QG Meets THE Moderator

Saturday morning I had the opportunity to meet Cynthia Bolbach, the Moderator of the PCUSA, at a reception in Houston. 

I was very happy to have the chance to make her acquaintance in person because she is one of QG's Gentle Readers and I got to talk with her over the phone and by podcast when she, the Vice Moderator Landon Whitsitt and I recorded the podcast discussing the Sola Kerfuffle.

Cindy and I may not see eye to eye on everything. However in person we see exactly eye to eye, literally! We can agree that the best Moderators are women attorneys of a "certain age" and well over 6 feet tall. ~grin~

We had a small but eager group from Presbytery of New Covenant gathered for a Q&A session. Cindy displayed the same ease and good humor she showed when she moderated GA this summer. She is honest, forthright and even-handed in her comments.

My question to her was what "elevator speech" I could give to the new elder training class I am involved with at church about the difference between the proposed NFOG and the current provisions in the Government section of the Book of Order. (Sorry for the PresbySpeak, y'all, but if you don't know you don't really want all the details.)

Her answer was both succinct and very usable: the NFOG represents a Constitutional, or broad principles, concept of church government as compared to the detailed rules and procedures manual that this section of the BOO has become over the years as it has been expanded by multiple amendments. 

I can make the comparison to the Texas Consititution which has umpty-ump-umpteen amendments versus the Constitution of the United States which has only 27, including the 10 called the Bill of Rights. Of course the federal statutes are WAY longer and take up multiple shelves on the bookcases of legal libraries and law firms. The Texas Constitution has become a Rulebook while the US Constitution sets forth broad principles of governance.

When someone asked Cindy what would prevent future GA's from continuing the practice of multiple amendments to the NFOG if it were passed, she readily admitted that there was no way to guarantee that would not happen. Habits and the culture of the denomination are hard to change. 

Liberals and conservatives alike have expressed frustration with the difficulty of complying with the present form of government provisions of the BOO. But a lack of trust on all sides may prevent the NFOG, or any major overall of the current system, from passing.

I really appreciate the fact that Cindy is highlighting the importance of ruling elders in the Presbyterian Church. I mentioned to the group her excellent article from The Presbyterian Leader, The Awesome Task of Elders, and had several folks ask me afterwards how to find a copy of it for their sessions. Here is the link.

Thanks, Cindy, for taking the time to meet with us in Houston and for your service to the church. May God guide and bless you during your term!

My Year(s) in Presbytery Land

As 2008 draws to a close, so does my two year stint as Moderator Elect and Moderator of Presbytery of New Covenant. Both years were demanding in different ways.

As Moderator Elect I had many more meetings to attend and preside over since I chaired General Council --and we also had to solve the Million Dollar Problem. As Moderator I only chaired 5 presbytery meetings and had fewer committee obligations. However me and my trusty SUV logged in many miles presiding over ordinations and installations around our large geographical area.

The experience has been quite a ride. Just a few weeks after agreeing to serve as the 2008 Moderator, the "Million Dollar Problem" was revealed. This doubled and tripled the number of meetings required to address the problem, which ultimately was resolved through the faithful work of many people. Today PNC is well on its way to repaying GA for the special offering funds that were diverted and the presbytery's accounting and auditing procedures have been overhauled and brought up to professional standards.

PNC is almost uniquely blessed in its location in an area of the country that is growing in population and still has one of the strongest economies in the nation, despite the lower price of oil and the devastation wrought by Hurricane Ike this fall. Many volunteers and much effort is being put into rebuilding Galveston and the other areas just east of Houston that were destroyed by that storm.

PNC is dedicated to new church development with more NCD's than any other presbytery. During my year as moderator, three NCD's received full charters as churches in the PCUSA. One was a traditional suburban church plant and two others were ethnic churches--Vietnamese and Filipino. Presiding over the charter services was the highlight of this year!

PNC is also blessed because there is an atmosphere of collegiality and respect that transcends differences of opinion on the PresbyIssues of the day. Much of this can be attributed to the leadership provided by our very pastoral General Presbyter, Rev. Mike Cole, our associate GP's Rev. Wendy Bailey and Mary Marcotte (a certified DCE) and the small but dedicated presbytery staff. I have to also make a special acknowledgement of the best Stated Clerk in all of PresbyLand, Rev. Diane Prevary, whose advice and advance preparation were invaluable to me at presbytery meetings. .

We're not immune to the tempests tossing the denomination, however. One church departed the denomination for the EPC this year, leaving a smaller congregation and their property behind in the process, and another filed a lawsuit against the presbytery and GA asking the court to declare the trust clause of the BOO invalid in Texas. Other sessions have expressed grave concerns about the direction of the denomination after the last General Assembly meeting. There are as many challenges ahead for PNC as there are for any other presbytery in the country. Fortunately, the Rev. Wayne Eberly, our new Moderator, is uniquely gifted to serve in this role in 2009.

In PNC, the moderator has only one duty in the post-moderator year: to assist in making nominations to the Nominating Committee. As the year came to a close and I was starting to think about what to do with all the "free" time I was about to gain with stepping down, I got a call from the Nominating Committee at my church asking me to go on session and take on a major administrative assignment.

Now I know that the gifts of the Spirit include administration, but somehow that never seems like a "real" work of ministry, does it? Not like preaching, teaching, and pastoral care. It wasn't what I thought about doing--but it seems to be what God is calling me to do. I should be old enough not to be surprised by God, but...it still happens.

So although I am profoundly grateful for the opportunity to serve the presbytery these last two years, I'm happily returning to service in my home congregation.

I will continue to blog about things Presbyterian and things Not Presbyterian in my continuing search for grace in everyday life. My first article for the "Best of the Blogs" column in Presbyterians Today appears in the January/February issue -- and is available on the online version here.

Now that I no longer have an official position with the presbytery, I will be free to express my opinions on whatever goes on in the denomination without concern that my opinions will be confused with any official position of PNC.

Yes, QG, there IS life after presbytery!

When Lovebugs Attack

Our car looked WORSE than this yesterday as El Jefe and I drove up to Lufkin, Texas for an installation at the First Presbyterian Church.

Fortunately, we got to town early and stopped at a service station to clean up the car a bit. The windshield was almost completely covered in Lovebug goo. The front bumper was totally black with (ahem) lovebugs lovebugging. It took us 30 minutes to get the windshield clean. We gave up on the bumper. Lovebugs have no shame.

Since it was getting dark on the way home, we stopped midway and did it all over again. Squinting through lovebug parts into oncoming headlights is not recommended by the National Highway Safety Administration.

Neither rain, nor sleet, nor lovebugs will keep the Mom-derator from her appointed rounds...

UPDATE FOR PRESBYTERIAN GAL: Here's a photo of the lovebugs.

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.

Meeting Mayhem

Rev. Dave suggests these minutes should be required reading for all members of sessions, lay boards, General Councils and other church groups. Warning to New Covenant Presbytery GC members: Be prepared to explain the final decision on the light bulb at next Tuesday's meeting.

Too funny and all too true to life!

On The Road Again For Presbytery

I'm hitting the road again in my role as Mom (oops, make that Moderator) Elect of Presbytery. We're meeting up the road in Livingston at Camp Cho-Yeh. Leaving tomorrow morning would add an hour to the already 2 hour drive because I'd find myself in the midst of the commuter traffic until clearing Houston. So El Jefe persuaded me to drive tonight after traffic clears and stay in a nearby hotel rather than stress about getting up there by dawn's early light. Of course that way I won't be rousing him earlier than usual....either.

One of the items on the agenda is a report written by El Jefe that recommends major organizational and legal changes in the relationship between presbytery and Cho-Yeh. Unfortunately he can't spend the day up there so his co-chair will present it and he's prepped me to answer questions. Now I'm looking for that lawyer hat to pack in the suitcase. Hope it goes with the camp outfit.

Presbytery made the 2007 payment to GA that was authorized by the Repayment Task Force to reimburse the special offerings monies that weren't passed on, so that's good news. The finance folks are struggling mightily with the 2007-2008 budget plans now that we know what funds we really have available. That's not such good news, but its an inevitable consequence of the fact that for several years the previous business administrator was diverting special offerings to our operating budget instead of passing them on to GA.

Time to go. Where's the sunscreen?

Mesdames Moderators

Here are the Moderator (Rev. Deborah Cooper) and Moderator Elect (yours truly) of New Covenant Presbytery after our installation at yesterday's presbytery meeting.

The meeting went extraordinarily well. The plan to repay the Million Dollar problem was overwhelmingly adopted and a second vote is now scheduled for February 27. Thank you for your prayers and comments which were a great support for me.

Dr. Craig Barnes preached an incredible sermon on the subject of "Pastor as Minor Poet." There's no way I can summarize this, but fortunately I am told that this is part of his next new book. Reverendmother, I kept thinking how much you would have loved it!

We voted on 68 pages of amendments to the Form of Government portion of the Book of Order. Wait, you say, what about the FOG Task Force and its work? That was a concern of many in the presbytery as well as a concern for moving portions of that section out of the BOO and into advisory handbooks. Results of the voting were mixed but clearly reflected reluctance to make any changes before the FOG made its report. For you Presbypolity types keeping score, New Covenant defeated amendments 06-A, 06-B.1, 06-B.2, and 06-C by large margins and approved 06-B.3, 06-D, 06-E and 06-F.

UPDATE, CORRECTION AND APOLOGY: Dear Readers, Please accept my apologies for erroneously attributing the formation of the EPC to disagreement with the ordination of women in the PCUSA in the first version of this post. Jim Loughlin has correctly pointed out in a comment that this was the reason for the PCA split not the EPC. I am embarrassed to have made this mistake and am revising the rest of this post accordingly to avoid continuing to contribute misinformation to this debate. I really do know my history better than that. Thanks, Jim, for calling me on my mistake and thanks to Will Spotts for questioning it as well.

When I got home from the meeting, news that Presbyterians assembled in Orlando this weekend at the New Wineskins meeting voted to accept the formation of a transitional NW presbytery in partnership with the Evangelical Presbyterian Church and to establish a covenanted network of NW churches within the PCUSA was on the internet. Time will tell how significant this event will be in the life of the PCUSA.

Although the EPC allows local congregations to ordain women, there are congregations that will not ordain women pastors or elders in the denomination. Little wonder the EPC wants to keep departing PCUSA congregations segregated in a non - geographical presbytery while it determines whether it can absorb them without a lot of disruption to its own congregations.

About 1990, the church where our daughters was baptized split over national PCUSA issues. El Jefe and I had already transferred our membership to Suburban Presbyterian Church before this occured. There was a big debate among those who left about where to affiliate and they went with the EPC because it permitted, although it did not insist upon, the ordination of women. I just checked the website of the church that formed out of this and it does not have any ordained women on staff nor any women elders but does have women deacons.

This is why many women in the PCUSA who might otherwise be sympathetic to the theological positions of the New Wineskins and the EPC are skeptical about the position of the EPC on women and church leadership and ministry.