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Standing for Moderator of the General Assembly: Ruth Santana-Grace & Shavon Starling-Louis

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There is plenty of information regarding the two teams standing for Co-Moderators of the 225th General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). The GA website includes a Moderator Candidates page as well as the traditional booklet that includes the questions and answers to a variety of questions. For these posts, I will give a brief introduction to each team but will focus mostly on the answers to the official questions.

Unbounced We Thrive logo – From their Facebook page

The second team listed is Ruth Santana-Grace and Shavon Starling-Louis. Their theme is “Unbounded We Thrive” and the components of the theme are the Theology of Calling, Theology of the Table, and Theology of Flourishing. Much more of their material and discussion of the components can be found on their Unbounded We Thrive website, Facebook page, Instagram stream, and Twitter feed.

The Rev. Ruth Santana-Grace is currently serving as the Executive Presbyter of Philadelphia Presbytery. Previously she served as the Executive Presbyter of San Gabriel Presbytery and as an Associate Pastor at First Presbyterian Church, Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. Before her journey to ordained ministry, she had a career in public policy and international relations that included serving as Director of The Bridge Association in Rome, Italy. That time included not just international relations but ecumenical relations as well. Her service to the national church includes eight years on the Presbyterian Foundation Board and twelve years on the Princeton Theological Seminary Board.

The Rev. Shavon Starling-Louis is currently serving as the Pastor and Head of Staff at Memorial Presbyterian Church, Charlotte, North Carolina. Her previous calls include Providence Presbyterian Church, Rhode Island, First Presbyterian Church, Midwest City, OK and Meadowlake Presbyterian Church, NC. As she says in her brief bio information in the Booklet she “Discovered [her] call to ordained ministry working as church office administrator, campus ministry intern, and ecumenical community organizing office administrator.” She earned an M.Div. from Columbia Theological Seminary. Shavon has served in a number of leadership capacities on the national level including as Co-Creative Director for worship at GA 225.

For the booklet, the candidates were asked to answer the first four questions and any two of the additional five questions. Both Ruth and Shavon contributed to the answers of the six questions for the Booklet.

For the first question about helping the church journey from Lament to Hope Ruth emphasizes that lament is as old as human history and at this time our lament reflects the time in a pandemic as well as the current racism, economic injustice, poverty and increased violence. But the circumstances allow us to join our voices together in lament and “join God on the journey of redemption and restoration.” Shavon also reflects the theme of journey but begins by naming it as a spiritual journey from lament to hope. She goes on to say:

In lament, our bodies testify to the impact of suffering upon us. Holding space in our spirits, minds, and bodies to truly lament is an act of faithful hope. It trusts that we are
safe enough to outwardly share what is inwardly real.

Shavon concludes that question with the image of Jesus Christ calling us to new life like he called Lazerus.

The second question reflects on what the Co-Moderators do between the Assemblies to interpret the actions of the Assembly. Shavon begins and includes the comment that “The ambassadorial responsibilities of the office of Moderator of the General Assembly reflect our shared Christian vocation to show up and listen to each other’s
stories.” And she invokes one of their themes – the Theology of the Table – about how we need to gather together “literally and virtually.” Ruth echos the idea of sharing stories and how in the present season she sees the Theology of Flourishing where worshipping communities work from what they have and not out of scarcity. As Co-Moderators they need to “carry that joy and hope into our many sacred conversations and engagements.”

The third question asks “How can the 225th General Assembly (2022) be a sign of hope to the city and the whole church?” Ruth talks about how the Biblical narrative involves many urban centers and how her ministry has happened in many large urban centers. She concludes by saying “God is at work – redeeming the city as the place of new life and resurrection hope.” Shavon takes a different approach and boldly begins:

I appreciate this question but I think it is really important to acknowledge that GA is not happening in Louisville, but actually happening everywhere the commissioners, advisory delegates, and observers find themselves which includes Louisville but also many other locations – cities, towns, unincorporated lands where violence and injustice exists as well.

But she does circle back and later adds “There are many ways in which the time spent in Louisville is a huge opportunity for the PCUSA to listen and learn from this vibrant, evolving, lamenting and hopeful community and take it with us.”

The fourth question essentially asks “how do we be church in the new normal?” As we move on from these times what happens now? Ruth begins and includes in her opening “In a seismic-like movement, we pivoted from our traditional seven deadly words – “we never did it that way before” – to embracing seven words of determination – “we must find a way to witness.” She goes on to talk about how the pandemic forced technological change on churches large and small and all of those in ministry. As she says later, “…there’s no going back.” Shavon starts off with “Reformed and always reforming” but affirms that the call to love God remains and the call to love people remains. In her conclusion, she talks about how the church found a way through it. It was faithful, we started anew and often it came out better than we thought it would. “We found grace. Grace found us. Grace that allows us to love God and God’s creation.”

The first optional question they chose was Question 5: How can the church community make room for all people to share their stories of faith? How can we listen to the stories of people who are not in the church? In her answer, Shavon first invokes the Theology of the Table as the place to listen, be it the sacraments or gathered around the table for Bible study. Or maybe even virtual tables. But turning to the internet there are also lots of stories of faith out there to be heard. Ruth begins by saying:

As I consider this question, perhaps a place to start would be to reframe what we understand as stories of faith. I grew up unaware I had a story of faith. My story didn’t fit into the image I had of what that meant. I thought a story of faith needed to be framed with biblical language. It took me too many years before realizing and claiming my story. My story is framed by everyday struggles and language.

Finally, they chose to answer Question 6: Suggestions for developing faithful leadership? Shavon begins by talking about the Theology of Calling and how they see everyone being called to something and in that calling to service a call to leadership. Ruth echoes those ideas and talks about the preparation of pastoral leaders so they are equipped to identify and prepare those in the church for various callings in the church and in the community.

This information is but a brief summary of the material on the Candidates Page and the Moderator Candidate Booklet. I encourage you to check those out for more detailed information and answers.

And now for my disclaimer: I do not endorse candidates for Moderator or Co-Moderator on this blog, but I need to let you know that Ruth is a friend of mine and we worked closely in the past. In fact, I was installed as Presbytery Moderator at the same meeting she was installed as Executive Pastor. I do not have the same background on the other candidates but from my knowledge of Ruth I have every confidence in her ability to serve as Co-Moderator of the General Assembly.

The election of the Co-Moderators begins at about 8 PM Eastern Time this evening (Saturday, June 18). Stay tuned and we will see what happens. I intend to have a review post of the election up later this evening.

Standing for Moderator of the General Assembly: Josefina Ahumada and Marilyn McKelvey Tucker-Marek

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There is plenty of information regarding the two teams standing for Co-Moderators of the 225th General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). The GA website includes a Moderator Candidates page as well as the traditional booklet that includes the questions and answers to a variety of questions. For these posts, I will give a brief introduction to each team but will focus mostly on the answers to the official questions.

The first team listed is Josefina Ahumada and Marilyn McKelvey Tucker-Marek. In their material, they are headlining their team as “Fina & Marilyn”, including on their team Facebook Page. Their tagline is “Rooted in Community – Inspired by the Spirit.”

Fina & Marilyn logo – From their Facebook page

Josefina “Fina” Ahumada is a member of Southside Presbyterian Church of Tucson, Arizona and serves as a Commissioned Ruling Elder in the Presbytery de Cristo. She grew up and went to college in Los Angeles where she earned a Masters of Social Work. She has worked in that field in a number of different settings including as a faculty member at Arizona State University. She also applies this in her work with Southside as a facilitator for the worker center steering committee and as one of the founding members of the day labor program. As a Commissioned Ruling Elder she serves as the moderator and pulpit supply for Papago United Presbyterian Church on the Native American Tohono O’odham reservation, and moderator for First Presbyterian Church in Silver City, New Mexico. She has severed as the moderator of the presbytery and on multiple presbytery committees. She also serves as chair for the Synod of the Southwest Hispanic Ministries Coordinating Committee.

The Rev. Marilyn McKelvey Tucker-Marek was born in Fort Myers and grew up there and in Montgomery, Alabama. She was ordained a ruling elder at the age of 17 and over the next few years discerned her call to ministry. After completing her M.Div. at Columbia Theological Seminary she was called to Forsyth Presbyterian Church in Forsyth, Georgia. From there she was the founding pastor for the UKirk Ministry at Mercer University where she continues to serve. She has served as the moderator of the Flint River Presbytery and on various presbytery committees.

For the booklet, the candidates were asked to answer the first four questions and any two of the additional five questions.

Fina wrote the answer to the first question about helping the church journey from Lament to Hope. She emphasized the church as a community, and the strengths of Presbyterians as adaptive, learning and growing. She concludes with this:

The beauty of our Presbyterian experience is our call to work with one another as community. The organizational model of single-figure, top-down leadership, which is so often used in the greater society is largely obsolete. In our church experience, we have learned that by being in community with one another, we nourish one another and emerge as adaptive leaders who have the capacity for transformational ministry and missional work.

The second question reflects on what the Co-Moderators do between the Assemblies to interpret the actions of the Assembly. Marilyn reflects on this and how she and Fina represent the majority of the church today coming from small church settings. She says “We believe the skills, gifts, vitality, and witness of smaller communities have the power to inspire and guide congregations and ministries of any size.”

The third question asks “How can the 225th General Assembly (2022) be a sign of hope to the city and the whole church?” In answer to this Fina relates her first-hand experience with the 1965 Watts Riots and as part of her answer she invokes the words of John Lewis and says “Being present in community is following Jesus’ incarnational approach. We connect and we engage not for the purpose of filling the pews but rather to stir up ‘good trouble’ to stir up radical hope.”

The fourth question essentially asks “how do we be church in the new normal?” As we move on from these times what happens now? Marilyn begins with “The church is the same in every age, for Christ promises, ‘Where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there among them.’ (Matthew 18:20) And, ‘we, who are many, are one body in Christ, and individually we are members one of another.’ (Romans 12:5)” After relating some of the experiences of the last two years she concludes by saying that the Church is still here and over this time we have developed a new set of skills and have learned new things about the communities we are a part of.

The first optional question they chose was Question 5: How can the church community make room for all people to share their stories of faith? How can we listen to the stories of people who are not in the church? Marilyn begins by pointing out that our polity is a strength here as Presbyterians believe that decisions are best made in groups listening to each other and our councils should bring together a group of people with diverse backgrounds that can listen to each other. And she shares her experience and work making campus ministry a “judgement-free zone.”

Finally, Fina responds to Question 7: How do dialogue and witness help Presbyterians support those of other religious traditions who are targeted with hate speech and acts of violence? She starts by pointing out that Presbyterians have a long history of interfaith dialogue on which to build. But further, she talks about the need for social empathy – where we point ourselves in others’ shoes. “Our ability to walk in another’s shoes is critical to building relationships.”

This information is but a brief summary of the material on the Candidates Page and the Moderator Candidate Booklet. I encourage you to check those out for more detailed information and answers.

The election of the Co-Moderators begins at 8 PM Eastern Time this evening (Saturday, June 18). I will have the post reviewing the second Co-Moderator team published later this afternoon.

225th General Assembly Of The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)

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We are hitting the peak of the GA Season this coming week having just finished an interesting week with the 218th General Synod of the Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church and the 88th General Assembly of the Orthodox Presbyterian Church. I regret not previewing each of those but life has gotten busy at the moment. I hope to get some review comments posted for each in the next couple of weeks.

But the week ahead is the busiest of the GA Season with four major Assemblies happening at the same time including the Presbyterian Church in Ireland, the Evangelical Presbyterian Church, and the largest of the GA’s, the Presbyterian Church in America. But the first one to convene will be the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) and so we turn our attention to that now.

The 225th General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), is set to convene at 11 AM Eastern Time on Saturday, June 18 with worship. But this will be a most unique Assembly as it will stretch over three weeks in a mixed format. The opening plenaries will be hybrid, for reasons I will explain in a moment, and then there are two weeks of in-person committee meetings. This will be followed by a week of virtual plenary meetings with the Assembly to conclude on the afternoon of Saturday, July 9. The good news for the GA Junkies is that it will all be live-streamed. (But do you want four computers going to track all the committee action?)

The meeting will be held in Louisville at the Presbyterian Center which has undergone a renovation to have the infrastructure to host this meeting. One of the topics for discussion and decision at this meeting is whether to continue with this design or go back to the regular rotation and meet in Salt Lake City in two years as previously planned.

So, here is the schedule breakdown for the next three weeks:

  • There are 16 topical commissioner committees plus the Bills and Overtures Committee. The topical committees are divided into four groups which will each meet in person for three days. The committee groups will meet June 20-22, June 23-25, June 27-29, and June 30-July 2.
  • The GA will convene on June 18 in hybrid form with the members of the first committee group present in-person so as to constitute a quorum. This will permit the Assembly to change the standing rules to allow for electronic meetings of the Assembly. From there plenary sessions can fully meet in hybrid or virtual meetings. As electronic meetings were not authorized two years ago, the new Assembly will have to ratify all actions of the 224th General Assembly from 2020.
  • On Saturday evening the election of the Co-Moderators will be held with the election process scheduled to begin at 8 PM Eastern Time. There are only two Co-Moderator teams standing for election so there should be a result on the first ballot. I hope to post some info on the teams tomorrow.
  • As stated above, the next two weeks will be the in-person meetings of the commissioner committees. Besides the initial closed orientation and team-building sessions, all meetings of the committees will be live-streamed. And overture advocates and individuals wishing to speak during open hearings will be doing so virtually.
  • Beginning July 5 and going through the adjournment on July 9 the plenary meetings will be held and these will be completely virtual for the commissioners and advisory delegates.
  • As always there are a number of additional events including worship and the celebration of Juneteenth on Sunday, June 19. There will also be the Hands and Feet event on the evening of July 7 focusing on cash bail and social justice.

As usual, the source for information on all the business is the online PC-Biz system. For almost everything else there is the GA Home Page. This includes the preliminary general docket, the news feed, and the information on the two teams standing for Co-Moderators. The Home Page is also the starting point for live streaming and the live streaming will also be available on the Spirit of GA Facebook page.

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 current Standing Rules of the General Assembly are available, although as noted above there will be an initial amendment to them. In addition, there is a commissioner committee to consider possible changes to them so we can expect some changes in place at the end of the meeting.

The theme for this Assembly is again “From Lament to Hope” originally based upon Lamentations 5:20-21. For this Assembly the core scripture passage is Hebrews
11:1 – “Faith is the reality of what we hope for, the proof of what we don’t see.” (CEB) The theme will be reflected in both the online Bible Studies and the regular worship services.

To follow the action on official Twitter feeds the PC(USA) does have a general Twitter account (@Presbyterian) but during the Assembly, the official General Assembly feed (@presbyGA) provides more play-by-play. There is also the Presbyterian News Service on Twitter (@PresbyNews). The hashtag for the meeting is #ga225.

News items will appear on the GA225 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) although it has not been active with this moderator team and for the Stated Clerk (@PCUSAstatedclrk) as well as J. Herbert Nelson’s individual account (@jherbertnelson). Watch the #GA225 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. And as in past years, I will be doing some writing for the Outlook as well and my preview article on the business of the Health, Safety and Benefits Committee is available online. For the polity wonks, there are some proposed Book of Order amendments before that committee that raise interesting basic polity questions. But on a bigger scale, the work of that committee may command more of the spotlight in the aftermath of the release of the Southern Baptist Convention Sexual Abuse Task Force Report.

There is a lot of business coming to this GA, especially since the vast majority of business headed to the last GA was referred to this one. There are overview articles on each committee and the business they will be considering on the GA News Feed and another one by Leslie Scanlon for the Presbyterian Outlook summarizing major issues for many of the committees in one article. In addition, a number of related groups have videos in the Riverside Conversations section about various items of business.

There are a plethora of issues related to social justice and public witness that are being considered by the various committees including committees looking at Environmental Justice, Race and Gender Justice and Addressing Violence in the USA. But regarding issues internal to the PC(USA), both the Moving Forward/Vision 2020 Committee and the General Assembly Entity Policies and Procedures Committee have some significant business regarding the structure of the PC(USA) at the national level. The Theology, Worship and Education Committee will be considering three requests for a new confession, all concerned with topics that are current and social justice-related, but each with a different approach. And finally, one committee is concerned exclusively with the revised Rules of Discipline section of the Book of Order to make final preparations for it to be sent to the presbyteries for approval.

Finally, I expect this summary to be a living document over the couple of weeks and I will update it at various points throughout the Assembly as systems and patterns develop.

So it will be an interesting GA in the hybrid assembly hall. We pray for patience for all involved as technology is navigated, technical glitches confronted, and time will be at a premium at times.

With all that going on we offer our prayers for the commissioners, advisory delegates and 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 meeting. 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

General Assembly Of The Free Church Of Scotland 2022

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As General Assembly week continues in Edinburgh, we move on to the next Assembly, the 179th General Assembly of the Free Church of Scotland.

Free Church of Scotland Logo

The meeting began this evening, Monday 23 May, at 6 pm at St. Columba’s Free Church in Edinburgh with worship, the installation of the new Moderator, the Rev Iver Martin, and a few pieces of initial business.

To step back from the GA for a moment, I wanted to mention an article I saw over the weekend from the Anglican Network. It is an op-ed piece by John Hayward which looks at “Growth, Decline, and Extinction of U.K. Churches.” The prospects for many older denominations in the U.K. is not good, as he discusses, and early in the article he says this:

All [denominations] bar two of the pre-1900 churches in this set are declining. Only the Free Church of Scotland and Seventh Day Adventists are growing. By contrast, all the post-1900 churches are growing[5]. Have the older churches gone stale? Do the newer ones still retain some of the fire of their founders?

An interesting piece of context to contemplate as we move through GA season and relevant to this specific Assembly.

The meeting will be live-streamed for our viewing pleasure, both on the Free Church website and on their YouTube channel. The 2022 General Assembly Reports volume is available as a PDF document. And there is a schedule available.

For the polity wonks, the Acts of the Assembly can be found at the bottom of the General Assembly page and there is an online version of “Church Practice and Procedure – Free Church of Scotland.”

To follow along on social media you should be checking the official Free Church Facebook page as well as their Twitter feed @freechurchscot. The host church can be followed at @stcsfreechurch and the hashtag will be #fcga22, although sometimes tweets slip by with #fcga or #fcga2022. (At the time of writing none have.) The seminary, Edinburgh Theological Seminary (@ETS_Edinburgh). And I can add the Mission Initiative “Generation” which tweets occasionally at @GenerationM18. (Although this GA is requested to restructure their work for church planting and drop the Generation branding.)

And important happenings at the Assembly may have an article appear in the Newsfeed.

Regarding the business before the Assembly, there are a couple of interesting items that the Board of Trustees are bringing in their Supplementary Report. (Beginning on page 62.) One of these is a modification of the ordination and probationers questions and formula of subscription to “modernize the language and shorten the questions.” The Assembly will have to confirm that with the new wording the “fundamental principles” are not changed and if agreed to the new questions and formula will be sent to the presbyteries for their concurrence under the Barrier Act. The commissioners will also be asked to approve a process overview for the revision of the Church discipline to continue the process of revision. I note this in particular since the revision of church discipline will come up again in this GA season. For your information, here is the Process Overview flowchart from page 71 of the reports.

Church Discipline Process Overview from the 2022 Free Church of Scotland GA Reports

The other report that caught my attention was from the Board of Ministry (beginning on Page 72) and their work to clarify and define the training process for students. The deliverance contains an extensive list of definitions and a detailed list of expectations for those training for the ministry and the presbyteries and churches supporting them.

I would also note the report from the Committee on the Establishment Principle in the Twenty-First Century is an interim report and we can look forward to their more developed thoughts on this topic at a future Assembly.

So with that, we will keep this Assembly in our prayers and look forward to following along over the next few days. May your deliberations be guided by the Holy Spirit and the time productive for the advancement of The Kingdom. Best wishes to all.

Church of Scotland General Assembly 2022

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It is General Assembly week in Edinburgh and the meetings are returning to a more in-person format than in the past couple of years. And Saturday the first of the GA’s kicked off with the usual ritual and pageantry.

Saturday morning 21 May the 2022 General Assembly of the Church of Scotland convened in Edinburgh in a hybrid format with some commissioners joining virtually from around the world.

And in both the early press coverage as well as in the afternoon business it became clear that there is plenty of important business to be discussed in the week ahead. But more on that in a minute.

Church_of_Scotland_Logo

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

  • There will be live streaming of the proceedings and you can connect to the stream appropriate for your device from the livestream page.
  • Most of the Documents pertaining to the Assembly are linked from the General Assembly Publications page. This includes the Assembly Reports and Order of Proceedings volumes, known as the Blue Book, in several different electronic formats including the traditional PDF as well as EPUB format for your readers. There is also a Dyslexia-friendly version. The Reports and Order of Proceedings are available separately on the Publications page in all those formats as well. The Daily Papers will contain late-breaking changes and worship material and the first for Saturday through Thursday is posted. We can expect a second concluding one later in the week.
  • Individual reports and some additional documents can be found on the Reports and Additional Documents Page.
  • 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. There is also a Guide to the Assembly page that covers some of the basic actions and terminology.
  • There is a News Round up for the GA news items on the 2022 General Assembly Page.
  • There is an official photo gallery of the Assembly.

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. There is also the Kirk’s Instagram feed and YouTube channel. And the YouTube channel is now the place to watch the proceedings after they have happened and they have the meeting broken up into individual reports.

On Twitter, the starting point is the Kirk’s main feed at @churchscotland and the official hashtag #ga2022. There is an official account for the Moderator of the General Assembly, @churchmoderator, but during the Assembly, we will have to see how many opportunities there will be to tweet. The church’s official publication, Life and Work, is also a good source for information on the website, on Facebook and on their Twitter feed @cofslifeandwork. In addition, there is the individual account of the editor, Lynne McNeil, at @LifeWorkEditor, who does the most comprehensive live-tweeting of the Assembly. (As always – Thank You Lynne)

In suggesting personal accounts to follow, let me start with past Moderators of the General Assembly: To lead off there is a recent Moderator, the Very Reverend Martin Fair (@wmartinfair). Others include 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. Another is the Very Reverend Derek Browning at @DerekBrowning2. I will conclude with three other former Moderators who have Twitter accounts but have not been as active recently: the Very Reverend Susan Brown (@VicarofDornach), the Very Reverend Albert Bogle at @italker and the Very Reverend Angus Morrison (@angusmorrison6).

As for others following along and Tweeting about the Assembly let me start with Paul Middleton (@ProfPMiddleton) who is present and actively tweeting. Others appearing in the Twitter feed include Doug Gay (@douggay), Sue Cord (@sue_cord),and Daren Philip (@darphilip). One interesting contributor is Daniel Scott (@ScottDdscott), the Moderator of the Presbyterian Church in Canada and an Ecumenical Delegate. And a commissioner is tweeting at Live Tweeting the General Assembly of the COS (@church_scotland).

Concerning the business before the Assembly there is a nice summary of each report on the Life and Work website.

With a day and a half of business completed following the formal convening Saturday morning, a number of high profile items have been decided. In the Saturday afternoon session in the Report of the Assembly Trustees some decisions related to the reform of the church and the realignment and funding of presbyteries were debated. Some of that has been put off to the Faith Nurture report tomorrow, Tuesday. In addition, in a motion from the floor the Assembly asked the Trustees to take action regarding ministers in manses who face the issue of fuel poverty for houses owned by the church and not by them. The headline report this morning was the final affirmation of the ability for Kirk ministers and churches to preform same-sex marriages. This action has been developing for several years and since the last GA the necessary changes were approved by 29 of the 41 presbyteries. The Legal Questions committee brought it back to the GA for the final action and the Assembly concurred 274 to 136.

This afternoon the Assembly, as part of the Ecumenical Relations Committee report, the Assembly overwhelmingly approved a Declaration of Friendship between The Church of Scotland and the Catholic Church in Scotland. It has been proposed and tentatively accepted by the Catholic Archbishop to call it the Saint Margaret Declaration. This report was followed by the main report of the Theological Forum who brought to the Assembly a proposal to supplement the Westminster Standards with additional subsidiary standards in a Book of Confessions. While the Scots Confession was mentioned as a possible part of the new confessional collection, the Assembly approved the next step to study what should be included in the book. The Assembly also approved the creation of resources to help the office holders and others in the Kirk understand the confessional nature of the Reformed Faith. The Theological Forum will return with another report related to Creation Care as part of the Faith Impact Report tomorrow.

As has already been mentioned, tomorrow, Tuesday, will be a day with major business for the Kirk. It has been labeled in the schedule as the “Faith Action Plan Day.” This will include more business related to the reorganization of the church, particularly at the presbytery level, as well as the social witness of the church. The Faith Nurture Forum report includes a new Code of Practice for ministers as well as adjustments to recruiting and preparation of individuals for the various forms of ministry. The Supplemental Report and actions from Saturday will deal with adjustments and corrections to the allocations of ministers to presbyteries. The Faith Impact Forum will be addressing business related to Creation Care, including getting the church to Net-Zero carbon emissions by 2030. There is also business related to refugees, including those from Ukraine, and encouraging the the UK Government to work to get COVID vaccines to areas of the world that have not gotten adequate supplies.

Further down the week Wednesday is titled “Witness and Service Day” with reports by the Chaplains, Social Care Council, the Guild, and the Safeguarding Committee among others. The GA concludes on Thursday and as it looks back and looks forward so in addition to the business traditionally transacted as the Assembly concludes, there will be a time of looking at “Life in the New Presbyteries.”

GA 2022 Logo - See, I make all things new

So here we go. It has been an interesting Assembly already and while the next few days may not grab the headlines we have had so far, the business still to come is no less important to the future of the Kirk. We watch and pray for the commissioners and all involved in the meeting.

2021 General Assembly Of The Presbyterian Church In Ireland

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bush

The General Assembly Season continues with a regular GA that has been delayed from the usual week in the Spring.

Tomorrow morning in Belfast the Presbyterian Church in Ireland will convene their 2021 General Assembly in Belfast with a worship service and the installation of the Moderator, the Right Rev David Bruce. If the name sounds familiar, he was installed as Moderator in 2020 but without an Assembly to preside over. It was the consensus of the church that he should serve a second term thus giving him the opportunity to preside over an Assembly.

The Assembly runs through Wednesday 6 June in an Assembly Hall and an overflow conference room with socially distanced seating. There will be no in-house gallery with observers.

Here is some info to help follow along:

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, but don’t count on a lot during the Assembly itself. We will see if Mr. Bruce tweets during GA. The official hashtag for the Assembly is #pciga21. And it is worth keeping an eye on the PCI Facebook page as well. I would add at this point the church’s divinity school, Union Theological College (@UnionTCollege).

My list of others to watch for interesting and useful updates always starts with outside reporter and insightful commentator Alan in Belfast (@alaninbelfast). For following some of the active leadership of the church, I would point to former Moderator Rob Craig (@RobCraig54) and Cheryl Meban (@cherylmeban) who is a university chaplain and has been active on church committees. It is also worth watching the folks at PCIcast (@PCIcast) who do a podcast about the activities of the church. And so far David McCullagh (@wdsmccullagh) has popped up but others have been a bit quiet up to this point. I will be updating over the next day as things get rolling.

The business of the Assembly this year is extensive and for a better review, I would point you to the GA preview news article and the comments there by the Clerk of the General Assembly, the Rev Trevor Gribben. In particular, Tuesday will be a particularly busy day and that specific preview is available as well.

A couple items coming up Tuesday are an extension, or maybe better termed “fallout”, from the 2018 Assembly. One of these is the adoption of language of membership that referred to “a credible confession of faith” for admission to the Sacraments and pastoral guidance in relation to homosexuality. This was a term that caused some confusion and was used without substantial guidance as to what it meant. A task group is bringing a report on this (found in General Council Report – Section 2) which includes two resources on these areas that have already been reviewed by the presbyteries and revised by the task force.

This Section of the General Council Report also includes a resource on Human Identity from another task group which will certainly be closely watched as well.

Another important report from a task group reporting under the General Council Report (this in Section 3) looked at how the General Assembly operates and how controversial items are handled, especially when they are so actively discussed leading up to the GA. Their report on “Decision Making and Dissent within the Presbyterian Church of Ireland” outlines some additional discussion that can occur on the Presbytery level leading up to the Assembly as well as Assembly procedures during the meeting.

To get the 10,000-meter overview you might want to check out the Executive Summary in Section 1. It is important to note that the General Council Report (in four sections) makes up almost one-half of the whole Blue Book.

There is more in the General Council Report so it should be a full day. One other item in the spotlight ahead of the Assembly is the Council on Global Mission’s report including recommendations for a “divest and engage” policy regarding fossil fuels as well as a statement about “Reviewing PCI’s Investment Policy” that talks about the importance of creation care in the how the church invests its money.

There will be lots going on in the next three days and this will be an Assembly to watch closely. Our prayers are with the commissioners and leadership of the Assembly and the church for this meeting and the year ahead.

87th General Assembly Of The Orthodox Presbyterian Church

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The 87th General Assembly of the Orthodox Presbyterian Church will convene this evening, Wednesday, 7 July, at 7 PM Central Time on the campus of the Dordt University, Sioux Center, Iowa. The meeting will conclude by noon on Tuesday, 14 July. This represents the complete postponement of the 2020 Assembly.

This GA does not have live streaming but we usually have the next best thing: There is a tradition of very well done running daily reports for the OPC GA and in expecting the tradition to continue see if this works when the assembly gets underway.

The agenda and reports are not posted online but you can access the Book of Church Order and the Standing Rules and Instruments of GA if you need background material. There is also a collection of reports from previous GA’s that have become guidance for the church.

The OPC has elected to keep a perpetual hashtag for their meeting (no sticking a year or GA number in there) so it should once again be #OPCGA. In terms of who to follow, I can start with the OPC Twitter account (@OrthodoxPC) and the OPC Home Missions account (@opchomemissions). You can also follow them on their official Facebook page. For individuals tweeting there are already a number warming up for the meeting. It seems the mantle of the lead live tweeter has been handed to Jim Stevenson (@RevJimOPC) and David Mahaffy (@davidmahaffy) is in the building as well. It is probably worth keeping an eye on the Reformed Forum (@ReformedForum) crew including Camden Bucey (@CamdenBucey) and Jim Cassidy (@jjcassidy). While Forest Braden (@fbraden8) is active he advises us his contributions will not be from on-site. And other OPC related accounts to keep an eye on include D. G. Hart’s feed (@oldlife), maybe The Daily Genevan (@TheDailyGenevan), and an autoretweeter tied to one of their denominational associations, NAPARC. A couple other possibilities include Christopher Drew (@ChristopherDrew), Zach Siggins (@zachsiggins) and David Chism (@chismville). As always I will update as the meeting progresses.

Since reports and detailed agendas are not available to anyone but the commissioners, it is difficult to highlight any particular business items that will be coming to the Assembly in advance of it being considered on the floor. Keep an eye on the running report and maybe Twitter for info on what is being discussed. One tweet by Jim Stevenson does indicate that the GA “has 9 complaints on appeal and 4 appeals of judicial cases.”

So as this General Assembly gets underway, our prayers for the teaching and ruling elders of the OPC as they spend a week reflecting on what the Spirit is doing in their branch and their discernment of the future. May you indeed discern God’s will in your decision making.

[Editorial note: I did not forget about the PCA GA but due to family commitments the week got away from me. I am working on a review and commentary and hope to have it posted in a few days.]

41st General Assembly Of The Evangelical Presbyterian Church

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The 41st General Assembly of the Evangelical Presbyterian Church beginning today will be gathering at Second Presbyterian Church, in Memphis. Today, and most of Wednesday, there are workshops and classes as part of the annual Leadership Institute. Business sessions convene Wednesday afternoon, 23 June, and will continue through Friday afternoon, as needed.

Due to local capacity restrictions and COVID-19 protocols, the facility has a capacity for 400 commissioners, so the GA will be a hybrid event with both on-site and virtual participants. The Assembly will make the necessary adjustments to the Rules for Assembly to facilitate the arrangement.

The Assembly meeting will be live-streamed on the web and through the General Assembly app. This will include not just the business sessions but the plenary talks of the Leadership Institute.

There is a lot of information online, most linked through the Documents page and the GA 2021 page. Here are some of the links for information about Assembly business and operation:

As for social media, there is a bit of that out there. There is a Facebook page for the EPC that is currently being updated regularly with Leadership Institute and Assembly items. The official EPC Twitter feed is @EPChurch and the active official hashtag (#epc2021ga) has sprung to life. There are other official but inactive Twitter accounts for EPC Student Ministries (@EPCStudentMin), EPC World Outreach (@EPCWO) and the Stated Clerk Jeff Jeremiah (@Jeff_Jeremiah ) so not much to follow there.

As for individuals, based on the lead-up to the GA we can expect coverage from Zach Hopkins (@Zhop59) and Joey Sherrard (@jhsherrard) has checked in as well. There is also activity from a former Moderator Case Thorp (@casethorp) and my friend Brandon Queen (@BQPhotos). There is an account from the host church that might provide helpful information (@2pcmemphis). And maybe we will see a bit more color and correction from Decent & In Order (@Decent_Orderly) although he has been quiet since the last EPC GA. I will update you here as the meeting progresses.

The theme of the Assembly is “God Will Restore,” based on Joel 2:25-27. The theme will be reflected in the worship services throughout the meetings.

There is a good summary of all the action items coming to the Assembly this year. A couple of items of business stand out. One that caught my eye was an overture from the Presbytery of the Mid-Atlantic that it be divided into three new presbyteries. Another is a report by the Theology Committee that addresses the definition and meaning of the terms “connectional” and “connectionalism.” The report concludes with this statement:

“Perhaps the best definition of connectionalism in the EPC can be found in Book of Government 5-6A. In this section, any church seeking entry into the EPC must affirm that ‘[T]he congregation and its governing body have concurred in the request, and have agreed to walk together as a church, based upon the faith and government of the Evangelical Presbyterian Church, to be faithful to one another, to the Lordship of Jesus Christ, to the support of the whole Church, to be obedient to the order and doctrines of our faith, submitting themselves to the government and discipline of the Church, and promising to promote its purity and peace‘ [emphasis added].”

It will be an interesting week and we wish the EPC commissioners well and we will be lifting them up in our prayers as they meet.

146th General Assembly Of The Presbyterian Church In Canada

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It is now the month of June and the General Assembly Season is about to get busy. First up, the 2021 General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in Canada is underway. It convened yesterday with worship and the installation of their new Moderator. And it is being held online this year after being canceled last year.

The meeting will continue through Wednesday 9 June 2021.

A few things to know to help follow along:

The theme for the meeting is “Do Not Fear, I Am With You”.

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 #pccga2021. And maybe there will be pictures on the PC Connect Flickr feed although an online Assembly is not as photogenic as an in-person one.

The Twitter traffic is fairly light so far, but a bit of traffic including from Daniel Scott the new Moderator (@ScottDdscott). In addition, his congregation St John’s Bradford West Gwillimbury (@StJohnsBWG) and his son Jonathan Scott (@J_Scott_) have been tweeting. Pleased to see that another GA veteran John Borthwick (@jborthwik) is tweeting. And some commenting from Kristine O’Brian (@bloomingrev) and John Borthwick’s congregation St. Andrew’s Guelph (@standrewsguelph).

Over the last few years, the continuing discussion has been on human sexuality and what path the church is going to take. The process towards inclusion has been moving forward and there has been a team crisscrossing the country that has been listening to stories from those in the church. They will be reporting and it is anticipated that apologies will be adopted.

In related actions, the Bills and Overtures committee reports there are 30 overtures related to Gracious DIsmissal from churches concerned with the direction of the denomination. The recommendation from Bills and Overtures is that they be referred to the Assembly Council, in consultation with the Clerks of Assembly.

The other topic which is currently in the news is the history of the residential schools some of which were run by the Presbyterian Church. The Assembly will include times of apology and lament for that history.

So prayers and best wishes for the members of the 146th General Assembly and as they address issues so difficult, but so important to the future witness of the church. May you indeed be guided by the Holy Spirit in these substantive matters of witness and ministry.

Church of Scotland General Assembly 2021

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It is General Assembly week in Edinburgh.. well, sort of in Edinburgh.

A few hours from now, on Saturday morning 22 May the 2021 General Assembly of the Church of Scotland will convene in Edinburgh and around the world virtually. The meeting will be “blended” with some activity in the Assembly Hall, primarily with the major players, and most of the commissioners attending online.

That being said, the meeting is no less significant as there are a couple of major items of business before the Assembly this year.

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

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. There is also the Kirk’s Instagram feed and YouTube channel.

On Twitter, the starting point is the Kirk’s main feed at @churchscotland and the official hashtag #ga2021. (And be alert – there is an event called Gamers Assembly that is using the same hashtag so don’t be surprised at the first-person shooter video(s)) There is an official account for the Moderator of the General Assembly, @churchmoderator, but during the Assembly, we will have to see how many opportunities there will be to tweet. The church’s official publication, Life and Work, is also a good source for information on the website, on Facebook and on their Twitter feed @cofslifeandwork. In addition, there is the individual account of the editor, Lynne McNeil, at @LifeWorkEditor, who does the most comprehensive live-tweeting of the Assembly.

In suggesting personal accounts to follow, let me start with past Moderators of the General Assembly: To lead off there is the current Moderator who will shortly be the Very Reverend Martin Fair (@wmartinfair). Others include the Very Reverend Susan Brown (@VicarofDornach) as well as 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. Another is the Very Reverend Derek Browning at @DerekBrowning2. I will conclude with two other former Moderators who have Twitter accounts but have not been as active recently: the Very Reverend Albert Bogle at @italker and the Very Reverend Angus Morrison (@angusmorrison6).

As for others following along and Tweeting about the Assembly let me start with two of my regular recommendations, Peter Nimmo (@peternimmo1) and Doug Gay (@douggay). To that, I would add Paul Middleton (@ProfPMiddleton) and Daren Philip (@darphilip). Finally, for the moment, I will add Sue Cord (@sue_cord), Alistair May (@alistairmay), and Susan Pym (@susan_pym).

I should also note that this year the Queen’s representative to the Assembly, the Lord High Commissioner, is a member of the Royal Family and the first grandchild to hold the position – Prince William the Earl of Strathearn (his Scottish title). There is coverage of the appointment from the Church of Scotland and the Royal Family. He will be attending in person and addressing the Assembly from the Assembly Hall. He will also be undertaking the traditional tour of Scotland. No stranger to the area, he is a graduate of St. Andrews University. You can follow his work on the official Twitter account at @KensingtonRoyal and the account has already been covering his activities in Scotland.

Concerning the business before the Assembly there is a nice summary of each report on the Life and Work website. In addition, each of the conveners has recorded their speech for streaming during the Assembly.

And once again, Scott Paget is doing some heavy lifting for us. He has his series of posts on his blog Reading the Blue Book, now the 2021 edition.  He breaks down reports from the Blue Book individually with his comments. You can follow him on Twitter at @smpaget.

The challenge of how to reform the church to remain viable for the future has been an ongoing issue for the Kirk, especially over the last three years. One of the pieces of this has been the Special Commission on the Effectiveness of the Presbyterian Form of Church Government. As part of the restructuring of the Church of Scotland, they will be presenting their final report. It has discussion points regarding the local churches, presbyteries, and the national organization and the deliverance asks that the questions be sent out to all of them for discussion and feedback. There are no proposed changes to the form of government at this time, but a couple of interesting sections of the report:

[T]he Special Commission made a conscious decision not to undertake a detailed comparison of other ecclesial governance models. Contact with and experience of other forms of church government has shown that what is true of Presbyterianism is true of other ecclesiologies. All systems have strengths and weaknesses. Depending on the actions, attitudes and competencies of the people who work within them, all can foster innovation and creativity, and all can equally be prey to inertia and caution. Our task is not to reshape the Church of Scotland into the
likeness of another denomination.

Section 1.33

And the conclusion of the introduction:

The Special Commission wonders if a continuing preoccupation with fixing structures will detract from the work of mission and of being the Church in our communities, nation and world. Whether we tinker with our structures or take much more radical action, the ultimate proof of our effectiveness is not in the machinery of our governance (though to ignore that machinery entirely would be a mistake; we need structures that work). The ultimate proof of our effectiveness is the depth of our personal and corporate devotion to God, the provision of regular opportunity for meaningful worship and the promotion and supporting of mission, provided by local congregations, regional bodies, and the national Church. Our focus has to take into account the ‘what’ of our governance; but this must not take away from the ‘why’ and ‘how’ of what it means for us to be people of ‘The Way’ in the twenty-first century.

Section 1.38

The Special Commission report is scheduled for the first half of Monday afternoon.

Another report related to the restructuring is that of the General Trustees who are looking at the future of the church’s land and buildings. In one line it says ‘there can no longer be an assumption that any building can survive without a critical assessment of its contribution to the future mission of the Church’. Similarly, the report of the Assembly Business Committee talks about their work to streamline the General Assembly and they are proposing a change to reduce the number of commissioners to the Assembly, an action which must be approved by the presbyteries under the Barrier Act. The Assembly Business Committee reports on Saturday morning and the General Trustees on Thursday afternoon.

In one of the more closely watched business items the Legal Questions Committee is bringing an action, requiring presbytery concurrence, to permit a Minister of Word and Sacrament or a Deacon to apply to be authorized to officiate a same-sex marriage. (Polity note: for American readers the office of Deacon, while carrying the same description of one of caring and tending the flock, is a professional position like the position of pastor.) On another note, they outline their work on rewriting the polity of the church courts (i.e. governing bodies or judicatories) and give notice they will bring new material next year. The Legal Questions Committee is scheduled to report on Monday afternoon.

Finally, one of the items I have been keeping an eye on is the report of the Theological Forum. Three years ago there was an overture to examine the place of the Westminster Confession of Faith and the possibility of other subsidiary standards. The Forum put together a workshop on the topic and the papers were published in Theology in Scotland. This interim report presents discussion questions about options presented in the report for the church to give feedback to the Forum. They are scheduled to give their report on Tuesday afternoon.

So here we go. It will be an interesting week and among the questions the Assembly Business Committee is bringing is whether the use of videoconference technology should be used regularly for General Assemblies. We will see how this year goes.

So stay tuned…