GA Committee assignment

During the GA, there will be several committees discussing very complex issues. Some of the issues to be discussed include the following:
Civil Union
Social Justice
Interfaith Relations
Peacemaking
Middle East
Church Growth
Theological Issues
as well as several other issues.
The committee I have been assigned to is called Form Of Government or the FOG committee. For those of you that are not familiar with the Presbyterians government it is very similar to the US government structure. Local government is the church and session (made up of Elders who help run the day to day operation of the church). The Presbytery is a regional governing body like our local municipality or county governments, the Synod contains several Presbyteries is like the state government and the General Assembly is like the Federal Government. The Presbyterian church has a book or rules and guidelines called the Book of Order. This has rules that govern how meetings are run, how to hire and fire pastors, defines the structure of governmental bodies and committees and many, many other details.

So back to the FOG committee. The goal of the FOG (Form of Government)Task Force was to revise the Book of Order (BoO) to make it less of an operations manual and more of a constitution. Therefore, it will be shorter with many more decisions being made at the Presbytery or congregational level. This sounds like a good idea but is pretty scary to many because the BoO has grown to such length because we don't trust each other to make good decisions. Also it has been my experience that the BoO is your friend when someone (a member) wants to do something outlandish. It is so much easier to say, "Sorry the BoO says I'm not allowed. Isn't it a shame." than to just say "no" against the political pressure that can sometimes be brought to bear.

Perhaps this committee sounds a bit boring and bureaucratic, it is actually quite interesting in that it could represent one of the biggest changes in the Presbyterian church government in several decades. It is supposed to be a peace plan to help us get along with each other better.

Isreal Palestine conflit

For several years, the Presbyterians have been protesting the treatment of the Palestinian people by Israel. Settlements, bulldozing of Palestinian homes, heavy handed responses to regional conflicts. The commissioners had a meeting at Cincinnati Presbytery today and as part of the agenda met the American Jewish Committee. A committee within Presbytery has submitted a report for the GA to review. It is asking Presbyterians to extend our protests to our wallets and to not support businesses or organizations that may contribute to the Zionist cause. This has the American Jewish community up in arms. I have not read the report in full yet but understand that it is equating the situation to apartheid. Four individuals from the American Jewish Committee came to our meeting today to ask us to consider the situation from their point of view. There is definitely blame to go around and I can't imagine living as a Jew in a state in the middle east where nearly every country around you wants to see you wiped off the face of the earth. With both the Jewish and Islamic eye for an eye mentality and holding of grudges, the situation is difficult and sad.

Commissioning of Cincy Presbytery particpants

Last night we that were chosen as commissioners for GA were commissioned at the Cincinnati Presbytery meeting. The highlight of the meeting was not the commissioning but of the speaker 'Walter Bruggemann'. In his sermon, he discussed that as Christians we should be subversive to the empire, in the old days, the Persian empire or Roman empire. Today, we should be subversive to the materialistic, economic empire. He also stated as Christians, whether liberals or conservatives, in Christ it doesn't matter. It seems we all have an agenda to squabble over. Bruggemann stated that our focus should be on Generosity, Hospitality and Forgiveness and the rest shouldn't matter. This is good advice as I prepare for GA for we all have agendas and opinions that we want to have heard and listened to but perhaps this is not really our purpose.

I have been nominated to go to the Presbyterian General Assembly (GA) this summer. This Blog is to share my experience as I get ready for the event and participate. The subjects covered are extensive and interesting. The hot topics we will discuss are 'same sex marriage', 'Israel / Palestine conflict', Human trafficking and many other interesting and perhaps not so interesting topics.

For those that don't know what GA is, it is the National governing body of the Presbyterian Church. The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) has over 11,000 congregations which are organized into 173 presbyteries (district governing bodies) and 16 synods (regional governing bodies).The GA is the national governing body over all of this.

The General Assembly consists of commissioners elected by presbyteries. Half of the commissioners will be Ministers of Word and Sacrament, half will be elders. Few will ever have been commissioners to the General Assembly before, but most will have served in one of the other governing bodies of our church: the session, which provides care and oversight of a local congregation; the presbytery, which provides care and oversight of a group of congregations; or the synod which provides care and oversight of several presbyteries.

It reviews the work of synods, resolves controversies in the church, is responsible for matters of common concern for the whole church, and serves as a symbol of unity for the church.

Why me? I am not sure. Perhaps it is God's calling, perhaps it is because I'm a sucker that said yes, and perhaps it is because I have a vested interest in having the Presbyterian church be there when I am old to give me spiritual, physical and emotional support.