The slate is nearly set for some key appointments.
And the Committee on the Office of the General Assembly (COGA) has set the dates for the 2024 General Assembly.
Ruth Santana-Grace, who is co-moderator of the 2022 General Assembly along with Shavon Starling-Louis, told COGA during its monthly Zoom meeting Nov. 17 that the co-moderators have made the tough decisions about who they are asking to serve on a new commission that will work to merge the Presbyterian Mission Agency and the Office of the General Assembly, and also on a task force that will work to develop new experimental funding models for the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.).
They expect to announce those appointments publicly on Nov. 21.
The 2022 General Assembly voted to create both groups — responding to a set of hard-hitting recommendations from the Special Committee on Per Capita Based Funding and National Church Financial Sustainability. That special committee was responding to concerns about whether a denomination of primarily small churches, many of whom feel financially stressed, can sustain the current financial and organizational structure of the PC(USA).
These new groups will have difficult work to do over the next two years, and its decisions likely will be closely scrutinized across the church.
Both groups will be led by co-moderators, Santana-Grace said. “I ask for your grace. [It] was not easy” to make the appointments. “It’s like a puzzle,” with the assembly’s action specifying the representation of these entities from a variety of groups. “We do trust that those who have said yes (to serving) will do so with a spirit of openness. … I’m sure there will be opinions about who is on it and who isn’t on it.”
Dave Davis, COGA’s vice moderator, thanked Santa-Grace, saying, “I don’t think any of us underestimates how difficult this puzzle is.” Now it’s time, he said, to “pray that the Holy Spirit is at work” in the endeavors ahead.
Following a closed session to discuss contracts related to the 2024 General Assembly – with committee meetings for that assembly to be held online and plenary sessions in Salt Lake City – COGA announced it had acted to set this schedule for the assembly in 2024:
- June 25: Brief online plenary
- June 25-27: Online committee meetings
- June 30-July 4: Plenary sessions in-person in Salt Lake City
Assembly participants will worship June 30 in congregations in the Presbytery of Utah.
COGA also heard some updates on the denomination’s ecumenical and interreligious work. J. Herbert Nelson, the PC(USA)’s stated clerk, said he recently participated in an interfaith gathering on climate change — looking at the role of people of faith in response to global warming. “It’s not something we can ignore,” Nelson said. “We are all facing this crisis across the globe.”
Nelson said the gathering gave him a chance to sit with Jewish leaders when the presenting issue was not PC(USA) policy regarding Israel/Palestine, but a joint concern of care for the earth. That kind of common work is where the “continued building of bridges” will happen, he said.
And the General Assembly Committee on Ecumenical and Interreligious Relations has drafted an Oct. 28 statement expressing solidarity with women in Iran who are protesting the death of Jina Mahsa Amini. Following her arrest by security forces, Amini died on Sept. 16 while in police custody — and her death has led to public protests that the Iranian police are trying to forcibly quell.
The new statement, with the title “Women, Life, Freedom,” states that those serving on the Committee on Ecumenical and Interreligious Relations “are mandated by our faith to stand in solidarity with the courageous women of Iran who continue to protest the murder of Jina Mahsa Amini, and demand life and freedom in her name.”
