Doctor Who (Yes, this is GA related)

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One last GA item for today:  Airing today on BBC television is an episode of “Who Do You Think You Are?” a series that explores with an individual their genealogy.  Tonight, the individual is David Tennant, the actor currently playing Doctor Who.  (For those not familiar with this long running British Sci/Fi TV series, Doctor Who is about a time traveler and his adventures.)

According to news accounts of the episode David Tennant, in doing the research for the show, discovers ancestors active in the Orange Order in Northern Ireland as well as a Catholic branch of the family.  One of the news accounts mentions that David is the son of the Very Rev. Sandy MacDonald, a former moderator of the Church of Scotland.  (see I told you there was a GA connection)  A longer article from the Sunday Times gives a lot more detail but leaves out the important (to us) bit about his father serving as moderator.

GA of the Presbyterian Church of Aotearoa New Zealand

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The 2006 General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church of Aotearoa New Zealand will convene in a few hours in Auckland and will meet through 1 PM Monday October 2.  The theme is “Christ-centered, community-facing.”  Looking over the docket for the meeting, both the summary version and the detailed PDF version, much of the proceedings have a familiar feel to them.  There are however a few distinctive elements that caught my attention.

The first of these is the election of the moderator.  The denomination uses the moderator designate model so this year the GA will receive the moderator for the next GA in 2008.  However, the nomination and voting procedure is run by the nominating committee throughout the wider church before GA.  This year there were two nominees with the Rev. Dr. Graham Redding receiving slightly more votes than the Rev. Peter Cheyne.  But this is the other interesting part of the process:  The nominating committee report and election of the moderator does not occur until the third day of the GA on Saturday.  Logistically, it makes some sense to give the moderator a chance to prepare for the GA and be part of the planning.

Another interesting element is the structure of the church, and the meeting, with different ethnic constituancies having representation.  These are probably not much different than the PC(USA) non-geographic presbyteries.  The groups include the Pacific Islanders Synod and the Council of Asian Congregations.  There is also the Maori Synod named Te Aka Puaho meaning “The Glowing Vine.”  In the Standing Orders of the GA, Te Aka Puaho has the ability to meet and make decisions in their traditional consultative system and report back to the whole GA.  In addition, if Te Aka Puaho has questions about a GA decision relative to their Maori culture:

(e) Te Aka Puaho may advise the Assembly that, because of a distinctive Maori perspective or value on a matter affecting Maori, it wishes to stand aside from the decision-making process for a time in order to undertake full consultation amongst the Maori people, the results of which will be reported no later than at the next General Assembly.

While the highest profile item on the agenda, that of ordination standards, comes up at the meeting on Friday, Thursday’s docket has its own controversial items.  Specifically, there are three overtures from the Presbytery of Auckland that seemed to be aimed at restraining and weakening the central authority of the denomination.  Overture 1 calls for limitation on the amount of money the national offices can collect from each church.  Overture 2 is about limiting mission assessments.  And Overture 3 proposes a “Federal Model” for the church structure.  As I read the overture it appears that it is recommending a denominational structure that is more congregational than presbyterian changing higher governing bodies into support agencies more than connectional and oversight bodies.  The overture refers to “independent/togetherness.”  The Book of Order and Judicial Reference Group comments:

…without wishing to discourage full consideration of the overture, advises that it raises major constitutional issues which go to the heart of the governance of the Church.

And a final interesting twist, the GA has corporate sponsorship to supply technology for the assembly.

I am still looking for a webcast of the GA but I will post as I am updated by the various channels.

Update to PC Ireland GA location discussion

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Late last week I had posted here about a news story that the Presbyterian Church in Ireland was looking to hold their 2008 GA in Sligo in the Republic of Ireland.  Well, today the Belfast Telegraph reports that the previous report was premature, a church committee is looking at what facilities would be needed to hold the GA somewhere other than Belfast, and that there are invitations from multiple cities.  And, as we all know, the 2007 GA will have the final word.  Stay tuned.

Presbyterian Church in Ireland to hold GA in the Republic

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And finally, a news item today in the Belfast Telegraph says that the 2007 GA of the Presbyterian Church in Ireland will vote on holding the 2008 GA in the Republic of Ireland at Sligo.  While the church is the governing body for Presbyterians across the whole island, the GA has met in the Republic only five times in the last century, always in Dublin, with the last time being in 1991.  The 2007 GA of the PCI will meet in Belfast June 4-8, 2007.

Presbytery of San Diego Action

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The other news item that I somehow overlooked was the presbytery meeting of the Presbytery of San Diego this past Tuesday.  The presbytery heard a report from their task force on “The Way Forward.”  While I have not seen meeting minutes yet, or heard any reports, from the new, prominent placement of the task force report on the web site I must conclude that it was received or adopted on Tuesday.

As I look over the task force report from San Diego again, what strikes me is some parallels to the statement “The Challenge of out Times” that the Presbytery of San Joaquin was supposed to debate last night at their presbytery meeting.  (I’m watching for word on that meeting.)  Both statements encourage a two year period for discernment.  And the statements encourage the maintenance of connectionalism, and having churches not quickly abandon the PC(USA).  This parallelism I see not as a direct collaborative effort but as the embodiment of what many of us hope and pray for the PC(USA).

More as details become available.

Presbyterian Lay Committee Board Statement

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Greetings,
   In looking over my blog entries I am noticing a couple of things that I thought I posted but I guess I missed.  My apologies for this.

   One of these items is a statement from the board of directors of the Presbyterian Lay Committee dated September 6, 2006, titled “A call for Presbyterian decency and order.”  The statement speaks out against the strategies outlined in the PC(USA) legal memos on property and the juxtaposition of these memos at a time when the stated clerk was promoting the PUP report.  The board writes:

On the one hand, Stated Clerk Kirkpatrick publicly called for
Presbyterians who differ to “endeavor to outdo one another in
honoring one another’s decisions.” He endorsed task force
recommendation seven, asking all church members to acknowledge their
traditional Biblical obligation, as set forth in Matthew 18:15-17,
Matthew 5:23-25, and in the Rules of Discipline in the Book of Order, “to
conciliate, mediate, and adjust differences without strife”
prayerfully and deliberately (D-1.0103) and to institute administrative
or judicial proceedings only when other efforts fail to preserve the
purposes and purity of the church.”

On the other hand, in January 2006, while Stated Clerk Kirkpatrick was
publicly advocating such peaceable procedures, his office was privately
training presbytery executives and lawyers in closed-door meetings to
take aggressive, pre-emptive legal actions against local churches whose
ministers and sessions might be prayerfully and openly seeking to
discern the Lord’s will regarding their continuing association with
the Presbyterian Church (USA) in light of recent General Assembly
actions.

The statement concludes with a call for church-wide denunciation of the legal memos and strategies.

Follow up on Ridgebury decision

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First the Ridgebury decision has been posted by the NY court system.  You can go to e-court and search on decisions using the case index number 6144/2005 for the County of Orange to get a text copy or get the presbytery’s scanned copy. 

Second, at their September 6 meeting the council of the Presbytery of Hudson River voted unanimously to appeal the trial court decision.  I have not found the appeal in the system yet.  Also, the council decided to compile a list of all church incorporation dates.

New York Church Property Rulings – New Ruling for Episcopals in Rochester

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Greetings,
    Following the Ridgebury (Ridgeberry) Church decision where the judge ruled against the Presbytery of Hudson River and in favor of the congregation allowing them to keep their property it is interesting to see another case from New York go the other way.  On September 13 Justice Kenneth Fisher of the 7th Judicial District, County of Monroe, in a summary judgment, ruled against All-Saints Anglican Church (formerly Episcopal church) and in favor of the Diocese of Rochester that the diocese gets to keep the property.  It is interesting that this was decided in summary judgment since this was a strategy advocated in the legal memos generated in the PC(USA) denominational headquarters.  While no basis for the decision has been mentioned in the coverage it would be an educated guess that it is based on the hierarchical nature of the Episcopal denomination.  News coverage is available from the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle.

Layman Online article on “PCUSA dispatches teams…”

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Greetings,
    On Friday, September 15, the Layman Online published an article entitled “PCUSA dispatches teams to advise synod officials on property issues.”  The article talks about lawyers and others from the PC(USA) denominational headquarters sending teams out to talk to synod officials about property disputes.

There seems to be no question from the “Louisville Papers,” as the Layman calls, them that the national headquarters is concerned about property issues. And from recent events and continuing disputes it seems certain that property cases will be contested for a while.  Also, several of the older cases, that is pre-TTF report, are in the Synod of Southern California and Hawaii.  It is in that setting that the article talks about a case in the Presbytery of San Gabriel over a year before the 217th GA adopted the PUP report.

I wanted to add a bit of context to that part of the Layman article since it makes up a significant portion of that whole piece.  The article mentions an Administrative Commission active in the winter and spring of 2005.  It is important to know that while this commission was dealing with property, the property was in no way contested.  The Presbytery of San Gabriel formed the commission to dissolve a church at the church’s request.  With the dissolution the property was transferred to another PC(USA) congregation that was sharing the space with the dissolving congregation.  There was no dispute and no property ownership contested by any entity here, be it one of the churches or a middle governing body.

Yes, as part of that process the administrative commission made a series of recommendations to the presbytery that were suggested in the spirit of making similar events easier in the future.  And, the commission did consult with property specialist to be sure that the transfer was done properly, legally, decently and in order.  As far as I can discover talking with people involved in the process the recommendations were made and accepted in good faith and in the context of working with struggling churches. For those on the presbytery level who I know these events predate the release of the TTF report by almost a year and no connection to the present disputes is seen. 

San Joaquin Presbytery meeting this Thursday

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At the stated presbytery meeting of June 29, 2006, the Presbytery of San Joaquin adopted a document entitled  “The Challenge of Our Time” expressing concern for the direction of the  PC(USA).  Since the statement was written before the 217th GA the presbytery sent it back to the task force for appropriate revisions.  At the presbytery meeting this Thursday, September 21, the revised document will be considered.  A second, responding document entitled “The September Statement of Conscience,” has been prepared by another group.

The original (now revised) document seeks to discern a “corporate solution” for the Presbytery of San Joaquin in light of the PC(USA) GA adopting the authoritative interpretation as part of the Theological Task Force report.  The statement calls for short-term work to understand the immediate implications of connectionalism, especially recognizing ordinations from other ordaining bodies.  It also has a long-term component that focuses on a two year period of discernment that includes prayer, networking with presbyteries and other groups that have a similar concern for the direction of the PC(USA), and investigation of legal implications.  It also calls on the churches and the presbytery to not disengage from the PC(USA) during this two year period and to be sensitive to individuals and churches that take the minority position on these issues.

The alternative document begins by saying that the first document actually encourages congregations to disengage rather than having them stay.  It goes on to say that while the actions taken by the 217th GA are not the ideal solution for either side in the ordination standards debate they are being mis-represented in the press so many in the church have misinformation about them.  Next it talks about the unity of the church and how the PC(USA) disagreements have not reached a level that justifies separations and the negative witness to the world any separations would be.

We will see how this develops Thursday night.