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]