When moderator Rick Ufford-Chase called the 217th General Assembly to order on June 15 in Birmingham, it seemed both familiar and a little strange.
It’s been two years since the last assembly met — a big change for a denomination that’s held annual national meetings since kingdom come. So what are people saying about how well every-other-year assemblies are working?
For starters, it may be too soon to tell. John Detterick, retiring executive director of the General Assembly Council, said in an interview that things seem good so far, but the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) may not have a complete assessment until it’s gone through a few full cycles of every-other-year meetings.
What can be seen at this point is that:
– Meeting less frequently saves money. The church as a whole will save about $4 million to $5 million this biennial, according to Gradye Parsons, director of strategic operations for the Office of the General Assembly. Those savings include the costs to groups such as seminaries and synods that would send representatives if the assembly were to convene.
– Meeting half as often does not seem to have produced twice as much business. Presbyteries have sent 137 overtures for the assembly in Birmingham to consider, compared to 74 in 2004. But roughly 50 of this year’s overtures are clustered around a few hot issues: divestment; ordination standards; the Theological Task Force on the Peace, Unity, and Purity of the PC(USA); and the proposed closing of the Presbyterian Historical Society office at Montreat. Other business coming to the assembly does not seem significantly increased, Parsons said.
– Some say that meeting less frequently has given the church a chance to rest and reflect, and has given the denomination’s national staff a chance focus on things in more depth on a less frantic schedule.
To some extent, it’s hard to assess that, because the PC(USA) has just experienced a wrenching, $9.1 million downsizing, including the layoffs of 75 employees and the elimination of 40 mission co-workers positions. It’s hardly felt restful.
Also, Detterick is retiring this summer and the council has nominated Linda Bryant Valentine as its new executive director. It’s been a season of loss, restructuring, and change.
But looking back a little longer, other meeting opportunities opened when there was no GA. Nearly 700 Presbyterians — mostly ministers and their spouses — gathered at Snowbird resort in Utah in May 2005 for a retreat, focused more on worship and rejuvenation than business.
Some lobbying groups within the PC(USA) took a break from meeting in 2005.
And the theological task force has been urging the whole church to consider conversation and listening, rather than confrontation, as a denominational ethos.
So has the switch to biennial assemblies produced more calm and less contentiousness?
Depends on one’s perspective. Along with the breathing period have come a series of controversies — particularly over whether the PC(USA) should divest in some companies doing business in Israel, and over the theological task force’s recommendations.
Helen Locklear, the council’s deputy executive director, said she thinks the longer stretch between assemblies has meant less scrambling for the denomination’s staff, and more opportunities to build connections with presbyteries and synods. “I can’t think of anything I can frown on because we didn’t have General Assembly,” Locklear said.
“For the church at large, I think it’s been a pretty quiet time for two years, and that’s helpful,” Detterick said. “Frankly, I think we need to go through one or two more cycles to get a real read. But at this stage I think it’s been a positive development.”
Another question is what it’s been like for the General Assembly moderator to serve for two years, not just one. Detterick said that Ufford-Chase — one of the youngest moderators ever — has been “phenomenal,” using his blog and his gift for telling stories from his travels to bring attention to issues that Ufford-Chase thinks deserve the church’s attention.
“He’s put the spotlight on young adults,” Locklear said. He’s focused on torture, on international mission, on “the need for the church to become more multicultural,” she said.
“I think it’s been fabulous” to serve for two years rather than one, Ufford-Chase said in an interview. “I think it’s been good for me and it’s been good for the church. It took the first nine months to learn the responsibilities,” to learn “how to be moderator for the whole church.”
With a longer term, he said, “you get more bang for the buck.”
Ufford-Chase said he started off with a commitment to work for global and social justice, but has learned more about multicultural churches, new church development, and evangelism.
The more people he met, “the more transformed I became,” Ufford-Chase said.
A moderator who’s also a pastor serving a congregation may have to move at a different pace — returning home more often to preach — but will still have the ability to “name the issues” for the denomination, as he has done intentionally, Ufford-Chase said.
As his term closes out, he wants people to think of “How to inspire a new generation of Presbyterians to really give their hearts and souls to the missional enterprise of the church.”
That means not just working on mission projects, Ufford-Chase said — but people living differently because of who Jesus Christ has called them to be.
