Ecumenical Greetings from Father Siarhei Sardun

Here is the video clip from the General Assembly Business Session 7, which was introduced by Father Siarhei Sardun, from the Orthodox Church in Belarus. He was asked to bring greetings as an Ecumenical Advisory Delegate. He is introduced about a minute in. The fireworks begin about five minutes in. The whole clip is about eight minutes long.

I have been unable to find a transcription of his greeting. The following is a synopsis posted by The Discerning Deacon.

If you are unfamiliar with the currents in the Presbyterian Church, the introductory minute shows you a glimpse of the Clash of Cultures (and Christianities, Fr. Sardun encountered) The shorthand from Fr's speech:  I am from the Ancient Orthodox church, unchanged from 2,000 years.  We were nearly exterminated by the secular forces of the 20th Century, but are now resurgent.  The East is embracing Orthodoxy again.  We have had the financial help of the Presbyterian church in America, so I have come here to thank you since I have never encountered the Presbyterian Church before.  Now that I have encountered you, I find that you do not embrace the ancient faith.  You have changed the Nicene creed by adding the Filioque.  And another thing.  I was really struck by your discussion of Christian morality.  Christian morality is as old as the church itself.  It doesn't need to be invented now.  And those attempts to invent a new morality, look to me like attempts to invent a new religion.  A sort of modern paganism.  When people say they are led and guided by the Holy Spirit to do it, I wonder if it is the same Holy Spirit that inspired the Bible, the same Holy Spirit that inspires the Holy Orthodox Church not to change anything in Christian Doctrine and Moral Standards...

Sing it Brother!  It took some cast iron cojones to stand before the entire leadership of the Presbyterian Church and warn them of turning into pagans -- speaking Truth to Power.  This is what we are all called to do every day folks -- in large ways and small.  Pray that the Lord helps us find the courage to love him this much.

As you can see in the video, Father Sardun is extremely gracious, he is deeply thankful for the monetary support of the PC(USA) and its partnership. However, as a friend, he has some harsh things to say, but he does it graciously, don't you think?

The arguments over the inclusion of the Filioque clause in the Apostles' Creed have been going on since the sixth century. The following is from Wikipedia, the whole article is here.

Filioque, Latin for "and (from) the Son", was added in Western Christianity to the Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed, commonly referred to as the Nicene Creed. This creed, foundational to Christian belief since the 4th century, defines the three persons of the Trinity: the Father, the Son (Jesus Christ), and the Holy Spirit. In its original Greek form, the creed says that the Holy Spirit proceeds "from the Father". The Latin text speaks of the Holy Spirit as proceeding "from the Father and the Son".

Et in Spiritum Sanctum, Dominum, et vivificantem: qui ex Patre Filioque procedit.

(And in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, and giver of life, who proceeds from the Father and the Son.)

The word Filioque was first added to the Creed at the Third Council of Toledo (589) and its inclusion spread later throughout the Frankish Empire.^[1] In the 9th century, Pope Leo III, while accepting, like his predecessor Pope Leo I, the doctrine, suppressed the singing of the Filioque in the Mass of the Roman rite.^[1] In 1014, however, inclusion of Filioque in the Creed was adopted in Rome.^[1] Since its denunciation by Photios I of Constantinople,^[1] it has been an ongoing source of conflict between the East and West, contributing to the East-West Schism of 1054 and proving an obstacle to attempts to reunify the two sides.^[2]

 If this were Father Sardun's only critique, it seems like a rather quaint revisit to ancient controversies. But he does not leave it there. He critiques quite forcefully the new moral standards, (I suppose he means the debates about homosexual marriage and ordination). He likens this approach to a creation of a new religion, a new "paganism".

Not satisfied with that, he goes deeper in critiquing the continual references to the Holy Spirit. Almost every prayer at the General Assembly, and rightly in my opinion, asked for the guidance of the Holy Spirit. And yet, Father Sardun points out, when the conclusion we come to differs from what Scripture clearly teaches, are we, in fact, listening to the same spirit?

On the one hand, this from a man who is proud that the Orthodox Church has not changed doctrinally for 2,000 years, so ANY deviation would be a large one. So one could chalk this up to hyperbole, or to our country brother visiting the big city for the first time.

But on the other hand, he has a point. The phrase bandies about at many Presbyterian meetings is "the Church Reformed, always Reforming."

There are several popular Latin mottos associated with the Protestant Reformation, one of which is “ecclesia reformata, semper reformanda.”  Translated into English this Latin phrase reads, “the church reformed and always reforming.”  This phrase first appeared in a 1674 devotional by Jodocus van Lodenstein, who was involved in the Dutch Second Reformation.  According to van Lodenstein and other reformers who used the phrase, the church was reformed under the Protestant Reformation, but it was always in need of further reformation, that is according to the Word of God.

Almost five hundred years after the Protestant Reformation began, this is certainly still true of the church today.  Consider two critical examples of how the church should always be reforming:

1.  Culture. 

The church needs to always be reforming because of the influence of the culture.  The culture is always changing (especially these days) and a danger the church faces is conforming to the culture in order to be relevant and popular.  To the degree that the church has conformed to the culture it needs to be reformed according to the Scripture.

2.  Tradition.

The church needs to always be reforming because of the influence of tradition.  One danger the church faces is for tradition to become more authoritative than Scripture and to do certain things because they’ve always been done a certain way.  To be sure certain traditions can be good, but they become harmful to the church when they conflict with biblical teaching.  Traditions must always be tested according to the Scriptures and if they fail the test, the church should be reformed.

A great Scriptural summary of “the church reformed and always reforming” is Romans 12:2, “And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.”

One of the things often lacking in the reforming debate is that phrase "secundum verbum Dei", or "according the the Word of God". Much of our current "reformation" seems to be following the culture rather than stemming from God's Word. [SDG-JS]

Scraps of Thoughts on Daily Prayer- Tim Keller

A wonderful and helpful little message by Tim Keller on, well, you read the title!

There are three kinds of prayer I try to find time for every day — meditation (or contemplation), petition, and repentance. I concentrate on the first two every morning and do the last one in the evening.

Meditation is actually a middle ground or blend of Bible reading and prayer. I like to use Luther’s contemplative method that he outlines in his famous letter on prayer that he wrote to his barber. The basic method is this – to take a Scriptural truth and ask three questions of it. How does this show me something about God to praise? How does this show me something about myself to confess? How does this show me something I need to ask God for? Adoration, confession, and supplication. Luther proposes that we keep meditating like this until our hearts begin to warm and melt under a sense of the reality of God. Often that doesn’t happen. Fine. We aren’t ultimately praying in order to get good feelings or answers, but in order to honor God for who he is in himself.

There are two kinds of Bible reading that I try to do. I read the psalms through every month using the Book of Common Prayer’s daily office. I also read through the Bible using Robert Murray M’Cheyne’s reading calendar. I take the more relaxed version — two chapters a day, which takes you through the Old Testament every two years and the New Testament every year. I do the M’Cheyne reading and some of the psalms in the morning, and read some Psalms in the evening. I choose one or two things from the psalms and M’Cheyne chapters to meditate on, to conclude my morning devotions.

Go ahead. Jump start your prayer life and read the whole thing. And if you have never used M'Cheyne's reading plan, try it, you will like it. [SDG-JS]

More Thoughts on General Assembly

After every great sporting event, there will be those who write their reflections on the event. "Monday Morning Quarterbacks" is what we call some of them. Second-guessing is human nature. But it is far easier to second-guess in the comfort of your own home or office, with leisurely time to ponder all the possibilities, than it is to take part in the great contest, played out in real time, not slo-mo capture cameras from eight different angles.

Still, there is something healthy about reflecting on significant events. I will try to read what others are writing about the recent 219th General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (USA), and pass them along to you.

One speaker I heard was Ecumenical Advisory Delegate from the Orthodox Church in Belarus, Archpriest Siarhei Hardun. This article in the Layman Online seems to provide a decent summary of his comments. Several that resonated with me are captured in the article.

The Belarusian cleric spoke words of gratitude for PCUSA mission workers in the region and then turned to his evaluation of the week in Minneapolis.

“I am for the first time with Presbyterians, and now I want to say a few words about my impressions that I feel visiting this General Assembly,” he said.

Hardun’s first impression was related to the use of the 11th century version of the Nicene Creed instead of the 4th century version preferred by ecumenical councils.

He then said, “And another thing. I was really struck while listening to your discussion about homosexuality, same-sex marriage, civil unions and other moral issues. Christian morality is as old as Christianity itself. It doesn’t need to be invented now. Those attempts to invent new morality look for me like attempts to invent a new religion – a sort of modern paganism.

“When people say that they are led and guided by the Holy Spirit to do it, I wonder if it is the same Spirit that inspired the Bible, if it is the same Holy Spirit that inspires the Holy Orthodox Church not to change anything doctrinal or moral standards? It is really the same Spirit or perhaps there are different spirits acting in different denominations and inspiring them to develop in different directions and create different theologies and different morals?

“My desire is that all Christians should contend earnestly for the faith, which was once for all delivered to the saints, as St. Jude calls us to do (Jude 1:3). And my advice as an Ecumenical Advisory Delegate is the following: 'Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.’” (Romans 12:2). 

These are thoughts that are well worth heeding. I am grateful for his courage to utter them with confidence and boldness, and paying no heed to the overwhelming oppression of political correctness that can accompany such gatherings.

My friend, and fellow soccer referee, Steve Salyards, is a General Assembly junkie. In fact, he has a blog called GA Junkie!He has developed a summary chart of the actions of the GA, and it is pretty useful, I think. One of Steve's comments is really good, and I would agree to a great extent:

2) While acknowledging that a lot of people are frustrated, to say the least, by the Assembly deferring the issue all together, this whole sequence points to a much larger issue related to the Assembly -- the Assembly has far too little time to do way too much business.  Both the move to quickly answer all the other business with the report as well as the strong response not to reconsider it today are, in my observation, an indication that the commissioners are setting priorities for what items they are willing to engage in lengthy debates about and they essentially said that this was not one of them.  Back at the 209th GA when I was a commissioner we reached 1 AM on Friday night (i.e. Saturday morning) and just started referring business to the 210th GA to finish off the docket.

Please be clear that I am not saying that the commissioners were looking to ignore the issue, wanted a quick fix, or needed an easy out, especially because of the late hour.  What I am saying is that in the multitude of factors that the commissioners were weighing, consciously and subconsciously, the fact that they had a limited amount of time to deal with an overwhelming amount of work was a factor that influenced some and, I believe, the original resolution passed at that hour when it probably would not have passed at an earlier hour of the day.

After tracking GA's for a number of years I have come to understand that an Assembly has one good debate per day in them.  It appears that Thursday's debate was on the issue of ordination standards.  The commissioners saved their energy for that and when finished they then had enough of hot topics for the day.  Again, this is not a reflection on the inherent importance of the topic itself, only the tendency of the Assembly to prioritize the use of their time and energy.

If you are wondering about the energy level of the Assembly, it was clear from the commissioners at the microphone that by Friday morning the energy was starting to fade -- There was one commissioner that had lost track of which day it was and another that had lost track of which vote they were taking.

Now, my comments here are not a conservative's plea of "Let not deal with it and keep the status quo." This is a realist's plea to say "Let's find a better way to deal with it."  That is also part of the message of our Special Committee report.  The Assembly has a limited amount of time to deal with a whole lot of business.  For the most part the commissioner committee process is successful and the full Assembly tends to trust the intense discernment and study each committee puts in on the topic.  But there are still enough major issues to eat up more time than the GA has to faithfully deal with them.

So, can we step back for a moment and ask if the PC(USA) is trying to do too much business with too little time?  Are we giving ourselves space to be the body of Christ together in real discernment listening to each other.  That is what the Special Committee did and our conclusion was that we were brothers and sisters in Christ around that table and while we could not come to agreement on that topic, we were still around the table together.

I don't know the answer.  I ask myself if we need to limit the business to an Assembly.  Do we need to restructure the way business gets done.  Do we need more Assemblies, each more specifically focused.  I'm still thinking and have not decided yet.  But it is my conclusion that at the present time the General Assembly feels the constraint of the clock too much with too much to do in too little time to properly work through it.

My thoughts for today -- your mileage may vary.

Well said, ref!

Some of these observations are sort of an "Inside Baseball" look at the GA. There was much to like about the event, even if one did not wholeheartedly agree with the positions taken. I found this article by the official PC(USA) writers a good one, highlighting the local youth who helped with the logistics of the assembly.

Energetic members of the Committee on Local Arrangement (COLA) greeted Presbyterians as they arrived in Minneapolis last weekend. The now-familiar white smocks (with the Presbyterian symbol emblazoned on front and back) cloaked volunteers at the baggage claim carousels, ready to point people to waiting buses and answer any questions. For the first time at a General Assembly, however, COLA invited local youth to volunteer alongside them.

Ed Martin, an adult volunteer, said the transportation team intentionally implemented aspects of the Restorative Justice paper (approved at the 214th General Assembly in 2002). The paper states that restorative justice works to address the needs of victim, offender and the community, without afflicting punishment or revenge, but by pursuing “the biblical visions of shalom and the kingdom of God.”

Accompanying some of the area’s troubled youth, Presbyterian volunteers modeled positive service. Martin commented that it was an easy way to say, “We care.” Roman Catholic, Lutheran, United Church of Christ, and United Methodist teens all helped with the hospitality; interestingly, none of the youth was Presbyterian.

Martin said, “The most wonderful thing was to see these young people get thanked. They don’t get that very often.” He continued, “That’s what the church is all about: helping them to feel important and valuable.”

In addition to the local youth, two church groups, from Plymouth Presbyterian Church, Plymouth, Minn., and Central Presbyterian Church, Atlanta, Ga., also helped the transportation teams. COLA expects some youth to also help as people depart on Saturday.

I will leave you with two comments from the Kopp Disclosure, written by motorcycle riding pot stirrer, Dr. Robert Kopp from Illinois.

Another faithful fellah in Texas wrote, "Presbyterian evangelist Charles Finney was once reported to have said, 'Every time there's a Presbyterian General Assembly, there's a jubilee in hell!'...There is only one, holy, catholic, apostolic CHURCH. You don't get into it by leaving the PCUSA; nor are you excluded from it by staying in the PCUSA...Denominations aren't Biblical, nor are they 'working' anymore...I will not run and leave the camp, and the lambs, to the Philistines..."

Amen!

A seminarian at PTS (Pittsburgh): "What does the world see when it looks at the church today? I am afraid it sees us as just another special interest group...The world sees infighting...We imitate the world more than the Word...Even the command given to us to love one another can be trashed if it gets in the way of our need to win...The evil one has now brought Christ's church to the place where it may fall because of its divisions...We need God's intervention. God alone can lift our eyes out of the mud pit where we have become content to dwell...If the church is to recover, we need to repent and seek God's grace now. The world that Jesus died to save needs us now more than ever. We must be healed by God. Then we must extend those healed and healing hands to our hurting neighbors. Let the church become a place of love, hope, and joy for such a time as this.

Refreshing.

That's it for this Sunday morning. I am resting from my travels and adventures today. And watching the World Cup Final with my son at 11:30 this morning. [SDG-JS]

Friday Morning, It is Finished

Actually, the 219th General Assembly will close in about 45 minutes with a worship service. I am glad for the opening and closing worship services. It frames the context in which we do business. We are not here just to conduct business, but to worship the Lord who has redeemed us and called us. Our business is part of our worship. I have been in session meetings in other churches where we only open a perfunctory prayer, and then dig right into the business at hand. I think this sets the wrong tone, and dishonors Jesus. What we do is because of who He is.

Last night was a long night. The plenary session ended around 10:30 p.m., and then my committee, Committee Three- General Assembly Procedures, had its final meeting. We met to approve the General Assembly per capita budget for 2011 and 2012. This morning, our recommendation was presented to the whole assembly for approval.

I found the whole process bizarre to say the least. Each overture in the General Assembly has a section called "Financial Implications". Every Task Force, every Study, every thing we do, it seems, costs money. And commissioners keep voting for overtures with financial implications, and the cash register tape keeps on going. There seems to be no thought whatsoever on this issue.

For example, last night, an overture was made for some study on women's issues. Part of the cost was going to be paid from money that was not used for a similar study in 2009. However, no one seemed to know whether the amount for 2010-2011 was in addition to that money, or whether the 2010-2011 budget was the whole thing, or what.

In addition, and I cannot find the documentation right now, an overture to define "youth" was passed that called for about $60,000 over three years. The emphasis was to make sure that across the board, ever board and committee and group in the PC(USA) used the term "youth" to refer to the same group of people. Interesting concept, I suppose, for a policy wonk. But $60K?

Sadly, we seem to be following the culture on this. We keep adding things to do, all good things, no doubt, and then we will figure out later how to pay for them. The financial guys I talked to here seem to be solid citizens, and good fellows. But they are clearly trying to do the best they can in the situation they have been given. There is no time given to prioritizing these items, developing a process to determine which of the dozens of new things should be given priority.

There was a committee/department called the PHEWA, Presbyterian Health, Education and Welfare Agency. In the downsizing in Louisville in the recent past, much of this department was gutted, and its functions absorbed into other departments. But last night, overture after overture was presented to restore this agency which had been cut. Instead of adapting to new realities, people just wanted one more opportunity at the trough.

There was an interesting proposal from the Mission Committee to fund some 1,000 Volunteers In Mission. There is a cost, to be sure. But these VIM's are expected to raise their own support, and the subsidies are minimal. Right on cue, a YAAD (Young Adult Advisory Delegate) rose to speak in favor of the funding. She said that she would love to volunteer for mission, but someone else had to pay her way.

Another woman bemoaned the fact that there was no Presbyterian Church near her college campus, and that the Presbyterian Center on her campus was shutting down due to lack of funding. She was bereft, and pleaded for more funding. The answer for many, it seems, is "more funding".

Another clear answer during the entire Assembly was the mantra of "diversity". I really like the diversity of people. Different genders, different cultures, different points of view, it all makes for a rich experience. And yet, especially when discussing the GLBTQ issues, time and again it was stated as dogmatic fact that the Presbyterian Church (USA) is not growing because we are not being as inclusive as we should be. Code language, I suppose, for the idea that if only we ordained GLBTQ folks, the PC(USA) would explode with growth.

Well, it is an idea, to be sure. And yet, look at the denominations where the ordination has been happening, and look at how their denominations are "exploding" with growth.

One more take on the GLBTQ discussions. We heard repeated time and again that the Global South was the next wave of growth in the church, and that we needed to support our brothers and sisters in the Global South. This was true for debates about Iraq and Afghanistan. However, when it was pointed out again and again that our current discussions entertaining the idea of ordaining GLBTQ folks is viscerally disgusting and disappointing to our brothers and sisters in the Global South. Our pursuit of this agenda may be winning a friend or two in our decadent and narcissistic culture, but we are really offending our mission partners around the world. And yet, as always, since the days of colonialism, we listen to our "partners" as long as they toe the line on our agenda. For all the talk about sensitivity and inclusiveness, in my own opinion, this General Assembly failed to be consistent with its own stated values.

But politics is not life. There are some here this week who absolutely live for this. This political process is a drug for them. And having the GA meet every other year just makes it worse for them. It is like eating every other year. They are famished for the political machinations. For many of us, the experience is confusing, and overwhelming. We are given a week to digest huge amounts of information, and debate on things we have only recently heard about. It is tough enough to keep up with ones own committee work, much less all the other issues to any depth.

Still, I am grateful to have been a participant. it is a singular opportunity. I will probably never attend another GA as a commissioner. Too bad, really. In a perfect world, the number of delegates would decrease. We deliberated with 712 delegates, and almost 200 advisers. That's almost 1,000 people! Can't get much done in a group that size. In a perfect world, each presbytery would send one minister and one elder as commissioners, and also one minister and one elder as "trainees". That is, they would go as observers, and participate in the whole process, except voting. Nothing prepares one for GA like actually going. But after the experience, there is little one can do to follow up on that experience. I think this sort of thing would be most helpful.

It is the people who make GA what it is. Last night at dinner, I sat next to a guy whose name looked familiar. As we talked, we discovered that we had gone to the same high school together, though he was a year older. It was great to connect with him, and hear about his church near Olympia, Washington.

I got to know a young man named Mark who is a pastor in San Jose. He is a Japanese-American serving a largely white congregation, but doing it with enthusiasm and joy.

In committee, I sat next to Eric who had run for Moderator of the General Assembly. From Eau Claire, Wisconsin, he had really good insights into the processes during the week.

I talked with a woman named Sara who spent four years in the Navy, and just finished her first year at Princeton Seminary. She has a passion to use her more artistic side to communicate the gospel to others.

General Assembly was not like going to camp for a week. This was not about my spiritual growth, it was about work, about serving Christ, about wrestling with the how Jesus wants us to respond to contemporary problems and opportunities. And yet, the wise words of Bob Davies run through my head, "The GA exists to do business, not to solve problems." So I am grateful for the opportunity to take part, to voice what I think Jesus stands for in these crucial and not so crucial votes, to get to see the larger body gather to worship and pray and work, to get to meet colleagues from the past, and colleagues I will work with in the future.


There was much to like here. There was much to appreciate here. There was much to be frustrated by and disappointed in here. And yet, that is our lot on this side of the Jordan, isn't it? Even in a like-minded place like APC, we disagree, we sometimes treat one another in a less than Jesus-honoring manner, we can act studpidly, selfishly, desiring our own preferences above God's will. And yet, God loves us. We are God's people, and He is shaping us in this crucible of life and ministry and community to become his beautiful bride. A bride not out of some pristine bubble, but a bride who has taken her lumps, who has worked in the fields, who has been through hard times. A bride who is all the more beautiful because of her suffering and wounds, because that suffering makes her long all the more for the bridegroom.

So at the end of this experience, my desire is stronger than ever for the growth and health of the church. But more importantly, my heart yearns more and more for Jesus. "Come Lord Jesus, come!" Maranatha!

Thanks for your prayers this week, they helped. They sustained me. And thanks for allowing me to go on this madcap adventure called General Assembly. I hope I honored the Lord, and I hope I served you well, to the best of my ability. I look forward to seeing you all soon. Now, I gotta pack, and check out, and get to the airport, etc. California, here I come.

Thursday, More Than Hump Day

A grueling day today at the General Assembly. I had a breakfast this morning at 7:00 a.m., but I could not get myself out of bed for it. But some good news before the rest of my midnight reflections.

First, the COLA (Committee on Local Arrangements) has collected socks and underwear for homeless folks in the area. It will be distributed through churches and homeless shelters. A bunch has been collected, and it has been a great "Hands on Mission".

In news closer to home, Dakota Santana-Grace, son of our Executive presbyter, opened the afternoon session with prayer. Quite an honor for the young man. He is an impressive kid. He just had his abstract published in the national journal of paleontology for a discovery he made on a dinosaur dig in Wyoming this year. He was on Committee Six, which dealt with the ordination standards. He was pulled both ways by the biblical witness, the theology and history, but also the personal testimonies. He has a good heart and a really fine mind. It has been fun to talk with him and sit with him in the main assembly sessions.

Among the actions yesterday and today:

1. The Belhar Confession was approved to be sent to the presbyteries for adoption into our Book of Confessions. This confession is brief, and came out of apartheid South Africa, and speaks to the unity of the church. On the surface, it is fine. At worst, many fear this will be used to further erode the ordination standards.
2. The nFOG was passed, to be sent to the presbyteries for acceptance or rejection. 
3. Today, in a very close and painful vote, the ordination standards have been changed, pending the approval of the presbyteries. You will read more about this, I am sure. 

Final Text:

Shall G-6.0106b be amended by striking the current text and inserting new text in its place: [Text to be deleted is shown with a strike-through; text to be added or inserted is shown as italic.]

“b. Those who are called to office in the church are to lead a life in obedience to Scripture and in conformity to the historic confessional standards of the church. Among these standards is the requirement to live either in fidelity within the covenant of marriage between a man and a woman (W-4.9001), or chastity in singleness. Persons refusing to repent of any self-acknowledged practice which the confessions call sin shall not be ordained and/or installed as deacons, elders, or ministers of the Word and Sacrament. Standards for ordained service reflect the church’s desire to submit joyfully to the Lordship of Jesus Christ in all aspects of life (G-1.0000). The governing body responsible for ordination and/or installation (G.14.0240; G-14.0450) shall examine each candidate’s calling, gifts, preparation, and suitability for the responsibilities of office. The examination shall include, but not be limited to, a determination of the candidate’s ability and commitment to fulfill all requirements as expressed in the constitutional questions for ordination and installation (W-4.4003). Governing bodies shall be guided by Scripture and the confessions in applying standards to individual candidates.”

 My comments, there is much to like about the new phrasing, and in a perfect world, this would be the way I think the Reformers would want this. However, we live in a broken and sexually confused world. We live in a world where sexual sin is promoted as healthy, even holy. And so, in 1997, the church spoke to that with the adoption of G6.0106b. This is now deleted, and replaced by this other language, pending the adoption of the presbyteries. If the new language is defeated, I believe that the language reverts back to the original.

To be fair, the old language did seem aimed primarily at the folks who call themselves GLBTQ. It has been used primarily to keep them out of ordained positions. It has not been used, as far as I know, to not allow a sexually active single man or woman to become a pastor. So on the issue of fairness, there is a point to be made here. However, the explicit standard, I think, needs to be upheld.

Tonight had the makings of a huge problem for many of us who are more conservative. However, the Assembly adopted BOTH the Majority and Minority reports on Christian Marriage and Civil Unions. There was a late amendment to change all the references of "man and woman" in the marriage sections to "two people." In a surprising move, the YAAD's (Young Adult Advisory Delegates) seemed to vote for the more traditional view of marriage. So these reports are being sent to the presbyteries for study, dialogue, reflection. But you can be sure that this issue will come up again.

And it needs to. In some states, same sex couples can marry. What is the church's guidance for pastors in this case? Should they do the ceremony? Should they not? Should a church allow a same-sex "wedding" to take place in the sanctuary? It may be easy for you to answer this, but this is a live debate among pastors who want to hold biblical morality, and yet also provide pastoral care for those who come to them. Whatever might have happened with these proposals was covered by a blanket motion tonight, no doubt due to people being frazzled. So this issue will come back again.

Your San Gabriel representatives are doing very well. Heather Williams has been a trooper, as has her husband, Tudor, offering kind and affirming words to others. Tuey Lee (ALhambra True Light) and Jerry Porter (Covina First) have struggled with being elder commissioners. It has been hard to follow some of the parliamentary processes. But I love their spirit, of hanging in there, asking questions, trying to make sense of scripture and the leading of the Spirit.

There's no business like show business, and there are no politics like church politics. I remind you, we do not have a pope/dictator that tells us what to believe and do. Nor is it every man for himself in the congregational model. We have a reformed/presbyterian form of government, and we study and debate and do it with as much grace and dignity we can muster. And after six days together, nerves are getting a little frayed.

Much to my surprise and delight, the new moderator, Cindy Bolbach, and the assistant moderator, Matt Whitsitt, are doing very well keeping things moving. While I may not be in their corner on some issues, I really like how they have handled themselves in these very contentious debates. Grace under pressure, I liike what I see so far. May that same grit and determination serve them well in their two-year terms.

Lastly, ate at Hell's Kitchen tonight, but still no Dairy Queen.

Lastly plus one, after a long day tomorrow, when all is said and done, my committee will be back at work on, what else, the budget. Help me, Jesus! I appreciate your prayers, keep them up, please.

Signing off from the Minnie Apple. [SDG-JS]

Wednesday Evening, Voting and DQ Closed

Saddest image of the week right here, friends. After a week with my family in which we went to DQ every day, I have not been to a DQ since they left last Friday. OK, so seven days without DQ makes one weak, I get it. So tonight, after dining with the fine folks of the San Gabriel presbytery (thanks for dinner, Ruth, it was great!), I walked one block to the USBank Building at 800 Nicollet Mall, went up the escalator to #205, and this is what I saw. Ah, the agony! Sometime between now and Saturday, I will get to this DQ before they close.

Here is Heather Williams sitting next to Dr. Jack Rogers at our San Gabriel Presbytery dinner tonight at The Newsroom.

I began the morning with the Presbyterians for Renewal Breakfast. Unlike last Saturday, this one actually served food. Whodathunk? It was nice to gather with these folks. Saw Doug Nason there, and he says "hello".

We heard Dr. Andrew Purves speak. He is professor at Pittsburgh Theological Seminary, and Scottish. So he has that delightful Scottish brogue. Here are my notes:

Purves (PFR)
7-7-10

1. Conserving people- we conserve what we love and what is valuable

2. Traditioned people- we do not make up the Christian faith in each new generation, it is the faith once delivered to the saints. We anchor our current expressions of the faith in tradition.

Story of young priest who could not agree with everything in the Nicene Creed. Told to say it until he believes it. Not my creed, but our creed. Not my personal creed, but the creed of the church.
 
Our understanding of Jesus is far too small. Christological timidity. Our faith is too at home in our culture. Encounter with a living Lord, not an argument.

Four historical markers of Christology

A) Incarnation - downward movement - God saves in this way -God acts personally, not just what God  does (mission), but who God is (theology) Can NEVER separate the two.

B) Resurrection- Jesus is alive, raised in the body, not a metaphor. Story of his son's birth announced at hid

C) Ascension- loss of this is fatal to Christian life- means he lives and acts now! Is Jesus in the room this morning? Living reigning acting Lord. Reinvigorate this in your teaching.

D) Holy Spirit- not just the power of the Spirit. Spirit joins us to Jesus- union with Christ, share in his life and his mission. Key emphasis by Calvin- union with Christ. [my comment- otherwise, the Holy Spirit is simply utilitarian, helping us do things.]

Good stuff, for 6:00 a.m. I am finding that I am still on California time, so I am staying up late, and getting up late if I can. But when I need to get up for a breakfast at 6:00 a.m., Lord help me! Our plenary sessions for the GA began this afternoon. We got ahead of schedule this afternoon, and then got a little bogged down tonight.

We tackled some easy stuff this afternoon. Eric Hoy made a great presentation on "Growing Christ's Church Deep and Wide". He showed a video of how one church is doing this. I love that his department is telling stories, and using videos to do it. Eric spoke well, and looks really good, too. He looks very relaxed, and seems to have found a good and productive spot in Lousiville. Click on the link to see some of the videos produced by this department. Here is one shown at tonight, called "Where are the youth?"

Left: your San Gabriel Presbytery Commissioners hard at work. From the right, Jerry Porter (from Covina 1st Presbyterian), Heather Williams, and Dakota Santana-Grace (our Youth Advisory Delegate). There are also TSAD's (Theological Student Advisory Delegates), MAD's (Missionary Advisory Delegates), and EPAD's (Ecumenical Partners Advisory Delegates.) These all vote first on an issue to "advise" the delegates how to vote. Some wag proposed a new kind of advisory delegate: a PGAD, (Peanut Gallery Advisory Delegate). If you don't find that funny, it is because you are not sleep deprived in Minneapolis. I guarantee you, if you were here, you'd find it funny!


The tools of our trade are the voting keypads. Here is a screen shot of one, during our "training". They work well, when used correctly. The voting questions are placed on the video screen. The Advisory Delegates are asked to vote first. Their keypads will glow blue, and given options. Once they push an option, say, "2", their unit will respond with the word "Received". Pushing "2" before the blue light is on will invalidate the vote. And one can always change their vote, as long as the voting is "live".

The AD's are given about 20 seconds to vote, and then the results appear on the video screens. Then the delegates are allowed to vote in the same manner. Whatever fiasco we had on electing the moderator on Sunday night (she was going to win, as the momentum had shifted her way, it may have taken another round or two of voting), the kinks have been worked out. My committee, General Assembly Procedures, was the Guinea Pig group to test out the equipment. What we learned in using the equipment for three days has helped smooth out the techie details. Once a gearhead, always a gearhead.
 
A great way to begin our time together as a large group. Then we got to vote on some issues. We heard a report on PILP (Presbyterian Investment and Loan Program), and the wonderful things it is doing. In my former church in Highland Park, we benefited from a PILP loan. Presbyteries and individuals invest in PILP, and get a guaranteed rate of return. In turn the money is loaned out to churches needing loans for capital improvements or building. It is a great program.


After dinner, we turned our attention to controversy number one, called nFOG. This is a proposed New Form of Government. The contention among the Emergents and those who want to be more missional, is that the current book of Order is more like a Manual of Operations than a constitution. Whereas the US constitution has been amended 25 times (or so), the Book of Order (BOO for short) has been amended over 300 times since 1983 when the northern and southern churches reunited.


So the nFOG proposes a much stripped down form of government, and allows more local control of how things happen. 


I spoke with an old colleague of mine at breakfast today. We worked for Inter Varsity in the Bay Area in the late 1970's and early 1980's. Gale is pretty conservative, and very thoughtful. He had initially been opposed to nFOG. But in the last year, and even in the last week of meeting, the committee has addressed many of the major concerns people have had. It is in no way a perfect document, and we only have one of those (and it has 66 books, right?) Anyway, Gale told me that he likes the nFOG document, and was leaning towards supporting it. This allayed my fears some. 

As I had read it, I, too, liked much of the language. One thing I did not like is that our current BOO begins with a "who", "Jesus Christ is Head of the Church". nFOG begins with the church's mission. Personally, I do not believe we can talk about the "what" unless we talk about the "who". Dr. Purves would have agreed with that. As would Bohnhoeffer. (See his "Creation and Fall")

Nonetheless, after much heated but civil debate, the assembly approved nFOG. by about a 2-1 margin.

What does that mean? Well, like all controversial amendments or votes at the General Assembly, these things will be submitted to the presbyteries for ratification. As has happened in the past, some of these are affirmed by a majority of the presbyteries, and become part of the BOO. Some are defeated, and do not become part of the BOO. 

I am not too concerned about the nFOG, really. But we will have to see how presbyteries vote on it. In its present form, I think it has some way to go before I would vote for it. I think it is about 80% of the way there. But the 20% bothers me. And yet, the majority has spoken, and we are off to the next task.

Well, it is now past midnight and I need to get up for another breakfast tomorrow, this one an Evangelism breakfast sponsored by our friend, Eric Hoy, and the speaker will be my old Inter Varsity boss, Steve Hayner, now president of Columbia Seminary. I am looking forward to that.

Goodnight, dear friends. Tomorrow is Heartbreak Hill day. In the Boston Marathon, there is a place called Heartbreak Hill. From wiki:

Heartbreak Hill is an ascent over 0.4 mile (600 m) of the Boston Marathon course, between the 20 and 21 mile marks, in the vicinity of Boston College. It is the last of four "Newton hills", which begin at the 16 mile mark. The Newton hills confound contestants (out of proportion to their modest elevation gain) by forcing a late climb after the downhill trend of the race to that point. Heartbreak Hill itself rises only 88 vertical feet (27 m), from an elevation of 148 feet at the bottom to an elevation of 236 feet at the top,^[11] but is positioned at a point on a marathon course where muscle glycogen stores are likely to be depleted—a phenomenon referred to by marathoners as "hitting the wall".

The nickname "Heartbreak Hill" originated with an event in the 1936 race. On this stretch, defending champion John A. Kelley caught race leader Ellison "Tarzan" Brown, giving Brown a consolatory pat on the shoulder as he passed. His competitive drive apparently stoked by this gesture, Tarzan Brown rallied, pulled away from Kelley, and went on to win—in the words of Boston Globe reporter Jerry Nason, "breaking Kelley's heart."^[12]

Tomorrow, we will deal with some very tough and emotional issues. It is Heartbreak Hill for the GA tomorrow. Whatever the outcome, each commissioner's spiritual resources will be depleted, and our dealing with one another may not be the best it can be. So pray for me, pray for all my brothers and sisters in Christ here, that we may seek the mind of Christ, seek to honor and worship Him, and live as His children. Goodnight. [SDG-JS]

Wednesday Morning, Gearing Up

Yesterday (Tuesday) was a grinding day, until 4:30. That's when my committee finally finished our business for the Assembly. Sort of. After the Assembly finishes its meeting Friday night, my committee will meet afterwards to discuss budget implications. Man, I knew serving for ten years on Administration and Finance at the Presbytery would come handy!

Today will be full. I had breakfast this morning with PFR, and heard Dr. Andrew Purves from Pittsburgh Seminary talk about the Four Markers of Our Faith. Love his Scottish accent and his sense of dry humor. Lunch will be with the folks from Fuller. Then at 1:30, the General Assembly will gather in a plenary session for the first time since Sunday to take up the business of the Assembly.

Oh, the PC(USA) has updated their website. It's about time. Check it out here, some of it is pretty cool and useful, especially the Bible reading section.

Some impressions of committee work, and then on the Assembly prognostications.

The committee work is both invigorating and mind-numbingly boring. Many of the issues before us were simply changing some words in the Book of Order. This is regular house keeping. For example, last year, there was a committee name change, and in the name change "Interfaith" was replaced with "Inter-religious". The implication is that "interfaith" refers to relations between Christians, for example, Methodists or Episcopalians. "Inter-Religious" means relationships with those who are religious, but not in the broader Christian family, like Buddhists, or Hindus, or Muslims. However, the name change on the committee was not reflected throughout the Book of Order, so we were asked to make changes throughout the BOO to reflect the change. Exciting, huh?

Some of the changes were more substantial. There was a motion to limit the scope of the Overture Advocate. When an overture comes to the General Assembly, it is parceled out to the appropriate committee. And the presbytery submitting the overture has the opportunity to send someone to GA as the overture advocate, who will both lobby for its passage, but be a resource person to answer questions about the overture. We thought it inappropriate to limit the input of the overture advocate beyond the limits put on anyone speaking to the committee.

My impression, after two days with the committee, is that people try to work together There are different understandings of many issues, but there is a willingness to debate and change minds, and to achieve clarity. I was deeply moved by people who had strong opinions on an overture, and then changed their minds because of the evidence, or because things were made clear.

Another impression is that the COGA (Committee on Office of the General Assembly) overtures were passed, and those proposed by presbyteries were almost always rejected or referred. Due to the nature of the COGA overtures as cleaning up the BOO and bringing clarity, this makes sense. But I got the sense that the deck was stacked in the favor of the COGA. They had several full-time resource with us all day, and that lent itself to more persuasion. So the cynic in me wants to believe that this is just a dog and pony show.

However, my impression is that many overtures from presbyteries are akin to advocating for a cow to bark. The nature of cows is to moo, not bark. And the nature of the General Assembly is to do certain things, and not other things. So that is why many of the overtures from Presbyteries, as good as they are as ideas, simply will not fly. That's the positive spin on it. We simply have to understand better how the GA works in order to reform it. It is like someone who wants to instruct me about how better to prepare for preaching. I have been doing this for years, and I hope am open to new ideas and new ways to prepare. But for someone who is not a preacher and has not preached to advise me on preparation for preaching seems a bit odd, and mostly I would reject the advice, with appreciation. And the COGA folks have all been gracious in their appreciation, but also firm in their opinions about why something would not work.

However, as positive a spin as this is, I cannot get away from a feeling that this is a small turf war. There seems to be an attitude of "this is our church" and "don't tell us how to run the church." It is not blatant, but I saw glimpses of it. There seems to be an attitude that the General Assembly is doing the work of the church. Well, I would disagree. It is you, dear brothers and sisters, who are doing the work of the church by teaching children, caring for the sick and the needy, praying for God's will to be done, etc.

I talked with a long-time colleague this morning, and he expects the New Form of Government (nFOG) to pass. This would be a mild to severe upset, as no one really expected this to pass this time around. However, the new moderator was on that committee, and according to my friend, Gale, who has been sitting in on that committee, many of the criticisms that have been leveled against the nFOG have been addressed in the committee. We shall see.

If I had to guess, the Middle East Study Report will be approved, with some revisions. I believe the Report on Christian Marriage and Civil Unions will pass as well, which does not change anyone's definition of anything as far as I can tell. And I think the ordination standards will remain the same, though it would not surprise me a bit if G-6.0106b is overturned. However, for that to happen, I believe it would have to be sent to the presbyteries for another vote. We've only been discussing this since 1978 in San Diego, so why not?

 I will try to blog as things progress this afternoon and evening. The power of the church is not at the national level. The power of thc church comes from God's people, filled with the Spirit, empowered to do God's work in the world. Overtures and debates are necessary, I suppose. But they are a poor substitute for the fruit of the Spirit.

Thanks for your continued prayers for Heather and me, and all the commissioners here in Minneapolis. Oh, the people from the San Gabriel Presbytery will be meeting for dinner tonight, so if there are issues to report from that gathering, I will pass those on as well. Thank you, dear APC family, for your support.

Monday, The Work Really Begins

Imagine yourself at a session meeting, discussing church policies and procedures. For ten hours. That was my day. Morning, afternoon, and tonight until 10:00 p.m. local time, I joined 52 other commissioners with a moderator, a co-moderator, and a parliamentarian, to discuss all sorts of issues. My brain is fried.

Most General Assembly business in committees happens on Monday and Tuesday, which is why you will hear very little news for these two days. The behind the scenes wrangling and amending and proposing and voting and discussing all happens early in the week. There are 19 committees meeting here. Most are about 40-50 members. Imagine a session meeting, trying to do business, with that many people!

We looked at a lot of things today, and I have no wishes to rehash what we did tonight. Instead, I will share with you some pictures I have taken, and make a few more observations.

Worst news of the day was losing my meal card. At this General Assembly, we were given credit cards which are good for a month. They are actually more like debit cards, in that they have a fixed amount on them. Mine had $240 loaded on, based on $12 for breakfast, $12 for lunch, and $21 for dinner for each meal that was not already covered by the GA. I used it at lunch today, and stupidly put it in my shirt pocket rather than my wallet. When I went to dinner this evening, I pulled out my wallet to pay, and it was not there. Doh! So I had to call the credit card company, and I need to talk to someone here tomorrow morning. I hope I can get a new one, less the $20+ I have already spent on this card.I am usually VERY careful with money like this. Blame it in the ten-hour committee meetings!

As I walked downtown Minneapolis, I walked past the Foshay tower. When I grew up here, the Foshay Tower was the tallest building in Minneapolis, and probably in Minnesota. It has since been surpassed numerous times. And yet, for those of us who remember, the Foshay Tower was a huge building. It is like the PC(USA) in a way. We used to be a large six million person denomination, and yet now are down to about two million. Maybe this is also a little like APC. We used to have several thousand members, and now have less than 400. Do we really have the right, PC(USA) or APC, to strut around thinking we are all that, based on our former glory? I pray not.

 This is the sign outside my committee room. Our room is 101DE, which means 101D and 101E put together. Pretty fancy stuff, yeah? I have liked the people I am with for the most part. There are a few annoying people. One of the guys, Eric, who ran for Moderator sits right next to me. Steve sits down the row, he is from the Shenango Presbytery. Shenango actually once sent a mission team to our church in Highland Park, for which we were very grateful. In front of me is Matt, who is from Northern Kansas. He moved there to get away from his dad (a seminary president) and brother (a seminary professor). Matt is just a pastor. Well, his dad and brother are now in the Northern Kansas Presbytery. Good luck, Matt. Across the way is Taylor, whose grandmother passed away today in Seattle. We prayed for her. In the corner by me is Belle, from Atlanta. Great name for someone from the South, eh? Some really fine folks, really.

This was the sign outside when I went to dinner tonight. It had just rained, so the humidity was about 95%. I love the smell after a midwestern rain. And 75 is about the coolest it has been here all week.

Well, that's the news from Lake Wobegon. It is all my tired body and brain can take.

I will ask you to pray for me, as I am not sleeping well, and all the walking (several miles a day back and forth from the hotel to the Convention Center) is really hurting my legs. Of course, not enough that I will actually do anything about it, like go see a DOCTOR.

Pray for Taylor as well, she and her grandma were very close. And pray for our group to draw together and talk about ministry rather than just business. And pray for all the GA committees that we might listen to the Spirit, and have the mind and courage of Christ.

God bless you, my praying APC family!

Sunday, Worship and Committees Begin

General Assembly kicked off this morning with a two hour worship service. Very creative, artistic, beautiful, and well designed. A huge choir sang, three worship bands played. Prayers were made in three languages. A baby was baptized. Communion was served.

The theme of the Assembly comes from John 7:37-43, with the emphasis on verses 37-38.

³⁷On the last and greatest day of the Feast, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, "If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. ³⁸Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him." ³⁹By this he meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were later to receive. Up to that time the Spirit had not been given, since Jesus had not yet been glorified.
 ⁴⁰On hearing his words, some of the people said, "Surely this man is the Prophet."
 ⁴¹Others said, "He is the Christ."
   Still others asked, "How can the Christ come from Galilee? ⁴²Does not the Scripture say that the Christ will come from David's family and from Bethlehem, the town where David lived?" ⁴³Thus the people were divided because of Jesus. ⁴⁴Some wanted to seize him, but no one laid a hand on him.

The worship service was built around the image of water. Water is abundant in Minnesota in lakes and streams. So this water is a visual reminder of God's gifts to this part of the world. Tribal dancers, people dressed as a bear, and eagle, and other animals paraded into the hall. It was all quite lovely from an artistic point of view. But I confess I don't understand "art". I know, I know, art is to be appreciated more than understood. I cannot help who I am. So this kind of artsy worship service has great appeal to many people, just count me as one to whom this seems all rather strange and a bit foreign to the gospel. I blame only myself for this, and not the worship planners nor participants. (I will, however, continue to gripe about the slides, as there were at least two or three slides in the worship service that had serious typos in them. Who edits these ahead of time? Doesn't anyone care about spelling and grammar anymore?)

That said, I came away, however, slightly less than enthralled. In my opinion, there was too much "being Presbyterian" and not enough "Jesus." Don't get me wrong. The Triune God was worshiped in word and song. Great hymns were sung. The Apostles' Creed was recited. But there seemed to be intentionally more promotion of how Presbyterians do things, than just worshiping the Lord in the Presbyterian way.

The sermon was fine, as far as it went. Our now former moderator, Rev. Bruce Reyes-Chow, is a charming and engaging speaker. He tells good stories, and has interesting points to make. Points worth remembering and putting into action. However, there was barely a reference to God's Word in his whole sermon. And personally, I don't care who is preaching, my interest is in hearing a Word from God than words from any person. I do not need everything to be proof-texted, and a verse for every point. But the sermon seemed to come more from the experience of the former moderator than from God's holy and eternal Word. So while it was engaging, clever, funny, and almost profound, I found the foundation of the sermon to be on shaky ground.

Do I come across too negative? I hope not. I know how hard it is to preach, and the labor one needs to put into making a sermon sing. And I know that while Calvin valued the sermon, it was only a part of the liturgical whole, whereby the people of God worship Almighty God. I value great preaching, and am usually disappointed in much preaching I hear. Heck, I am mostly disappointed in my own spotty preaching. So a so-so sermon does not ruin worship for me, as the whole service is designed to assist worship. And indeed, what we do after the Benediction is a  more accurate indicator of whether we have truly worshiped than any emotional or spiritual experience we may have had in the service.

I know this is General Assembly. I know this is a more formal worship service than the one for the local church. There were several thousand people at the service. And much of it was lovely and moving. It's just that, for me, I wanted more of Jesus.

My committee, Committee Three, General Assembly Procedures met for the first time after a lovely lunch. I must say, the commissioners are really treated right for the first few days of the Assembly. We are welcomed warmly. Travel and hotel are paid for. Several meals are hosted just for us. And we are given a General Assembly Credit card with a $240 limit on it that expires at the end of July. I suppose the old way of paying for meals and travel ourselves, and then turning in receipts, and then being reimbursed, well, that's a lot of work. So this seems to be easier. There is also a collection going on here of socks and undergarments for homeless folks. Big baskets by the registration center are collecting these items, and they will be distributed locally. Gratefully, there is a Target two blocks from the hotel, so I did not have to pack anything on the plane! But I digress.

Ah yes, Committee Three. We did some introductory work today, got to know each other, set down some of the ground rules of our business, and looked at some very brief and very minor business. Tomorrow will begin the hard work of working through overtures and referrals presented to the General Assembly by Presbyteries and Synods. We will vote some down in committee. We will rework others and pass them on to the whole assembly for a vote. Should be an interesting week.

Our Committee work will be Monday and Tuesday. Wednesday morning appears to be "off", and then we will then meet as the whole Assembly beginning Wednesday afternoon to vote on all these matters.

I will have more substantive things to report tomorrow.

I want to conclude by saying that I am impressed with how friendly people are here, and how helpful the locals are. The COLA (Committee on Local Arrangements) has done a superb job at providing for our every need. My fellow committee people are rather nice. Some are veterans, and the rest of us have that "deer in the headlights" look about us. It would be a great idea for presbyteries to send people as observers to one GA, and underwrite some of their cost, and then send them to the following GA as commissioners. I attended the GA in Richmond in 2004, and even that experience has helped me greatly cope with this GA, though I am looking into headlights with my other committee colleagues.

Keep up your prayers for grace, and for discernment, and for wisdom, and for courage to stand up for Jesus Christ as we apprehend Him to be. [SDG-JS]

A New Moderator Is Elected

The PC(USA) has a new Moderator, Cindy Bolbach. See her web site for more information here. You can see the Presbyterians for Renewal evaluation of her here.

The voting process was atrocious. Many of our electronic voting devices were malfunctioning. This was an issue in San Jose, and you'd think the GA folks would get it right after two years, right?

At one point after the second ballot, a motion was made to "vote someone off the island." That is, to throw out the lowest vote getter in each round. The motion was properly seconded, and then voted on. With all 712 delegates there, it needed 475 to pass. 391 voted for the motion, so it failed. Then one brave commissioner essentially asked if all the votes were being counted. Meaning, a 2/3 majority needed to pass the motion, but 2/3 of what number? If it was the total of votes cast, the 391 would surely have been at least 2/3. So we proceeded for some time with some "experiments" on how many people were actually voting electronically. The results for each "test" did not reassure us that the system properly functioned. However, on the fourth ballot, the election was closed, as one candidate had achieved over 50% of the vote. As a sidebar, I cannot imagine how long this would have taken by hand, even with Scantron cards or some such device.

My impressions. Of the six candidates, I had Bolbach personally listed as #5. However, there were some strengths in her.

She was the only elder, and she kept her answers short. (Any preachers out there paying attention??) She had also been a part of a company that transformed from communicating by paper to a company that went completely electronic, and she led the way, so she has some leadership skills. Her answers were self-effacing, and showed great self-awareness. For example, one question was, "What would be the result if you were NOT elected moderator?" Her answer: "Complete and utter chaos." The assembly roared with laughter.

However, she was not an inspiring speaker, and her candidating speech was pretty plain. Of more concern to me was her support of gay marriage. She didn't come right out and say it, but she did answer a question about the issue in a straightforward way, indicating that with five states and the District of Columbia now legalizing same-sex marriage, the church needs to "do something" about this. The More Light Presbyterians (who favor gay ordination and marriage) and one of their supporters John Shuck, rated Bolbach as the second most gay-friendly candidate for moderator.

This concerns me only a little. The moderator is a figurehead, and while has some bully pulpit opportunities, can do nothing by herself concerning the situation other than persuade others.

Of the other candidates, Julia Leeth, the sixth candidate from Santa Barbara Presbytery, and the dark horse conservative, did surprisingly well. She gave good answers, and garnered the second most votes, and was actually gaining some momentum when Bolbach broke the 50% barrier on the 4th ballot.

Rev. Dr. Jin S. Kim was my second favorite. He is a Korean pastor of Church of All Nations in Minneapolis. He is wicked smart and really funny, in a dry way. But his answers were very dark. He essentially followed Phyllis Tickle in spanking the PC(USA) for how we do things, and that we need to get radical. I liked him immediately, but he was not a good figurehead for the next two years. He said his critiques of the church were a "lover's quarrel." To the question, "What would be the result if you were NOT elected moderator?" His answer: "Nothing. Jesus Christ is the Head of the Church." I was disappointed he didn't get more votes.


The only other candidate who stood out to me was Rev. Maggie Palmer Lauterer. She was rated as the most gay-friendly candidate, and clearly (to me) did the best of all the candidates in answering questions. She was winsome, charming, told stories, and really presented herself well. She, too, was for gay marriage, but in the end, she was unable to articulate this clearly, and I think lost some of the YAD votes.

You can see the other candidates here.

Overall, an interesting process. As I pray daily for the President of the United States, whether I voted for him or not, I will pray for the Moderator.

It will be a tough week for her. And Bruce Reyes-Chow will be a tough act to follow. He has been an excellent moderator. I do not agree with him on much theologically, but he "gets" modern culture and the ways to communicate. I think Bruce, the techie moderator, has done a very fine job.

It has been increasingly aggravating to me to see how poorly conservatives package our message. The evangelical gospel is really good news. The progressive gospel is far more humanistic and I think ultimately narcissistic. And yet, time after time, our message comes across badly.

For the Five Tuesdays in June, the Presbyterian Outlook did a series of Webinars on hot button issues for this General Assembly. I saw four of them. And in each case, the "progressive" side had a more focused presentation, and a presentation that was well put together. The evangelical presentations looked like the Powerpoints were made by second graders. I cannot begin to tell you how insulting that is for folks watching a Webinar! (A webinar is a live seminar on the web, hence, web-inar. Get it?)

Look, if this was being presented to the folks back home in rural North Carolina, perhaps white backgrounds and multiple fonts and cheesy clip-art would go over just great. "Look, ma, the preacher has a Powerpoint thingy!" But for techie folks who would actually login to a Webinar, they expect not just good content,  but also Powerpoints and graphics that look like someone actually put some thought into it.

And the response is always the same. "The Bible says....." This is terrific, and I whole-heartedly agree with their points. But there are no stories of how this truth of the gospel actually has changed people's lives. There is no aspirational content to the pitch, just scare-'em's about "if we don't vote this way, things will really get bad."

So both the message and the delivery of the message is actually out of sync with an audience who is relatively open to hearing the arguments. Folks, we simply must do better.

Side note last: I believe the GA tech team is using MediaShout. And they have really had problems. Delays of longer than a few seconds between slides being used for a litany are common. More egregious to me are the typo's. I have counted over a dozen so far. Tonight during the commissioning was one like, "you are commissioned too pray....." Huh? I intend to talk with the tech team tomorrow about this. (Thanks for the lessons, Rich!) It is really inexcusable at a national conference with two years to prepare, that simple Powerpoint slides have typo's in them. It reflects poorly on us, I am afraid.


I did see Heather and Tudor today, along with Eric Hoy, and Grace and Dakota Santana-Grace, and Sandy Tice, and Andy Wilson, pastor of La Crescenta Presbyterian Church where Jeff DeSurra is serving this summer.

Well, it is 12:30 a.m. Minnesota time, and I best get to bed. Tomorrow is a bit more relaxed, with morning worship and communion at 10:00 a.m., then lunch, then business until 4:30 p.m., then a picnic and fireworks at Nicollet Island. Sounds fun! [SDG-JS]

Saturday, General Assembly About to Begin

Good morning. A very early morning for me, as I awoke at 6:00 a.m. to attend a breakfast hosted by Presbyterians for Renewal. Took a quick shower, and walked the six blocks to the Hyatt. Having been promised breakfast in the pre-GA advertisements, I was surprised to find only coffee. I know some of you can live on coffee, but it is not one of my basic food groups. (In MN, for me, those would be Dairy Queen, Old Dutch, Jimmy John's, and Honey Crisp Apples.) I guess there will be surprises at this GA after all. I just wish the surprises had the decency to occur at a more respectable hour.

However, my walk was not wasted. PFR began with a scripture reading from Romans 8, then "Great is Thy Faithfulness", then a heartfelt prayer. I was grateful that we did not launch directly into the politics thing. If we conservative evangelicals have anything to say, it comes out of our relationship with Jesus Christ, no9t our political acumen.

That said, there were helpful presentations about key issues each GA committee will face. Overtures submitted by the presbyteries are given to GA committees, who recommend them to the whole GA for a vote, or revise them to present for a vote, or they just "die" in committee, I believe. I will know more later tomorrow about that whole process.

I then went to one of the Office of the General Assembly sponsored "Riverside Conversations", see the list here. The first was described as follow:

Equipping the Church for Ministry with God's Diverse Family
Sharing the gospel, nurturing disciples and building the church in today’s complex multi‐cultural, multiracial society requires new skills. Come learn about some of the tools and resources available to Presbyterians who seek to meet this challenge and continue the Presbyterian Church’s long standing commitment to address racism.

I had reasonably high hopes for this, and was grossly disappointed. We heard four speakers, and all talked about dealing with racism. Nothing at all about "Sharing the gospel, nurturing disciples and building the church in today’s complex multi‐cultural, multiracial society requires new skills." Just the same old same old diatribes against racism.

Now look, I confess that I am a racist. I also confess that you are too! But the only way out of our racism is through a common relationship to Jesus Christ. And the joys and pitfalls of working multi-culturalloy were never even hinted at. There were some white folks from the rural Carolina's who confessed their own racism, well, actually their "church's" racism, and bemoaned their white privileged guilt. Can we PLEASE move on from the 60's with the white guilt already? And can we PLEASE move on to working with one another to further the cause of Christ in the world? (Like we are doing at APC. We are really, no joke, the cutting edge of what God is doing in the world.) Much more to be said about this "conversation", but I will get into trouble if I go any further. I applaud the attempt to have the conversation, but they are 30 years behind the times on this issue, I am afraid.

I've met some great people. I met a guy who was the youth pastor who followed one of my mentors in San Jose. I met the parish associate from Carson City, where our friend Sandy Norris attends. I have seen Ruth Santana-Grace and her son, Dakota, as well as ex-Ambler Eric Hoy. I have seen Tudor Williams, but not Heather, yet. After lunch, the General Assembly starts in earnest.

Here is another very unprofessional video about the Skyways in Minneapolis. Enjoy!

Pray for us as we seek the Lord, and His Kingdom! More later. [SDG-JS]

Friday, D-Minus-One to General Assembly

Good afternoon. Jim Stochl reporting from Minneapolis, where the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church will be convening tomorrow. I am testing out my video production skills without the able assistance of either Jonathan nor Kimo, but we'll see how this goes.

My hotel is two blocks from the Convention Center. I will wander over there this afternoon to check things out. Right now, though, I will head over the the USBank Building, and check out the Dairy Queen!