Please give me feedback

I can't tell how many read this post.   Please let me know that I have readers.  Please post a comment or send me a note.  I know that I have two readers. Do I have more?

Committess finish their work, time for a break

On Wednesday the committees finished their work.  There are many proposals being presented to the General Assembly which starts meeting at 1:30 today, Central Time (11:30 at home).   All commissioners with whom I talked are happy to be done with committee work and are ready to move to the next phase of the Assembly.


There are many proposals to be considered by the General Assembly, all of which will change the current policy or structure of the church.   Not all will be adopted.  Some will be adopted after having been amended.  Those that are policies, as opposed to changes in the form of government, go into effect when approved by the General Assembly. Those that require a change in the Constitution of the church go into effect July 10, 2011 only if approved by majority of the 170+ presbyteries (area-wide groups of churches and ministers) vote to approve them.  If you want a change that has been approved by committee don't rejoice yet.  If you don't want the change, don't panic yet.   Committee approval is only the first of two or three steps in the process.

Some of the high-profile issues coming before the plenary session will be a revised study on Middle East peace, changing the definition of marriage from that between a man and woman to be between two people, change the definition of those eligible to serve as an officer of the church to remove the specific reference to sexual standards, and the minutia of the relationship between the highest courts of the church and the General Assembly.  

For the geeks, the order in which the committee reports will be considered in the following order: Church Growth, Theology Issues, Form of Government, Review of Permanent Committees, the role of middle government bodies (synods and presbyteries), ecumenical issues, qualifications for ministry, etc.  I will list the rest later.  We would do well to get this through this list on Wednesday afternoon or evening.  Updated detailed information is at www.pc-biz.org

On another note, we are continually reminded that the theory of 6 degrees of separation changes to about 2 degrees of separation for those who participate in the wider church.   I met a friend of my pastor's today whose wife  was a seminary roommate of a colleague in work in Eastern Oregon.

Pray today for the General Assembly, its commissioners, and the church.

Committees, Committees, Coimmittees

As with most large legislative-type bodies, most of the work of the General Assembly is done in committees.  For the General Assembly, the full assembly meets in plenary sessions on the first day of meeting and then takes three days off for committee meetings.  The Sunday meetings are for the committees to learn to work together (more on that later) and for all to have some social-type time.  The business meetings of the committees are on Monday and Tuesday. 

There are 18 committees to which business has been assigned.   No one person can know what all the committees are doing.   For Presbyterian nerds, there are two ways to get quick summaries of the highlights of the General Assembly work.  One is to follow on twitter or go the twitter site for presbyGA.  The other is to go to the news release summary web page.  One item that I'm following is the overture (proposal) of our neighbors in the Presbytery of Boise about violence against women.  For detailed updates on the work of the committees or the plenary as it happens go to the business site www.pc-biz.com

After each General Assembly the Association of Stated Clerks produces a summary of the proposals that are sent to the presbyteries for ratification. For this year's booklet I'm paying close attention committee 05, the committee considering matters that affect the structure of the government of the church (polity).

The committee struggled to find a way to work together for the first session.  They then found the ways to work together and proceed.   When the committee adjourned for dinner at 5:50 they were working on business that was scheduled to have been completed by 3:30.  After dinner they completed by 9:50 all the business that had been scheduled for Monday.   I hope the committee continues to work well on Tuesday.

Women, Worship, and Wow!

Today was a day of Women of Faith, spectacular worship, and Wow! for the fireworks display over the Mississippi River.

The day started with significant rain on my way to the Women of Faith breakfast.  The National Weather Service reports 0.10 inches in the first hour this morning.   It seemed like more than that as I walked two blocks from my hotel to where I could get onto the wonderful sky walk system that kept me dry to the Hyatt hotel 5 more blocks away.

Our friend after we moved to Pendleton almost 33 years ago, Elona Street-Stewart, received a woman of faith award at a breakfast this morning.   In her acceptance speech she remembered the congregation of the Tutuilla Church which supported her when she was ordained as an elder.  She also participated in the Native American call to worship at General Assembly worship.  It was good to see Elona and her husband, David Stewart again.

From the Women of Faith Breakfast I went with Linda Toth to worship in the Convention Center.   The pre-worship estimates were that there would be 7,000 to 8,000 participating.   The worship was inspiring, spectacular, and emotional.   Former moderator Bruce Reyes-Chow inspired us to reach out with a church that welcomes all in ways that they can respond to. An abbreviated order of worship is at the PC(USA) web site, a .pdf document.

After sitting in on the preliminary meeting of the Committee on Polity, I walked to Nicollet Island for long lines to greet Moderator Cynthia Bolbach, to have a Minnesota picnic dinner, and watch a spectacular 15 minute fireworks display over the Mississippi River.   I walked back to the hotel, arriving as buses from Nicollet Island were bringing folks back to their hotels.

The day was filled with the inspiration of four extraordinary women of faith, worship, and the celebration of Independence Day.

General Assembly elects Moderator and Eastern Oregon Presbytery Honored

     It's late here.  Before I rest, I will post a couple of short notes.

     The major item of business for the first Saturday General Assembly is for the commissioners to elect a moderator to preside over the General Assembly this week and to represent the church as the church's principal spokesperson for the next 2 years.
     This year there were six candidates, five ministers and one elder.  The one elder, Cynthia Bolbach from the Washington, DC area, was elected moderator on the fourth ballot and after some technical problems with the electronic voting system.
     For more information about moderator Bolbach see page 15 of the General Assembly media guide

Out of the Believer's Heart Shall Flow Rivers of Living Water

The theme of the assembly this year is "Out of the Believer's Heart Shall Flow Rivers of Living Water" (John 7:38. ) Our worship at the Stated Clerk meeting and the worship of the Assembly in the coming week will reflect that theme. To prepare for the Assembly worship, participants were asked to bring a small amount of water from their local rivers, lakes, and streams. My contribution will be water from the Umatilla River that flows through Pendleton on its way to the Columbia River and the Ocean.  We in Eastern Oregon are deeply aware of the life giving power of the water in rivers as it sustains our bodies, the crops, and our spirits.

I hope this water gathered from all of our peoples will represent a coming together in unity in Jesus' name, a remembering of our common baptism, and a pouring out of the Holy Spirit upon this gathering.

Thanks to Cathy Quackenbush, the new Stated Clerk of the Presbytery of the Cascades for inspiring this post.  You can follow her thoughts at her blog Cascades Presbytery at GA129

Thursday, July 1 - Last pre-assembly posting

We've completed the assembly preview for stated clerks.  The penultimate event was a service of communion. The worship during this event was wonderful and the communion was the best of the three services.  The service ended with the hymn "Lord, You Come to the Lakeshore."  For me it is the most touching hymn I sing.  It reminds me of my father in his final years.

I took time out from the sessions to assure Hannah's parents that she was truly here and able to negotiate from the airport to her hotel.  She had no trouble, but knowing that I would be there made the parents more comfortable.

One of services of the Association of Stated Clerks is to prepare, after the Assembly, a summary of business items proposed to the presbyteries for their concurrence.   I volunteered to be part of a three person team following one set of items through the committee process so that we can identify the "for" and "against" arguments after the assembly.   That will keep me busy Sunday afternoon and all day Monday and Tuesday.  I'll be following committee 05-Polity.   If anyone cares about the work of the assembly go to the business site, www.pc-biz.org or the General Assembly site, www.pcusa.org/ga219

 More of our delegation arrive Friday with some more to follow on Saturday.   Tomorrow is the day I pick up registration material. and have a free day before the activities start on Saturday.  Hannah has a day of orientation tomorrow.

I've heard a lot of good ideas for the way we help churches.  Such as the church that elects officers in November and trains them for an hour or so each week until May when they are installed.  Those officers get real training into the responsibilities and opportunities for service to the church and its members.

Also several thoughts about how the presbytery can help churches with regular assistance from the presbytery.

There's so much that the presbytery and the member churches can do when the churches cooperate with each other and the broader church.