Tag Archives: General Assembly

Short comments

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A few quick observations on the CofS GA over the last 24 hours:

They have started podcasting and having available the Rev. Douglas Aitken’s updates on the GA.  The podcast is linked from the GA Live page, the direct link to the updates is: (link no longer active)
http://stream1.churchofscotland.org.uk/generalassembly/ga06dailynewsupdates.php
(The start page is available on the Internet Archive but the media is not archived)

For the celebration of the Lord’s Supper this morning among the silver plates and chalices used were ones from churches which had been dissolved.  A nice tribute to the “host of witnesses” in my opinion.

In the afternoon debate on properties there were a couple of recurring issues.  One was the balance of individual churches keeping older manses which were more expensive to keep up but would last longer (typically traditional stone homes) versus newer structures which were cheaper in the short run but would need replacement sooner.  The other was a push to have church buildings use “green” energy including wind, solar, and ground pumped heat.

Blessings
Steve

Current debate in GA

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The Church of Scotland (CofS) GA just wrapped up a debate on the structure of the national church and the role that presbyteries play.  The petition before the GA was to give presbyteries more authority in the reorganized structure of the CofS and weaken the power, especially regarding monetary issues, of the central structure.  The discussion touched on all the usual issues about connectionalism and what it means to be presbyterian.

An amended version of the petition was rejected in a close vote.  (How close I am trying to find out since my web streaming crashed right then.)

Quiet day for Church of Scotland General Assembly

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After the opening formalities yesterday today is a quiet day, business-wise, for the GA. As far as I can tell, no new press releases, news updates, or podcasts have been issued. I’ll keep watching. The most recent press release, issued just before GA convened, talks about GA authorizing a full report by their Church and Society Council on Israel and Palestine. The six key principles of the report going into it seem fairly straight forward: condemnation of terrorism and violence, the right of Israel to exist, the right of the Palestinian people to self-determination, the unique status of Jerusalem as a “thrice Holy City,” condemnation of statements by individuals or countries inconsistent with these principles, and a call for countries and international agencies to work with the parties to restart negotiations. The report would be presented at the next GA.

The press release can be found here: (link now broken)
http://www.churchofscotland.org.uk/news/nrga300506.htm

Church of Scotland GA

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Need your GA fix and the PC(USA) GA is still three weeks away?

If you want to get warmed up the Church of Scotland convened at 10AM this morning Edinburgh time.  For those of us in North America the time difference is a bit of a problem.  But they deal with many of the same issues all of us in the Presbyterian family have to face.  And, they web cast live and this year podcast.  For info on their web media go to the link below, and enjoy.  I’ll add commentary as the week progresses.

Church of Scotland GA Go Live! Page (Link broken)
http://www.churchofscotland.org.uk/generalassembly/galive.htm

Presbyterian Church in Canada Moderator Elect first elder to serve

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Hi there fellow junkies,
Caught this one on a news feed.  The moderator elect of the PC in Canada will be the first elder to serve as moderator of GA.  We in the PC(USA) have been used to Elders as moderator of GA for a while now.

Here is an article from the Toronto Sun: http://torontosun.com/Lifestyle/2006/04/30/1557516-sun.html (link is now broken)

Upcoming General Assemblies

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At this time I am aware of the following upcoming GA’s.  I know the first two will be webcast.
[Note: Some links were updated to generic links for the GA when sites were restructured and links were broken.]

Church of Scotland – May 20 to May 26, 2006, Edinburgh
For more info: http://www.churchofscotland.org.uk/about_us/general_assembly
(Link has aged out)

Presbyterian Church (USA) 217th GA – June 15 to June 22, 2006, Birmingham, Alabama
For more info:  http://www.pcusa.org/ga217/

Presbyterian Church in Canada 132nd GA – Begins June 4, 2006, St. Catharines, Ontario
For more info:  http://www.presbyterian.ca/

Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church 202nd Meeting of the General Synod – June 6 to June 8, 2006, location ?
For more info:  http://www.arpsynod.org/synod2006.html
(Link has aged out)

Presbyterian Church in Ireland – June 5 to ?, 2006, Location ?
For more info:  http://www.presbyterianireland.org/About-Us/Structure-Leadership/General-Assembly

Cumberland Presbyterian Church  – Birmingham, Alabama
For more info:  http://www.cumberland.org/gao/

Presbyterian Church in America 34th GA – June 20 to June 23, 2006, Atlanta, Georgia
For more info:  http://www.pcaac.org/2006%20General%20Assembly/06index.htm

Evangelical Presbyterian Church 26th GA – June 21 to June 24, 2006, Rome Georgia
For more info:  http://www.epc.org/general-assembly/upcoming-assembly.html

Orthodox Presbyterian Church 73rd GA – June 21 to June 28, 2006, Palos Heights, Illinois
For more info:  http://www.opc.org/ga.html

Reformed Presbyterian Church of North America 2006 Synod – June 26 to June 30, 2006, Geneva College, Beaver Falls, PA
I have found no specific info on the Synod
Denomination web site:  http://www.reformedpresbyterian.org

Bible Presbyterian Church 70th General Synod – August 3 to August 8, 2006, Grand Island, New York
For more info:  http://www.bpc.org/synod/index.html

Presbyterian Church of Australia, Next General Assembly Meeting on Monday September 10th, Scots Church, Sydney
For more info:  http://www.presbyterian.org.au/