Tag Archives: PC(USA)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The 2019 PC(USA) Membership Numbers – Our Annual Rorschach Test

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A couple of days ago the Office of the General Assembly (OGA) of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) released the Comparative Summaries of Statistics for 2019 and the corresponding press release and narrative. This does, of course, provide new data points for my growing data set and gives me an opportunity for some statistical analysis which is, for me, a “source of innocent merriment.”

In a general sense, the results are predictable – The membership of the two branches that would become the PC(USA) in 1983 peaked in 1965 at 4.25 million members and has been declining ever since. In terms of the direction of change in 2019, it is still a decline. But the good news is that the decline rate has been decreasing. What that means we will get to in a minute.

Specifically, the PC(USA) finished 2019 with 1,302,043 members, a net decrease of 50,635 or 3.7%. There were 45,079 members added to the rolls, roughly half through Professions of Faith and Reaffirmations. There were 91,552 members lost, with about 13% transferring to other churches, 26% moved to the Church Triumphant, and the bulk, almost two-thirds or 56,133 members were deleted from the rolls for other reasons.

The number of churches decreased by 120, or 1.3%, to 9041. The statistics show that 19 were organized, 95 were closed, none transferred in, and 24 transferred out to other denominations. There are also 110 New Church Developments/Fellowships – a decrease of six, and 176 New Worshipping Communities – an increase of 18.

So what does this look like in the context of the last 27 years:

Year	Num Churches	Num Change	% Change	Num Members	Num Change	% Change	Mem/Church
1993	11,416	-40	-0.3%	2,742,192	-38,214	-1.4%	240.2
1994	11,399	-17	-0.1%	2,698,262	-43,930	-1.6%	236.7
1995	11,361	-38	-0.3%	2,665,276	-32,986	-1.2%	234.6
1996	11,328	-33	-0.3%	2,631,466	-33,810	-1.3%	232.3
1997	11,295	-33	-0.3%	2,609,191	-22,275	-0.8%	231.0
1998	11,260	-35	-0.3%	2,587,674	-21,517	-0.8%	229.8
1999	11,216	-44	-0.4%	2,560,201	-27,473	-1.1%	228.3
2000	11,178	-38	-0.3%	2,525,330	-34,871	-1.4%	225.9
2001	11,141	-37	-0.3%	2,493,781	-31,549	-1.2%	223.8
2002	11,097	-44	-0.4%	2,451,969	-41,812	-1.7%	221.0
2003	11,064	-33	-0.3%	2,405,311	-46,658	-1.9%	217.4
2004	11,019	-45	-0.4%	2,362,136	-43,175	-1.8%	214.4
2005	10,959	-60	-0.5%	2,313,662	-48,474	-2.1%	211.1
2006	10,903	-56	-0.5%	2,267,118	-46,544	-2.0%	207.9
2007	10,820	-83	-0.8%	2,209,546	-57,572	-2.5%	204.2
2008	10,751	-69	-0.6%	2,140,165	-69,381	-3.1%	199.1
2009	10,657	-94	-0.9%	2,077,138	-63,027	-2.9%	194.9
2010	10,560	-97	-0.9%	2,016,091	-61,047	-2.9%	190.9
2011	10,466	-94	-0.9%	1,952,287	-63,804	-3.2%	186.5
2012	10,262	-204	-1.9%	1,849,496	-102,791	-5.3%	180.2
2013	10,038	-224	-2.2%	1,760,200	-89,296	-4.8%	175.4
2014	9,829	-209	-2.1%	1,667,767	-92,433	-5.2%	169.7
2015	9,642	-187	-1.9%	1,572,660	-95,107	-5.7%	163.1
2016	9,451	-191	-2.0%	1,482,767	-89,893	-5.7%	156.9
2017	9,304	-147	-1.6%	1,415,053	-67,714	-4.6%	152.1
2018	9,161	-143	-1.5%	1,352,678	-62,375	-4.4%	147.7
2019	9,041	-120	-1.3%	1,302,043	-50,635	-3.7%	144.0

So what is one of the reactions to the 2019 data? The headline on the PC(USA) news article from the Office of the General Assembly is “PC(USA) statistics show a leveling off in membership decline.”

So yes, from the peaks in the 2016 numbers the rate of decline for both churches and members has shown a consistent decrease in the rate of decline. So things are getting better. But are they levelling off? Let’s look a little bit closer.

Both the number of churches and the number of members had a somewhat consistent decline for the first part of this time period through about 2004. The membership decline was creeping up but still hung below 2%/year. The rate of decline in the number of congregations was similar hanging at or below 0.4%/year. Both then show a bit of acceleration up to 2011 with the rate of church decline rising to just below 1%/year and the membership decline rising to a bit over 3%/year. Then in 2012, there was a rapid increase to a plateau that continues in the 2016 data. The rate of decline of the number of congregations was right around 2.0%/year and the decline in total membership was generally above 5%/year. Since 2016 the numbers have been dropping but still hang at numbers above the earlier periods on the chart. Here are the graphs for the number of churches and the number of members.

So is it leveling off? Well, it could be, but a good likely scenario is that it returns to the lower rates of the 1990’s.

Another reaction comes from the Stated Clerk J. Herbert Nelson. The OGA article includes his full statement concerning the 2019 statistics in which he begins by saying “For the first time in more than thirty years, the PC(USA) is not reporting membership losses. Our membership remains at 1.3 million. This is good news!“

So yes, if you work with two significant figures and truncate after the two significant figures that is a correct statement. But, if you use standard scientific practice for significant figures we have to remember that the 2018 number to three significant figures is 1.35×10⁶ (1.35 million members). The rule for rounding is that if the first insignificant figure is a five it gets rounded down if the next number is even and up if the next number is odd. In other words, it gets rounded so that the last significant figure is even. So, in this case, the PC(USA) membership in 2018 to two significant figures is 1.4 million. (Remember, I am a science professor in my other life.)

However, one of the rules of significant figures is that exact numbers, which a count of the membership of the church would be, has all numbers significant so there is a difference between 1,352,678 and 1,302,043.

OK, now my turn to take the Rorschach test.

Looking at the numbers I see two things. First, I see a decline rate that is returning to mainline/oldline baseline. Over a decade ago I looked at the seven denominations that are classified as the mainline, or sometimes oldline, churches. At the time some of them, like the PC(USA) and the Episcopal Church were heavily embroiled in controversy. Others, like the American Baptist Church and at the time the United Methodist Church, had little internal controversy. My conclusion was that there was a common baseline decline in the branches of a bit less than 1% per year. In addition, the more controversy a denomination was involved with the higher the decline rate. For the PC(USA) this peaked a few years ago with a total decline of 5.7%/year so an additional decline of about 5%/year beyond the baseline rate.

It is probably time to return to that analysis, but the first thing I see, as I mentioned above, is not so much a levelling off of the PC(USA) decline rate but return to the slow steady decline of around 0.5%-1.0% of the late ’90s in the table above.

The second thing I see is in that right-hand column of the table. As the PC(USA) decline continues the church loses members at a proportionally higher rate than churches are closed. Between 1993 and 2019 the average number of members per church has dropped by almost 100 members/church from 240.2 members/church to 144.0 members/church. Graphically, the change looks like this.

To look at this from another point of view, if the 2019 membership change is thought of as the dismissal of 120 churches and their members in 2019, the average number of members dismissed in those 120 churches would be 422 members.

On the one hand there is an important place for small churches. They are important to small rural communities and for niche ministries and settings. However, a denomination full of small churches would challenge the sustainability of the Presbyterian concept of the graded councils from the local to the national level.

The Church of Scotland in the radical restructuring plan that was initiated two years ago and adopted last year realized this. This plan restructures the Kirk broadly so that it is more flexible and sustainable. This restructuring includes consolidating churches and merging presbyteries. But an important difference is that the Church of Scotland has authority for these decisions set at the national level while American Presbyterianism locates ultimate authority at the presbytery level. That makes broad decisions like this more challenging.

There are probably two more topics to mention briefly. The first is the rough projection of where the PC(USA) is headed. If indeed the church is headed towards the mainline decline trend, if in five years it reaches a church decline trend of 0.3%/yr and a membership decline of 1.0% that would suggest that in 50 years the PC(USA) will have about 7,500 churches and 730,000 members and so would have just under 100 members/church.

The other thing to mention is that the PC(USA)’s new model for ministry is not in these numbers. As mentioned earlier it reported 110 new church developments and fellowships in 2019 and 176 New Worshiping Communities. That is a slight decrease in the first and a slight increase in the second. The New Worshiping Communities (NWC) are dynamic, non-traditional forms of community. Many of these are pretty small, some are short-lived, and generally, their creative and dynamic nature means that they don’t have members in the typical sense of Presbyterian churches. So their attendee numbers are not reflected in the annual statistics.

So there we have this year’s statistical report with three views of what is seen in the numbers. Lots of other numbers in that Comparative Summary of Statistics if you want to take the Rorschach test and see what you see in the data. Have fun.

A Very Different General Assembly Season 2020

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Yesterday May 1 – my official starting point for General Assembly Season. But as many of you are aware, this will be a very different General Assembly Season. With the Covid-19 virus circulating almost all of the early meetings have been cancelled or postponed. Many are simply listed as “postponed” with hopes of rescheduling in 2020. Some have specifically stated that they will not happen this year. Still waiting on a few and I will update as announcements are made.

So this is the line-up for General Assembly Season as I know it now. Please let me know if I have missed an announcement or a presbyterian branch.

46th General Assembly
Presbyterian Church of Malaysia
~~23-25 March 2020~~
Postponed, date to be determined.

65th General Assembly
Presbyterian Church in Taiwan
Taipei
~~21-24 April 2020~~
Postponed to a date not yet decided

60th Synod Annual General Meeting
Presbyterian Church of Trinidad and Tobago
~~April 2020~~ – Postponed Indefinitely

Synod
The Presbyterian Church of Eastern Australia
~~May 2020~~ – Postponed

45th General Assembly
Korean Presbyterian Church Abroad
~~5-7 May 2020~~
~~Orlando, Florida~~
Postponed to 4-6 May 2021
(I am seeing various info on this, still sorting through it)

General Assembly & Family Camp
Covenant Presbyterian Church
5-9 May 2020
Westcliffe, Colorado

General Assembly
Presbyterian Church of Tasmania
12 May 2020

44th General Assembly
Korean-American Presbyterian Church of the Americas
12-15 May 2020
~~Cancun, Mexico~~
To be held by Videoconference

General Assembly
Church of Scotland
~~16-22 May 2020~~
Edinburgh
Cancelled (breaking an over 300 years streak of Assemblies)
There will be a service to install the new Moderator on May 16

General Assembly
Free Church of Scotland (Continuing)
18 May 2020
Edinburgh
The Assembly shall convene by teleconference and suspend the Assembly to reconvene on or about 6 October in Inverness

General Assembly
Free Church of Scotland
18-21 May 2020
~~Edinburgh~~
The Assembly will meet virtually this year with a single session the evening of Monday 18 May.

General Assembly
Presbyterian Church in Ireland
~~1-4 June 2020~~
~~Belfast~~
A Virtual meeting of the 2019 Assembly cancelled the 2020 Assembly – this is a break in a 180 year sting

87th General Assembly
Orthodox Presbyterian Church
~~3-9 June 2020~~
~~Eastern University~~
~~St. Davids, Pennsylvania~~
The 87th General Assembly has been postponed and will now convene on 2 June 2021

146th General Assembly
Presbyterian Church in Canada
~~7-11 June 2020~~
~~Wilfrid Laurier University~~
~~Waterloo, Ontario~~
The Assembly has been cancelled.

145th General Assembly
Cumberland Presbyterian Church in America
~~7-12 June 2020~~ – Rescheduled 27 June – 2 July, 2021
Louisville, Kentucky
Concurrent with the Cumberland Presbyterian Church

190th General Assembly
Cumberland Presbyterian Church
~~7-12 June 2020~~ – Rescheduled 27 June – 2 July, 2021
Louisville, Kentucky
Concurrent with Cumberland Presbyterian Church in America

216th Stated Meeting of the General Synod
Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church
~~9-11 June 2020~~ – Rescheduled 18-21 August 2020
Bonclarken Conference Center
Flat Rock, North Carolina

General Assembly
United Free Church of Scotland
~~10 June 2020~~
Perth
The Meeting has been cancelled

48th General Assembly
Presbyterian Church in America
~~15-19 June 2020~~
~~Birmingham~~
Postponed to 29 June – 2 July 2021

224th General Assembly
Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)
~~20-27 June 2020~~
~~Baltimore~~
Will be held on-line with plenaries on June 19, 26, and 27

General Assembly
Presbyterian Church of Queensland
Including the Presbytery of South Australia
~~22 June 2020~~ – Rescheduled for September202 0, date pending
Brisbane Boys’ College
Brisbane

40th General Assembly
Evangelical Presbyterian Church
~~23-26 June 2020~~
Hope Church, Cordova, TN
Rescheduled to September 17-18, 2020

189th Synod
Reformed Presbyterian Church of North America
~~23-26 June 2020~~
~~Indiana Wesleyan University~~
~~Marion, Indiana~~
Cancelled as of 30 April

N.S.W. State Assembly
Presbyterian Church of Australia
in the State of New South Wales
13 July 2020 (begins)
Presbyterian Ladies’ College
Croydon, N.S.W.

Reformed Presbyterian International Conference
28 July to 3 August 2020
Indiana Wesleyan University
Marion, Indiana
Not an assembly or synod but a significant quadrennial gathering of Reformed Presbyterians
At this time still accepting reservations but may be cancelled shortly

Convocation of Sessions
Vanguard Presbytery
30 July 2020
Stephens Valley Church
Nashville, Tennessee
A meeting that is part of the development of a new denomination

84th General Synod
Bible Presbyterian Church
6-10 August 2020
Bible Presbyterian Church, Grand Island, NY

General Assembly
Presbyterian Church of Victoria
5 – 8 October 2020

General Assembly
Presbyterian Church of Aotearoa New Zealand
~~7-11 October 2020~~
Lindisfarne College
Hastings
(biennial)
The Assembly has been postponed until October 2021

113th General Assembly
Presbyterian Church in Western Australia
23 October 2020 (begins)
St. Columba’s Church, Peppermint Grove

So that’s the list 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.

I will again reference the series of articles I wrote as an introduction to Presbyterian General Assemblies eight 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

So GA Junkies, this is a very different season. By my count, there are currently seven Assemblies or Synods that are still on as scheduled, seven that appear to be postponed to later in the year, two to happen by videoconference approximately as scheduled (not counting electronic meetings to decently and in order reschedule the meeting), and twelve that appear to be cancelled/rescheduled for next year. I am still collecting info and some of the later ones may yet be rescheduled as well. We will see.

So with that, I pray that you stay safe and healthy at this time and may it pass quickly. And for the hard-core GA Junkies out there may the withdrawal symptoms not be too bad and may you find something else to do to fill the time.

And finally, with the prospect of video GA’s coming up, I will start working on a Bingo Card for the occasion. Let me know if you have one and I will share all that I find.

So stay decent and in order my friends.

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

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.)

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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.

Starting 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.

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