Presbyterian Church, USA, 219th General Assembly - Thursday's preview

The 219th General Assembly (National gathering) of the Presbyterian Church (USA) will be held for a week beginning Saturday (July 3 - 10) in Minneapolis.   Seven hundred commissioners and 200 advisory delegates (round numbers) from 188 presbyteries will meet in the biannual meeting.  Eastern Oregon Presbytery has two commissioners, Rev. Steve Kliewer of Lostine and Elder Judy Chesnut of Milton-Freewater, and one Young Adult Advisory Delegate, Hannah Harwerth of Pendleton.  Attending as observers are Rev. Linda Toth, General Presbyter and Elder Pete Wells, Stated Clerk.

I, Pete, am at the preview conference of the stated clerks from the presbyteries and synods of the church.  Part of the agenda of the preview session is introduce the business topics which may generate the most passion or news (not necessarily the same) at the session.

The meeting will convene on Saturday.  The first major item of business will be the election of a moderator to lead the meeting and be the spokesperson for the denomination until the next General Assembly in 2012 in Pittsburgh, PA.  That election will be Saturday evening.   There are six candidates.  The commissioners will vote until one of the candidates receives a majority of the votes cast.

Like governmental legislative bodies, the preliminary work is done in committees.  There are 18 committees which review the business presented by the offices of the church and the presbyteries and synods.   The commissioners and advisory delegates will work in committees Sunday through Tuesday.  I hope to be able to comment on some of the work of the committees, but won't have much detail until the full assembly starts acting on the recommendations from the committees, Wednesday afternoon.

You can follow the work of the General Assembly at www.pcusa.org/ga219.

The issues to come before the General Assembly include:

• Matters having to do with how the church governs itself
• The Form of Government, (FOG) to make substantial changes to the organization's Constitution
• The role of Synods (regional bodies) between the General Assembly (national) office and the presbyteries (local area assemblies of ministers and churches)
• How we process conflicts in the church (Rules of Discipline)
• Statements that help us to define our faith
• Whether to adopt additional or newly translated confessions (statements of faith)
• Matters having to do with the intersection of social issues and the church
• The role of the church having to do with marriage and civil unions
• The role of LGBQ church members in church leadership (both ministers and elders)
• Matters of internatilonal concerns
• Consideration of a report on the relationship between Israel and the Palestinian people.
• Other concerns of peace and justice in the US and around the world.

Many of these issues are of interest to relatively small groups in the church. Others have broader interest in the Presbyterian or other churches and yet others have to do with taking positions about matters outside the church.

I hope to post updates for the next 10 days.   Let me know if you have particular matters that you would like to me to address.

Note:  These comments are mine, alone, and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Presbytery of Eastern Oregon.

Pray for those of us from the Presbytery of Eastern Oregon and for the General Assembly as we seek to discern the Word of God in our time and place.