayuga-Syracuse. The problem is that the 222nd General Assembly did not actually call for repentance on the part of any body or government, as the Stated Clerk implies. The final alternate resolution 1) Acknowledged the actions of the US military in the massacre, 2) Directs the Stated Clerk to ask the United States Government to acknowledge the actions, issue an apology and statement of regret as well as considering compensation, and include training for future military members.  And 3) work with the ecumenical partners for resources and additional statements of regret.

In the whole action the word repentance is used only once in the original rational from the Presbytery, which carries the weight of action only to the extent that the final resolution asks for its inclusion in communication about the action of the General Assembly.

So the polity question is: Based on the actions of the 222nd General Assembly, did the Stated Clerk faithfully represent it when he spoke for their action?

So I will leave it at that. I have a lot of other articles in the works so it may be a while before I return to this topic. And to a large degree, this is a topic of debate for us polity wonks and presbygeeks, but does appear to be an issue for the Way Forward Commission.

Your mileage may vary.

Moderator Designate For The 2018 Church Of Scotland General Assembly

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As the build up to the next GA Season keeps moving, this past week brought another Moderator Designate announcement, this from the Church of Scotland.

Rev Susan Brown of Dornoch Cathedral.

The selection committee has decided and the Kirk has announced that The Rev. Susan Brown, minister of Dornoch Cathedral, will be the next Moderator of the General Assembly. She is a native of Penicuik, Midlothian, and did her ministerial training at New College, Edinburgh with a Bachelors degree and a post-Graduate Diploma in Ministry. Following her probationer work at St. Giles she was inducted at Killearnan on the Black Isle, near Inverness, where she served for 13 years. From there she moved up the coast a bit to Dornoch Cathedral where she has been for the past 19 years.

Rev. Brown has served the Kirk at the national level as the vice-convener for both the Ecumenical Affairs committee and currently the World Mission Council. She also served for ten years as a regular member of a lifeboat crew for a local association. And her love of the outdoors, and these days particularly golf, led her to write a spiritual reflection for each hole of the nearby Royal Dornoch course and these are included in the course guide and gained a bit of international attention. In 2011 she was appointed as Chaplain in Ordinary to HM the Queen.

Her husband Derek is also in the ministry, serving as a hospital chaplain in Inverness and as the lead chaplain for NHS Highland. They have two adult children, a son who is a novelist who was recently recognized by the Scottish Book Trust with a New Writers award, and a daughter who is a graduate in social anthropology.

Rev. Brown says of her moderatorial year:

My theme during the year will be walking alongside people. When you walk alongside people, you listen and you exchange stories. It gives us a chance to talk more deeply than when we are face to face.

This coming moderatorial year for Rev. Brown will have a number of anniversaries of note, not the least of which is the 50th anniversary of the ordination of women in the Church of Scotland. (For those counting, she will be the fourth woman to serve as Moderator of the Kirk GA.) The year will also include some significant centennial anniversaries related to WWI, including the commemoration of the armistice in just over a year’s time.

And finally, no biographical sketch of Rev. Brown would be complete without noting another distinction that she has, that of being the pastor that married the entertainer Madonna and Guy Ritchie and later baptizing their son Rocco.

Besides the Kirk article, there is significant mainstream and Christian media coverage of her appointment including The Scotsman, BBC Scotland, The Northern Times, Daily Record, and Premier Christianity.

Susan Brown can be followed on Twitter at @VicarofDornoch. And you can hear her preach on the Cathedral web site, although it appears on the current sermon is available and no online archive is available. Today’s sermon is based on the calling of Samuel in 1 Samuel 3:1-10 and you have to see a bit of self-reference in her second line “The story offers a great reminder of how God can, and will, use anyone at all – no matter how young or old, no matter how full of wisdom or yet to learn.”

And so, as Rev. Brown begins her preparation for the Assembly in May and her moderatorial year as a whole, we offer our congratulation, prayers and best wishes. And if everything falls into place, I am looking forward to being present in person for your installation and your time leading the Assembly. May God’s blessing be upon you and God’s Spirit granting you wisdom and strength for what lies ahead.

Moderator Designate For The Free Church Of Scotland 2018 General Assembly

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There is a certain cycle to each year as in the late months of one calendar year and the early months of the next we begin to anticipate the upcoming general assemblies with moderator designates and moderator candidates, overtures and memorials, and reports. We then enter Assembly Season and see what transpires in the meetings. That is followed by the time of reporting back and presbyteries voting on descending overtures to make changes under the Barrier Act or to the Books of Church Order, Order, or Forms. (Or the Code.) And somewhere in the midst of that it starts all over again.

Well, with the first Moderator Designate announcement the cycle begins again…

Late last week the Free Church of Scotland announced that The Rev. Angus MacRae had been selected as the Moderator Disignate for their 2018 General Assembly in May.

Rev. MacRae is the pastor of Dingwall and Strathpeffer Free Church in Ross-shire where he has been for the last sixteen years. He was ordained to a call at Kilwinning Free Church, Ayrshire in 1992 and came to his present placement from there. His higher education was completed at Edinburgh University and Free Church College (now Edinburgh Theological Seminary). He was born in Glasgow and grew up in Laxdale, Isle of Lewis.

Rev. MacRae has been serving as the chair of the Board of Ministry, experience that is reflected in his published statement where he says:

This decade has seen vibrant growth and renewal in many local churches and the denomination as a whole is united and encouraged. I am thankful for a steady stream of new leaders in training. Our churches and Seminary are working together to meet the needs of existing churches and an exciting movement of new church plants around Scotland.

He continues in his statement to talk about the ongoing work of the General Assembly:

The General Assembly is not just a talking shop. It is an opportunity for leaders to meet together in God’s presence. Our vision is to work together to bring the message of an unchanging gospel to all the people of our land. We do this individually, together in our local churches and in gospel partnership with all those who respect the authority of the Bible as God’s message for truth for every age.

The press release also tells us he “supports international mission and has a particular interest in East Asia and the work of OMF International.”

You can see more about his parish ministry on the Dingwall Free Church Facebook page as well as their YouTube channel of sermons, most delivered by him.

Rev. MacRae’s wife Ann is a doctor specializing in the treatment of addiction. They have three adult children.

Our congratulations to Rev. MacRae on his selection to this unique form of service to the church and our prayers and best wishes as he prepares for his moderatorial year. And on a personal note, I hope to be present in the gallery when he is installed in May and look forward to worshiping with the GA that evening.

May God’s blessing be upon you as you undertake this ministry.

37th General Assembly Of The Evangelical Presbyterian Church

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As I begin this post let me make two prefatory comments: First, there are two other meetings this week which I regret I do not have the time to preview. These are the GA of the Presbyterian Church of Queensland (hashtag #gaqld17) and the joint General Assembly of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church and the Cumberland Presbyterian Church of America (hashtag #cpga17). Second, in a related comment, I had hoped to be at the EPC GA in person this year since it is in my neck of the woods. The missing posts and the canceled trip are both due to a family commitment that happened this week so my time and tether are both short right now.

But on to the topic of this post, the 37th General Assembly of the Evangelical Presbyterian Church which began yesterday at Fair Oaks Presbyterian Church, near Sacramento, California. (And as Fair Oaks notes, it is in partnership with four other churches in the area.) According to the schedule Tuesday began with workshops in the morning and classes as part of the Leadership Institute in the afternoon. There will be Leadership Institute plenary sessions the next two mornings and business will convene Wednesday afternoon. Committees of Commissioners will meet later on Wednesday and Thursday morning if needed. Then the Assembly returns to plenary business sessions Thursday afternoon and running through Friday – as long as it takes to get the work done.

The Assembly meeting will be live streamed and it appears that plenary programs outside the business meeting will be part of the streaming.

There is a lot of information online, most linked through the Documents 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 items. The official EPC Twitter feed is @EPChurch and the declared official hashtag (#epc2017ga) has sprung to life. There is also a feed for EPC Student Ministries (@EPCStudentMin) and the Stated Clerk Jeff Jeremiah (@Jeff_Jeremiah ) -but neither has been active for a while.

As for individuals, strong live tweeting going from Matthew Everhard (@matt_everhard), Joshua Brown (@PastorJoshBrown) and Heather Strong Moore (@StrongHeather).

A couple of items of business stand out. I mentioned above the Preliminary Position Paper on Human Sexuality, which was provisionally adopted by the last GA and has been under study by the church this year. This is part of ongoing work and the Ad Interim Committee that considers revisions plans for additional work later this year, but the National Leadership Team will be bringing the recommendation that the Paper be approved.. There are two Overtures from the Presbytery of the Alleghenies related to the Report. One would add fidelity in marriage and chastity in singleness to the section on the standards for leaders. The other overture would have an Ad Interim Committee consider the Human Sexuality paper and the Sanctity of Marriage paper (not available online) to eliminate duplicate issues between the two documents.

Another interesting report is that of the Ad Interim Committee on Ministerial Education. While there are no action items in that report, it describes the new education requirements beginning on January 1 of this year. These include a fourth ordination exam in original language exegesis and change in specific course requirements. There is also a Mentored Apprenticeship Program that is being tested. Going forward, they hope to clarify the position of Commissioned Pastor.

And the Stated Clerk’s report has a couple of items related to the dynamics of the denomination. One of those is funding the budget and the use of Per Member Asking was reviewed. There was some significant discussion but sticking with the asking for support on a per member basis is currently the plan. The other interesting note relates to the growth in the denomination. Traditionally GA’s have been hosted by individual churches but with the growth there are now a limited number that are capable of hosting the meeting. The Assembly will consider options and provide input on how they should proceed in the future.

With that, I will wish the EPC commissioners well and we will be lifting them up in our prayers as they meet. I am sorry I can not be there this year but I look forward to observing this particular assembly at a future time.

45th General Assembly Of The Presbyterian Church In America

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The 45th General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in America convened their plenary sessions last night, 13 June, in Greensboro, North Carolina and will continue through noon on Friday 16 June. In their first action following worship they elected RE Alexander Jun the Moderator of the Assembly. The theme of the Assembly is “Come To The Table.” The meeting will be live streamed and they have their GA app available for several platforms to follow along. There is also a ShareFile! app there for registered commissioners to download reports and other documents.

While the full volume of reports is available only to commissioners, the docket and overtures are available on-line. [Tech note to the GA organizers – it is once again the case this year that you might want to change the title in the GA docket PDF properties so it no longer says “40th General Assembly.”] A more general schedule of events is also available. There is a nice page with links to all the forms and schedules for the meeting. And the Zika Virus Advisory is still on the web site, although I don’t think it is as applicable this year as it was last year in Mobile.

To track the polity of the PCA you can access the Book of Church Order online.

News updates will be posted through the official news website and online publication byFaith.

Turning to social media, you will probably want to keep an eye on the byFaith Magazine Facebook page. There are numerous opportunities to follow the meeting on Twitter including the official feed from byFaith (@PCAbyFaith). The hashtag for the Assembly is #pcaga. For pictures, keep an eye on the PCA Flickr site.

Other related Twitter accounts include Reformed University Fellowship (@RUFnational), PCA Discipleship Ministry (@PCACDM), and the Mission to North America (@pcamna). I would also include in this group the denomination’s schools, Covenant College (@CovenantCollege). and Covenant Seminary (@covseminary).

As for individuals to watch – round-up the usual suspects. Some who will be at the meeting and are, or will probably be tweeting include Fred Greco (@fredgreco), Ligon Duncan (@LigonDuncan), Sean Michael Lucas (@SeanMLucas), Melton L. Duncan (@MeltonDuncan), and Jemar Tisby (@JemarTisby) and his Reformed African American Network (@RAANetwork). Having included one organization there I will also mention Presbyterian and Reformed Publishing (@prpbooks) and Reformed Theological Seminary (@ReformTheoSem). (And as a note, there are other Twitter accounts for the different RTS campuses.) Let me also include Jim Moon Jr. (@jimmoonjr) and Allan Edwards (@edwardsae1) who in past years has given us the Bingo Card and the Selfie Scavenger Hunt. And for a Twitter feed that is posted decently and in order there is the @PCAPresbyter himself.

Regarding business to the Assembly, from the social media chatter the hot topic will be the Report of the Ad Interim Committee on Women Serving in the Ministry of the Church. This report was authorized by the last GA and attempts to balance a recognition of women’s gifts for service in the church with the PCA’s understanding of the complimentarian nature of ordained office. It comes with a pastoral letter and nine recommendations. Among those recommendations is one that says:

3. That sessions, presbyteries and the General Assembly strive to develop, recognize, and utilize the gifts, skills, knowledge, and wisdom of godly women in the local, regional, and national church, and particularly consider overtures that would allow qualified women to serve on appropriate committees and agencies within the church.

There is another recommendation that, after quoting the Book of Church Order adds:

6… Thus, for the well-being of the church, the committee recommends that sessions and presbyteries select and appoint godly women of the congregation to assist the ordained leadership; these godly, unordained women have often historically been referred to as deaconesses.

This one is sure to elicit a discussion about the nature of deaconesses and any parallels it may have to the ordained office of deacon. An opportunity to recognize and incorporate all in a more inclusive ministry or the camel’s nose under the tent? This report is docketed for 2:45 PM EDT on Thursday afternoon.

That report will be preceded at 2 PM by the Report of the Ad Interim Committee on Racial Reconciliation, a continuation of a discussion that began two years ago and as part of last year’s discussion this Ad Interim Committee was formed.

Having the news update from Monday, we know the recommendations of the Overtures Committee (OC) of Commissioners and can anticipate a few other items of business. Overture 2 was advanced on a divided vote and will come with a minority report. It would give the BCO section on Solemnizing of Marriage full constitutional authority and is aimed at “strengthening the PCA’s public witness to a biblical definition of marriage.” Overture 16 was advanced with a near unanimous vote and would add a requirement that congregational meetings for a church to withdraw from the PCA would have a higher quorum requirement of one-half of the members. And Overture 18 has both practical considerations and polity nuances for the polity wonks in the audience. It would require requests for ad-interim or study committees come only by presbytery overture. The rationale for the overture argues that assembly business, particularly those items strongly connected to doctrine, should be bottom-up and not top-down. In other words, business like this should be generated from the presbyteries not committees of the higher judicatories. It also points out that having it come as presbytery overture provides a path that allows assembly debate, amendment and perfection of the requests.

All this and more is on the table for the next three days. It should be an interesting meeting and a barometer, or maybe a Rorschach test, of where the PCA is at the present time. Be ready to read the tea leaves.

Our best wishes to the commissioners and leaders of the PCA General Assembly for this important meeting and prayers for your discernment the next few days. May the Spirit guide you in your work.

2017 General Assembly Of The Presbyterian Church In Ireland

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bushAt this point it seems a bit like juggling where you keep adding one more ball to the collection that are in the air. It started with the OPC General Assembly. Add the 143rd GA of the Presbyterian Church in Canada. Today we add the next one…

The Presbyterian Church in Ireland convened their 2017 General Assembly in Belfast a little while ago with a worship service and the installation of the new Moderator, the Right Rev Dr Noble McNeely. The Assembly runs through Friday 9 June. With the meeting under way here is some info to help follow along:

  • The live stream is embedded in the main Assembly page and further down the page a few of the streaming highlights for the week and even further down a summary docket of report dates and times.
  • The special Wednesday evening program is themed “Everyday Disciples” – the new Moderator’s theme for the year – and will be live streamed. In addition, following the Assembly’s adjournment there will be the traditional Youth Night on Saturday evening, which will also be live streamed. It’s theme is “(UN) Faithful – A faithful God and His unfaithful people, lessons from Hosea
  • More background for the Assembly can be found on the Assembly Resources page and the reports coming to the Assembly can be viewed individually on the Reports Page or as a whole by downloading the Blue Book.
  • The polity documents include the main document, The Code, as well as the helpful A Guide to Assembly Procedure.
  • The News page will carry official press releases and news items including the pre-Assembly press release which contains a rundown of the major moments and business at the Assembly this year.

There are plenty of social media contact points for the Assembly, beginning with the official Twitter account @PCIAssembly which always provides a detailed and comprehensive report of the Assembly. Please note the comprehensive part, because the level of detail can make the feed very busy. This is generally a good thing but you have been warned that the number of tweets will be very high. (Don’t say I didn’t warn you.) The official moderator’s feed at @PCIModerator has become a great source as well. We will see if Rev. McNeely tweets during GA and how much he shares in his moderatorial year. (He does have an almost unused personal feed @mcneelynoble, but I don’t think we will see much there this week, or maybe even this year.) The official hashtag for the Assembly is #pciga17. And it is worth keeping an eye on the PCI Facebook page as well.

Other ministries of the church that have Twitter accounts are Presbyterian Women (@PWinIreland), Mission Ireland (@MissionIreland) and PCI Global Missions (@PCIOverseas). Fair warning that I have included the latter two only for the sake of completeness, but they have been dormant for a while.

The other set of social media contacts to keep an eye on are those related to the Youth Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in Ireland. They can be followed at a couple of different Twitter handles including the Youth Assembly account for PCI SPUD (@pcispud), and the Youth and Children’s Ministry account @PCIYAC. They have previously hosted Fringe Events and you can watch their Facebook page to see what they might be up to this year.

My list of others to watch for interesting and useful updates always starts with outside reporter and insightful commentator Alan in Belfast (@alaninbelfast). He has indicated that he won’t be around the GA as much this year, but still worth keeping an eye on his feed. For those active in leadership in the church I would point to former Moderator Rob Craig (@RobCraig54) and Cheryl Meban (@cherylmeban) who is active with WCRC and PCI board leadership. So far there seems to be potential from Stuart Morrow (@stuart_morrow), Niall Lockhart (@BallyhenryPres) and Ballygilbert Church (@ballygilbert). And while the PCI does not send a representative to Edinburgh for the Church of Scotland GA, the Kirk Moderator is present at this Assembly and tweeting @ChurchModerator. Will update with others as appropriate. UPDATE: To this list I would add Peter Bovill (@peterbovill) as he had been actively contributing to the feed. And while I have not seen him on the GA feed, please note the recommendation in the comments below for ongoing comments about the PCI.)

In looking at the business of the Assembly a few reports caught my eye. One of these is from the Council for Congregational Life and Witness. In looking at fostering revival in the denomination they are presenting the goal as Fruitfulness and many of the actions in agricultural terms. For example, one of the action items is “Clearing the ground for fruitfulness – Asking the hard questions.” I am encouraged when the stage is set to realize there are no easy answers and that change, particularly rebuilding from a biblical foundation, is called for. A consideration that plays into this and which is mentioned in multiple reports is the decline in those training for the ministry. (see the Council for Training in Ministry report) Another interesting report is the on Relationships with Other Denominations which is Appendix 3 in the General Council Report (starting on the 107th page in the Blue Book). One of the denominations discussed is the relationship with the Church of Scotland and it’s trajectory (and that is the word used in the report). The report also contains the PCI position on human sexuality and marriage (page 114). And the report presents a possible path to work through the differences in the section titled Principles for Pursuing Mutual Reform. It will certainly be an interesting discussion.

As always, our prayers are with the Assembly and the Moderator for the work ahead and their discernment and guidance by the Holy Spirit. We look forward to following their work.

143rd General Assembly Of The Presbyterian Church In Canada

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Presbyterian_Church_in_Canada_(logo)We may be in the single busiest week of this year’s General Assembly Season – again with two live streams – and with one GA in progress now the second of the week, the 143rd General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in Canada, is just about to get started.

The first sederunt of the Assembly has just begin with worship and installation of the Moderator, and the meeting will continue through Wednesday 7 June, 2017. It is being hosted by the Presbytery of Kingston and St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church. Opening worship will be at the church and the business sessions will be in the gym of the Athletic and Recreation Centre at Queen’s University.

A few things to know to help follow along:

  • There will live streaming of the Assembly meetings and they are typically archived afterward
  • From the GA 2017 page you can download the full and final Book of Reports. The daily schedule is found on page A-1 (the 5th page) of the packet and a more detailed docket begins on page C-1 (the 11th page in the packet). The Supplementary Reports is available there as well. Also downloadable from that page is a good Summary of Reports piece that gives an overview of the meeting.
  • Official news updates are available on the news feed. While we will miss the reporting from the Presbyterian Record, which ceased publication in December, we can probably expect follow-up after the meeting in the new PC Connect e-newsletter.
  • I anticipate there will be daily GA Briefings and probably video recordings of the sederunts posted regularly. The Briefings, a summary of each sederunt, will probably be are available on the GA 2017 page and the videos archived on the Live Stream Page.
  • The General Assembly Resources page is where you will find the important doctrine and governance documents including the Book of Forms and a link to the Acts and Proceedings page.

The theme for the meeting is “Yesterday, Today, Forever”, taken from the phrase in Hebrews 13:8.

The Assembly can be followed on social media through the PCConnect Facebook page and through their official Twitter feed @PCConnect. The hastag for the meeting is #pccga2017. The Presbyterian Record Flickr feed is still there but not clear it it will be updated. Let’s see if anything appears there or watch the Facebook page. UPDATE: Yes, there are pictures but they are on the PC Connect Flickr feed – sorry to overlook that in the original post.

In early Twitter action I would point to Jeff Loach (@passionatelyhis) (but he may be too busy at the front table) and Scott McAndless (@A_Nobel_Theme) who appears to be blogging the GA. I have not included some of the usual suspects as I don’t know their status but will update as things get rolling. UPDATE: A number of individuals with great Twitter feeds this week beginning with First Presbyterian Brockville (@first_kirk) who has a nice play-by-play going. Add to that, in no particular order, Matthew Ruttan (@MatthewRuttan), Jacqui Foxall (@JacquiFoxall), Kristine O’Brien (@bloomingrev), and Curtis Wilson (@CurtisWilson4). Thanks to all of you for your efforts on social media for the Assembly.

Again this year a closely watched item is the joint Committee on Church Doctrine (CCD) and Life and Mission Agency (LMA) report with the follow up from last year’s discussion on human sexuality. The 16 recommendations they are bringing can be divided into three general groups: 1) Two “substantive scriptural studies.” One leads to the conclusion that Bible supports the current stance of the subordinate standards; the other argues for a revision to the understanding concerning human sexuality and marriage in particular. These are presented for study and prayerful consideration. 2) Acknowledging that the members of the church have “consulted in good faith” this past year but “recognize that the church has failed to fulfill the resolution ‘to listen to and share the very real pain of homosexuals and their families’ that was adopted by the PCC in 1994 and failed in its call ‘to be a welcoming, nurturing, loving and supportive community.'” and 3) A proposal from the LMA to produce a new study on marriage but in the interim to allow clergy to bless, or not bless, civil marriages according to their conscience. Besides the reports volume there is a Guide to Understanding Reports about Sexuality. [Will automatically download a PDF.] Business related to Sexuality Overtures is docketed for various presentations and times of discernment throughout the days of the meeting and the recommendations and docketed groups are in the Guide linked above.

There are a number of other important business items at the meeting. Many committees and agencies will be reporting on their actions related to the new strategic plan approved by the last GA. The Committee on Church Doctrine will also be presenting a resource on Physician Assisted Suicide. A couple related reports deal with the review of the Pensions Plan and its solvency. An overture last year asked for a study to address the reasons for the decline of the church. In their response the Life and Mission Agency says “Decline is a complex issue and while we can speak in generalities, it is impossible to point to any one thing or factor the church must address in order to reverse the decline. In our current cultural context, all bodies of the church have a collective responsibility to equip the whole people of God to work towards renewal.” They go on and recommend ways to develop Visionary Leadership and Empowering People and Congregations for Ministry as well as recommend resources.

So prayers and best wishes for the members of the 143rd General Assembly and as they address issues so important to the future witness of the church. May you indeed by guided by the Holy Spirit in these substantive matters of witness and ministry.