Louisville, Kentucky – There were no insurrections.
The 2022 General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) jumped through some crucial polity hoops during the opening plenary session on June 18 — establishing a quorum and giving permission to set aside the standing rules to hold this General Assembly electronically.
Those votes were essential for this hybrid assembly – which began June 18 and will conclude July 9 – to continue as planned, with committee meetings in-person at the PC(USA)’s national offices in Louisville and most plenary sessions online. Organizers of the assembly hoped these votes would go smoothly, and they did: there were no objections, and almost totally unanimity on these procedural issues, which will allow the assembly to move forward to carry out its work.
Commissioners assigned to the first four committees that will meet have already come to Kentucky; they were the only ones allowed to vote to establish the quorum. There was some anxiety about whether the numbers would be large enough, with flight delays and cancellations intensifying the concern.
What was needed: at least 50 ruling elder commissioners in the room in Louisville, plus 50 teaching elder commissioners, from at least four synods.
What they got: 57 ruling elders in the room, plus 55 teaching elders, representing all 16 synods.
“Thank you, Jesus,” said Elona Street-Stewart, co-moderator of the 2020 General Assembly, in announcing the vote.
Those in the room also voted 113-0 to authorize removing restrictions in the standing rules to allow this assembly to meet electronically – something that’s being done in part because the COVID-19 pandemic still has not been vanquished. That vote applies only to this General Assembly – although the assembly will be considering later in this meeting a proposal to change the standing rules to allow future assemblies to meet electronically.
The assembly also is being asked to vote on the format and location of the 2024 General Assembly, which is currently scheduled to be held in person in Salt Lake City. The Committee on the Office of the General Assembly is asking this year’s assembly to weigh in on that – presenting four possible formats to consider, with expenses ranging from $1.2 million to $3.6 million.
Once the first two procedural votes were taken (meeting the quorum and authorizing the electronic meeting), all the commissioners – those in the room and those participating via Zoom – were allowed to participate in the voting. And in the decisions that followed, the assembly:
- Ratified by a vote of 348-0 the actions taken by the 2020 General Assembly, including administrative and permanent judicial decisions. That was necessary because the COVID-19 pandemic forced the assembly to meet virtually in 2020. Under the PC(USA) rules, “there was no way to be completely decent and in order, so we trusted one another to do the best we could,” Street-Stewart said. And Robert’s Rules of Order allows those actions to be formally validated by a subsequent action – which this year’s assembly did unanimously.
- Approved the referral of business to committees.
- Approved the docket for the plenaries at this assembly.
In addition to the procedural matters, the assembly got some inspiration – including words of welcome from John Odom, general presbyter of the Presbytery of Mid-Kentucky, which has 48 congregations and 4 new worshipping communities. While Louisville is famous for the Kentucky Derby – known as the “most exciting two minutes in sports” – these commissioners are in for “the most exciting 22 days in General Assembly history,” Odom said.
Commissioners seemed to be feeling the first-day energy – with a group at one end of the long, narrow room taking selfies and periodically breaking into the wave.
Following a service to formally commission those serving, J. Herbert Nelson, stated clerk of the PC(USA), prayed that the commissioners will “walk in ways we have never walked in before,” and have the kind of fellowship that allows participants to understand “there are no winners and there are no losers” – just people joining together to do God’s work.
In a video of greeting from the city of Louisville, Nelson said he wants the PC(USA) to become a bigger part of addressing concerns in the city – particularly poverty and jail overcrowding.
As part of its business, the Committee for General Assembly Mission Coordination will consider A Witness from the Presbytery of Mid-Kentucky – including a video and a hymn of lament and hope.
And the assembly heard a report from the 2020 co-moderators, Street-Stewart and Gregory Bentley. They said that “in these times of cataclysm, chaos, and convulsiveness, we believe that a firm commitment to and a strong investment in the Matthew 25 Vision – building congregational vitality, dismantling structural racism, and eradicating systemic poverty – is the vehicle God has given the PC(USA) to lead us through the tumult and turbulence into an era of thriving and flourishing the likes of which we have never seen before in our beloved denomination.”
Many of the commissioners at this assembly are newbies. In a vote to test the electronic voting system, 171 of the 349 who voted said they were serving as commissioners for the first time, and 132 were second-time commissioners.
