I am blogging a day behind because the meetings are long and the days are full. My FOG committee is making great progress and we have established some great relationships in our committee. I will discuss more of that later.
Sunday morning the GA had a worship service in the Minneapolis Convention center. There must have been between 4-5000 people at the service. The service was awesome. The service had an amazing blend of cultures, music, worship styles and fabulously diverse. It started with a Native American processional with dancing and Native American props. The service had an awesome organist with an orchestra that did some traditional music, a contemporary band that led us in some praise hymns, a choir that was 250-300 strong, Native American and Latino music. We sang a spiritual led by an African American group of singers and we performed the communion in English, Spanish and Korean. It was a very moving service. Although the Presbyterian church is still 90% white, it shows us where we have to go.
Monday, July 5, 2010
Sunday, July 4, 2010
Day 2 - Part 3 - New Moderator Elected
At GA we have approximately 700 commissioners - 1/2 elders, 1/2 clergy. We also have Youth advisory delegates & missionary delegates. We also have maybe 1500 - 2000 observers and staff, task force members and volunteers. It's big. The commissioners are the ones who vote on issues including who becomes our next Moderator. We began the Moderator selection process at 7pm on Saturday. Each candidate got to speak for 10 miuntes (so many candidates - total of 60 miuntes). We had questions for 90 miuntes. So it's 9:30 before we start voting. The assembly is high tech too where all the commissioners and advisory delegates have electronic voting devices. Like remote controls for the TV. A candidate has to have a simple majority before the election is called. With 6 candidates this was bound to take several iterations. Well that was fine except for the glitches in the voting devices. We realized that abuot 100 votes were not being counted. We worked through the problems and the final vote came in about 10:45pm.
The new moderator voted in was Cindy Bolbech. Cindy's characteristics that I observed; she has a great sense of humor, she loves the church, she was the only non-minister candidate, she seemed the most liberal although it did not sound as though she was interested in pushing an agenda except to make the church stronger by being creative. It seemed like a great choice, I suppose we will see when we measure our progress at the next GA.
The new moderator voted in was Cindy Bolbech. Cindy's characteristics that I observed; she has a great sense of humor, she loves the church, she was the only non-minister candidate, she seemed the most liberal although it did not sound as though she was interested in pushing an agenda except to make the church stronger by being creative. It seemed like a great choice, I suppose we will see when we measure our progress at the next GA.
Day 2 Part 2 - White privledge and an interracial discussion
Saturday June 3.
I went to another pre-assembly workshop. "Equipping the Church for Ministry with God's diverse family". When I attended, I actually thought this was going to be about drawing a diversity of people to the church. It turned out to be a discussion on racism. We got to hear from a African American county preacher (Jerrod), a Native American (Buddy), a African American woman((Catrelia) and a white woman named Ann. Jerrod was young and charismatic country preacher (self proclaimed) and called us to fight racism simply by calling on the power of the raised voice. It is a tool you have, it doesn't cost money, it doesn't take too much effort, it just takes guts. Buddy's message was similiar, there are too many people in the world whose voices have long since been silenced. We don't hear or pay attention. Catrelia was born in NC in a "colored wing" of the hospital. Went to an all black school (segregated on purpose) and told us the only jobs for the black kids was picking cotton. When hearing this, it makes us realize how far we have come but it was when Ann spoke that I realized how far we have to go. Ann talked about white privledge. Whites still have huge unspoken advantage over other races. They are more likely to get the job, get the loan, get a better quality education. After the talk, I sat around a fully integrated table and we discussed what diversity we had in our communities and what we could do to make it better. I was embarassed to say that I live in Mason, Ohio where there is very little divesity and even though we are starting to get a bit more racially diverse, there is very little socio-economic diversity.
I went to another pre-assembly workshop. "Equipping the Church for Ministry with God's diverse family". When I attended, I actually thought this was going to be about drawing a diversity of people to the church. It turned out to be a discussion on racism. We got to hear from a African American county preacher (Jerrod), a Native American (Buddy), a African American woman((Catrelia) and a white woman named Ann. Jerrod was young and charismatic country preacher (self proclaimed) and called us to fight racism simply by calling on the power of the raised voice. It is a tool you have, it doesn't cost money, it doesn't take too much effort, it just takes guts. Buddy's message was similiar, there are too many people in the world whose voices have long since been silenced. We don't hear or pay attention. Catrelia was born in NC in a "colored wing" of the hospital. Went to an all black school (segregated on purpose) and told us the only jobs for the black kids was picking cotton. When hearing this, it makes us realize how far we have come but it was when Ann spoke that I realized how far we have to go. Ann talked about white privledge. Whites still have huge unspoken advantage over other races. They are more likely to get the job, get the loan, get a better quality education. After the talk, I sat around a fully integrated table and we discussed what diversity we had in our communities and what we could do to make it better. I was embarassed to say that I live in Mason, Ohio where there is very little divesity and even though we are starting to get a bit more racially diverse, there is very little socio-economic diversity.
Day 2 - Part 1 - I'm not happy, I'm not leaving
Saturday:
I attended 2 different pre-assembly workshops Saturday morning. The first was conversations on Civil Unions and Christian Marriage Task Force Report. To make a long story short, the task force agreed to disaggree and realize there was no middle ground. So they had a majority report and a minority report. This came as no suprise, perhaps the opinion along these lines is determined genetically. The surprising part was the amedable attitudes during discussion. One member of the task force had a great analogy.
There was once this couple that was recently married. Both of them panicked everytime they had a fight because they were sure the fight would break them up and they would lose each other. This went on until one day the husband was furious over a disagreement and decided to start the argument with this phrase "I'm not happy and I'm not leaving". This allowed them to fight in earnest without unreasonable fear of losing something important. This is a good way to be. There are always going to be times when there is no right, there is no compromise and each partner in a disagreement will not concede. I occassionally have these types of disagreements with my wife and we decide that it is just best to agree to disaggree and move on. Of course, in my mind I know I am right and in my wife's mind, she knows she's right. We can live with this as a couple and we can live with this as a denomination. We may never stop nagging each other and we may continue to try to get our way and just maybe, there is a slim chance that one day I will see the light and realize that my wife has been right all along. My wife and I do agree on the important things, God, forgiveness, and a true love for each other so who cares about anything else.
I attended 2 different pre-assembly workshops Saturday morning. The first was conversations on Civil Unions and Christian Marriage Task Force Report. To make a long story short, the task force agreed to disaggree and realize there was no middle ground. So they had a majority report and a minority report. This came as no suprise, perhaps the opinion along these lines is determined genetically. The surprising part was the amedable attitudes during discussion. One member of the task force had a great analogy.
There was once this couple that was recently married. Both of them panicked everytime they had a fight because they were sure the fight would break them up and they would lose each other. This went on until one day the husband was furious over a disagreement and decided to start the argument with this phrase "I'm not happy and I'm not leaving". This allowed them to fight in earnest without unreasonable fear of losing something important. This is a good way to be. There are always going to be times when there is no right, there is no compromise and each partner in a disagreement will not concede. I occassionally have these types of disagreements with my wife and we decide that it is just best to agree to disaggree and move on. Of course, in my mind I know I am right and in my wife's mind, she knows she's right. We can live with this as a couple and we can live with this as a denomination. We may never stop nagging each other and we may continue to try to get our way and just maybe, there is a slim chance that one day I will see the light and realize that my wife has been right all along. My wife and I do agree on the important things, God, forgiveness, and a true love for each other so who cares about anything else.
Friday, July 2, 2010
Day 1 - In a FOG
I arrived this morning in Minneapolis. So far, the experience is fantastic. It is so easy to be around the Presbyterians. In a way it is very much like family. I am enjoying the experience and greatly enjoying the people I am meeting. Just like being around family too long, I'm sure I will be irked by some of our discussions we will have this week. However, it is so incredibly cool that our denomination pulls together to directly discuss our issues, head-on, no soft petaling. Today there was a lot of discussion about how to treat and interact with each other, our co-moderator of our committee spoke and kept saying, it's not if you disagree, it is when you disagree you should follow the disagreement guidelines (Speak respectfully, maintain a spirit of Love in Jesus, be ready to forgive and be forgiven).
My Committee, new "Form of Government" is considering a recommendation to accept a major re-write of the book of order. (for those non-Presbyterians, the BOO is our polity book, sort of our laws of regulation that provide rules for everything from hiring pastors, to selling Presbyterian properties, to ordination, to rules about who should be on a churches session, how the committee on Ministry should act etc. When first hearing about being selected for this committee, I thought BLAHHHHHH!!!! I thought I was going to do nothing but work on bureaucracy. I was not sure how this was supposed to help the Presbyterian Church. On reflection, the work of this committee could introduce one of the biggest changes to the Presbyterian church in decades. So it is more exciting then perhaps it sounds.
One of the main reasons for this new Form of Government (nFOG) proposal is to help the smaller congregations and geographically diverse Presbyteries. A church of 20 people, can't have a 8 member pastor nominating committee A Presbytery of 30 churches, 900 members over 4 states can't hope to fulfill the requirements set up in the book of order for the Committee On Ministry.
So what does the FOG task force want to do? The recommendation or this nFOG is to create more flexibility and make the rules and regulations less rigorous so churches, presbyteries and synods can focus more on issues of greater importance like mission. It greatly reduces the size of the BOO. In addition, this nFOG could be a peace plan of how we can accept more diversity by creating a more flexible environment.
It is a very complex issue. So complex that our committee started a day before everyone else.
Conceptually, the nFOG seems to be good idea. However, it also seems there may be tremendous issues and problems with dealing with conflict, power of the governing bodies and even some of the new language with the nFOG. I don't know enough yet to have an opinion. We will be taking a large part of Sunday and Monday to continue to study and understand this complex issue.
My Committee, new "Form of Government" is considering a recommendation to accept a major re-write of the book of order. (for those non-Presbyterians, the BOO is our polity book, sort of our laws of regulation that provide rules for everything from hiring pastors, to selling Presbyterian properties, to ordination, to rules about who should be on a churches session, how the committee on Ministry should act etc. When first hearing about being selected for this committee, I thought BLAHHHHHH!!!! I thought I was going to do nothing but work on bureaucracy. I was not sure how this was supposed to help the Presbyterian Church. On reflection, the work of this committee could introduce one of the biggest changes to the Presbyterian church in decades. So it is more exciting then perhaps it sounds.
One of the main reasons for this new Form of Government (nFOG) proposal is to help the smaller congregations and geographically diverse Presbyteries. A church of 20 people, can't have a 8 member pastor nominating committee A Presbytery of 30 churches, 900 members over 4 states can't hope to fulfill the requirements set up in the book of order for the Committee On Ministry.
So what does the FOG task force want to do? The recommendation or this nFOG is to create more flexibility and make the rules and regulations less rigorous so churches, presbyteries and synods can focus more on issues of greater importance like mission. It greatly reduces the size of the BOO. In addition, this nFOG could be a peace plan of how we can accept more diversity by creating a more flexible environment.
It is a very complex issue. So complex that our committee started a day before everyone else.
Conceptually, the nFOG seems to be good idea. However, it also seems there may be tremendous issues and problems with dealing with conflict, power of the governing bodies and even some of the new language with the nFOG. I don't know enough yet to have an opinion. We will be taking a large part of Sunday and Monday to continue to study and understand this complex issue.
Saturday, June 26, 2010
Honored to be in your prayers
As stated in my previous blog, I have received a ton of mail regarding the General Assembly. Most of the mail contains information about different groups agendas and opinions. I don't have any problem or complaints about this type of mail, it effectively informs me of the issues and arguments for or against certain points.
In this blog, I wanted to share information about another type of mail I have received. A couple of mailings that express no opinion, just notes from people that tell me they are praying for me. A couple days ago, I received a hand written letter from a woman, Dorthy Kirpatrick from Sarasota Florida. Below is what the letter stated:
Dear Gregg,
A short note to tell you I will be praying for our safe travel to the General Assembly. May you seek God's will in making decisions in all discernments. God Bless You, Your prayer partner - Dorthy Kirpatrick.
The note made my day. Thank you Dorthy and thank all of you for your continued prayers. It means a lot to me. It is such an honor to serve as commissioner to GA and even more of an honor for people like Dorthy to be praying for me.
In this blog, I wanted to share information about another type of mail I have received. A couple of mailings that express no opinion, just notes from people that tell me they are praying for me. A couple days ago, I received a hand written letter from a woman, Dorthy Kirpatrick from Sarasota Florida. Below is what the letter stated:
Dear Gregg,
A short note to tell you I will be praying for our safe travel to the General Assembly. May you seek God's will in making decisions in all discernments. God Bless You, Your prayer partner - Dorthy Kirpatrick.
The note made my day. Thank you Dorthy and thank all of you for your continued prayers. It means a lot to me. It is such an honor to serve as commissioner to GA and even more of an honor for people like Dorthy to be praying for me.
Wednesday, June 23, 2010
Civil Marriage and Holy Unions
Outlook magazine (http://www.pres-outlook.org/) has sponsored webinars every Tuesday to present some of the major issues coming up before GA. It has done an excellent job at getting speakers to represent both sides of the issues. The webinar yesterday was presenting the "Report On Civil Marriage and Holy Unions". I see this issue and any issue regarding same-sex couples, Civil Unions, LBGT ordination, homosexuality as one of the most contentious issues and in many ways it baffles me. First of all, I do not believe homosexuality is a sin or a choice. I am sure that last sentence offends many but I would challenge you to walk a mile in my shoes. I have a 24 year old son that is gay. He is extremely helpful, generous, and compassionate. As a child, he was very involved in the church and because he feels the church does not accept or condone his life style, I don't know if I will ever get him back to church. This breaks my heart for the church means so much to me.
Getting back to why the contentious nature of this issue baffles me. If homosexuality is a sin, why is more of a sin then materialism, coveting, divorce, lying, ignoring people in need. If homosexuality is a sin and all sins are the same then I suppose then only God can be ordained. I have heard several that are against same-sex anything say that we want to welcome everyone into our church and want to be inclusive and welcome and invite the LGBT community into our flock. We invite them to ride on the bus but they have to sit in the back. My wife would never belong to a church that did not ordain women, why would we expect the gay community to flock to come to a church that considers them less worthy then others. We are missing out on an opportunity to evangelize and grow within this segment of the population. It is not only the LGBT people that we are discouraging to come in our doors, it is their families, friends & sympathizers. Perhaps this is one of the contributing factors why the church is shrinking.
I love my church and love being a Presbyterian, I will never abandon the church. The church is flawed as I know I am. I pray that the people of the world including me can see past the flaws, disagreements and intolerance and see the church for what it is meant to be, a place to find God and a vehicle to show gratitude for what God has given us by ministering to the rest of the world.
Getting back to why the contentious nature of this issue baffles me. If homosexuality is a sin, why is more of a sin then materialism, coveting, divorce, lying, ignoring people in need. If homosexuality is a sin and all sins are the same then I suppose then only God can be ordained. I have heard several that are against same-sex anything say that we want to welcome everyone into our church and want to be inclusive and welcome and invite the LGBT community into our flock. We invite them to ride on the bus but they have to sit in the back. My wife would never belong to a church that did not ordain women, why would we expect the gay community to flock to come to a church that considers them less worthy then others. We are missing out on an opportunity to evangelize and grow within this segment of the population. It is not only the LGBT people that we are discouraging to come in our doors, it is their families, friends & sympathizers. Perhaps this is one of the contributing factors why the church is shrinking.
I love my church and love being a Presbyterian, I will never abandon the church. The church is flawed as I know I am. I pray that the people of the world including me can see past the flaws, disagreements and intolerance and see the church for what it is meant to be, a place to find God and a vehicle to show gratitude for what God has given us by ministering to the rest of the world.
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