Recovering From PresbyFest

Many thanks for the kind words and prayers regarding today's called presbytery meeting. It was designed to be an informational meeting and that goal was achieved. So, thankfully, no Tums was needed at the Moderator's podium.

Our commissioners gave their observations and opinions about various issues that were considered. Questions and comments offered by those in attendance were concerned, respectful, and probing. No action was taken, nor was any action expected at this time.

Casey Jones, the candidate for Stated Clerk from our presbytery (and came in second in the voting) got a standing ovation and much praise and appreciation from all sides for the outstanding way he conducted himself in the election.

Casey suggested the need for community prayer and our General Presbyter agreed, saying that the presbytery would schedule several opportunities for members of presbytery to pray together for God's help and guidance.

I'm done with GA for the moment. In the next few days I plan to intentionally NOT thinking, fretting, or analyzing what went on there and what may happen next and turn my attention elsewhere. Sometimes we need to clear our minds so the Holy Spirit will have room to work, don't you find?

Friday Evening GA Update

PresbyFriends, GA continued to meet until almost midnight last night. Here's my summary of significant actions taken in the evening session:

Definition of Marriage Not Changed--In the most contentious debate of the evening, the recommendation of the Church Polity Committee that an overture to redefine marriage as between "two people" be disapproved was adopted. Civil rights for same sex couples and "gracious response" to congregations departing the PCUSA were also adopted. Full story from PNS here.

Peace Making. Recommendations from the Peace and International Issues Committee were approved, including “responsibly” bringing the troops home from Iraq, continuing peacemaking in Israel and Palestine and supporting human rights in Zimbabwe, the Philippines, North Korea and Columbia. This was another lengthy and sometimes contentious debate, and I had to question why we would spend so much time on issues the GA has scant influence over and so little time on debating and taking actions that would help make new disciples, build new congregations and churches and re-develop struggling ones. But that's just me. Full story from PNS here.

New Social Creed Adopted-- From the Social Justice Issues Committee, this new social creed calls for equal pay for comparable work, protection from dangerous working conditions, criminal rehabilitation through restorative justice, an end to the death penalty, tax and budget policies that reduce disparities between rich and poor, affordable housing, sustainable use of resources and just immigration policies. Full story from PNS here.

Tomorrow there is a called presbytery meeting scheduled to hear the report from our New Covenant commissioners to GA. (For those of you in New Covenant who want to attend, that will be 3 pm at Pines Presbyterian Church, Houston.) We'll have a lot to talk about.

Ordination Standards to Go to Presbyteries

Ordination Standard Change to Go to Presbyteries for Vote:

From the Presbyterian Outlook:

"Commissioners to the 218th General Assembly have voted to change the denomination’s constitution to approve the ordination of gay and lesbian persons, a change that will require ratification by a majority of the 173 regional presbyteries over the next year.

Two other actions adopted by the assembly will take effect immediately.

First, the commissioners approved by a vote of 375 to 324 a proposal from the Presbytery of John Knox that allows ordination “examining bodies to give prayerful and careful consideration, on an individual, case-by-case basis, to any departure from an ordination standard in matters of belief or practice that a candidate may declare during examination.” This takes effect immediately.

Second, the commissioners voted to send to the presbyteries for ratification language to replace the present rules that requires those being ordained and/or installed into ordained office to live “in fidelity in a marriage between a man and a woman or chastity in singleness.”

See the full story here.

I think this means that presbyteries now have local option on the issue of gay ordination and if the presbyteries then vote to delete the fidelity-chastity clause then the standard is removed and the issue of local option becomes moot. But I'm not sure, so if anyone can correct my interpretation, please let me know.

Thursday GA Update

Here are some highlights from yesterday's General Assembly:

FOG: The committee recommended the Form of Government Task Force report be referred to the presbyteries for study and discussion. Also, additional members will be added to the Task Force and they will be asked to review and revise it for the 2010 GA. The expanded FOG will be asked to take into account the comments from presbyteries.

The number of people added to the Task Force will depend on the number of the current members who agree to continue and will be appointed ONLY from the members of the committee that made the recommendation about the FOG Task Force report. This means that members of the New Covenant group that studied the FOG report and wrote an outstanding analysis of it are not eligible to be considered for the expanded Task Force, and neither is anyone else who may is not already on this GA committee. Folks, this sends the wrong message. Here's the PNS story.

FUNDING NCD'S AND CHURCH RE-DEVELOPMENTS: After descending into a parliamentary black hole--what with a reconsideration, an "arrest of the report", and confusion on the floor and on the podium, the original motion from the committee (08-15) passed after the arrested report was bailed out (pardon the pun!) and proposed amendments to it failed. I couldn't find a PNS story about this discussion, though.

MISSION INITIATIVE FUND: PNC pastor Rev. Dave Peterson, MDPC -Houston, addressed the GA to announce the Mission Initiative Fund raised $33 million in pledges for new church development. Dave is co-chair of the effort. Well done! Here's the full story from PNS.

GENERATIVE THINKING: And lastly, I pity the members of the Worship and Spiritual Renewal Committee that was required to use "generative thinking" as an alternative form of decision making instead of the traditional parliamentary committee format. The committee moderator reported that two members walked out of the committee in frustration and did not return and that the whole process was a "learning experience". I just bet it was! What a waste of time and effort -- the rules of parliamentary procedure help form the will of the majority while protecting the voice and input of the minority. "Generative thinking" strikes me as a New Age-y fad and I regret we burdened any of our commissioners with it. Here's the story from PNS on the subject. It seems to me the lesson to be learned is not to mess with this nonsense.

Today the election for Stated Clerk is scheduled. My presbytery's own Rev. Casey Jones is one of the candidates. Casey would be a wonderful Stated Clerk. I'll be watching this later this morning on the streaming video. This is the most important election of the GA.

Musings of a Virtual Presby-Fester

Except for attending my study group and a quick trip to the gym to work on that bum knee, I've spent the day in virtual attendance at GA. The house is very quiet today--just me and the dog since El Jefe is at work and is taking the kids to the baseball game. And that's a good thing since I'm the point person for my presbytery's GA Newsblog as well as my usual stuff here.

First of all, the virtual streaming is working really well for me. Last GA it kept choking out and buffering and timing out. This time it is smooth as glass. The camera work is good. Generally the screen projections have worked well, but just now "Angela" can't seem to find the liturgy they are using for the commissioning of Clif Kirkpatrick as "Stated Clerk Emeritus."

The big debate this afternoon was on the FOG report. Commissioners pulled out a variety of parliamentary moves, but in the end the committee's recommendation was passed. The FOG will go to the presbyteries for comment and the Task Force will be enlarged and asked to revise the report in light of those comments for action at the 2010 GA.

There was a lot of debate about whether and how the FOG report would enable the PCUSA to become more "missional". As one wag pointed out, the entire debate certainly focused the group inward rather than outward. But that is the nature of polity debates, isn't it?

I don't see how the BOO will ever make us any more missional than the Great Commission, which is a whole lot shorter.

They just took a 10 minute break, so I will take advantage of it to get in my jammies, avail myself of a glass of restorative vino, and offer a quick prayer for the work that remains before the group before returning to the virtual PresbyFest.

With a two hour time difference between California and Texas, it isn't likely I will make it through the evening session. But one does what one can!

UPDATE: Now I'm watching my own pastor, Dave Peterson (MDPC, Houston) speak to the GA about the Hearts and Hands Campaign. Go Dave!

GA Committee Reports

Here's a round-up of actions taken by GA committees in the past couple of days, as reported by the Presbyterian News Service (cross posted with the GA Newsblog):

New Covenant Overture Approved: By a 67-4 margin, the Social Justice Issues committee voted to approve the PNC overture to urge Congress and the President not to saddle future generations with any more debt. The overture asks the GA to “declare that federal government practices and policies that create ever-increasing debt and unfunded or underfunded obligations for future generations of Americans are a grave moral concern as well as a clear danger to the republic” and calls upon public leaders “to have the courage to address this economic and moral crisis while there is still time.”

Revision of the Authoritative Interpretation Regarding "Scrupling" Ordination Standards: The General Assembly Committee on Church Orders and Ministry has voted to recommend that the 218th General Assembly adopt a supplementary authoritative interpretation of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) constitution that applies the historical practice of “scrupling” — the declaration of conscientious objection by candidates for ordination coupled with discernment by the ordaining body whether the declared objection is disqualifying — equally to all ordination standards of the denomination. See the full story here.

Fidelity and Chastity: The GA Committee on Church Orders and Ministry voted to recommend the deletion of 6.0106b of the Book of Order. Here's the link to the story.

Definition of Marriage: The GA Committee on Church Polity rejected an overture from the Baltimore Presbytery to define marriage as between "two people". Read the full report here.

Form of Government Task Force: The FOG report will be revised by an expanded task force, which will be instructed to take the comments received so far into consideration in making its revisions. Then the revised FOG will go to presbyteries for a period of discussion and consideration. PNC formed its own study group this year which produced a very thorough analysis of the present FOG proposal, which was distributed at the last presbytery meeting. Go here for the full story from the GA.

GA Blogging Week

This week QG will be pre-occupied as editor of Presbytery of New Covenant's General Assembly Newsblog, so blogging here at QG may be light on non-existent. Fellow PresbyPolityGeeks, check out the GANewsblog.

Congratulations to fellow PresbyBlogger Rev. Bruce Reyes-Chow on his election as Moderator of the PCUSA for the next two years.

The most important election for the denomination comes at the end of the assembly when the new Stated Clerk will be elected. Rev. Winfield ("Casey") Jones, of New Covenant Presbytery, is one of the candidates for this post. Our presbytery commended him to the commissioners for their consideration. (Full Disclosure: Casey is a friend and colleague and I serve on his advisory committee.)

Rev. Debbie Cenko placed his name in nomination at the GA on Sunday evening (see photo, courtesy of PNC's Stated Clerk, Rev. Diane Prevary). I'll be following this election very carefully. The rules of the election are very restrictive, and frankly favor the choice of the Nominating Committee. However, in deference to them, I will just state for the record that if Casey Jones became our next Stated Clerk, I would be profoundly encouraged about the future of the PCUSA.

Set Your Bookmarks for GA

As General Assembly is approaching, PresbyPolityGeeks may want to check out the list of websites I posted on the PNC GA Newsblog.

Friends, set your bookmarks and let's get to blogging!

2008 GA Theme Song

~with apologies to Dionne Warwick~

Can you pray your way to San Jose?
Two years passed since the last GA
That’s when the PUP came out to play
Who will moderate the GA in San Jose
Shoemaker, Teng, Mazza or Reyes-Chow?
GA could bring understanding, brotherhood or
Just another PresbyRow
Newbie commissioners just come and go
But the Stated Clerk stays on the roster
Will it be Tarbell, Jones, Parsons or Koster?
At the end of the week--they’ll vote on the Clerk
And then go home and tell the folks about the days they spent at GA.
Wo oh oh oh
And wonder how they got to San Jose
Wo oh oh oh
Will you pray their way to San Jose?

PNC's GA NewsBlog Launched

We've launched a blog for the presbytery of New Covenant for the purpose of posting news of particular interest to those of us in PNC from the upcoming 218th General Assembly of the PCUSA (June 21-28). The idea is that our commissioners, staff and other PNC folk attending as observers will email events as they happen, along with their observations about their experiences.

You'll note the link on the sidebar of QG to the PNC GA Newsblog. That's because your humble scribe was asked by presbytery staff to stay home in her pajamas and act as blog administrator, editor, and general factotum because I have blogging experience. (The Moderator of PNC does not go to GA as a commissioner as is the case in some other presbyteries.) Having a separate blog for GA happenings will keep the QG blog from becoming hopelessly PresbyPolityWonkish and boring during GA. I will probably do some cross-posting, though.

Because we understand that there isn't internet access in the meeting rooms, I will also use other media sources for information. Fortunately, you don't need a press pass to be a blogger! But will I need new pj's? And a robe? Maybe green ones, since our presbytery logo is green?