Also not surprisingly, the idea that God is present in difficult times (“for I will be with thee, thy troubles to bless”) has also been one of the themes – in the hymns being sung (“How Firm a Foundation”), the Scripture readings, the remarks around the table.
“We’ve been looking for new ways to do more with less,” said Fred Heuser, director of the Presbyterian Historical Society.
Congregations, presbyteries, synods, seminaries, camps and conference centers, and the national staff of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) all are being rocked by the economic waves.
Garbage collectors often are the first to notice bad economic times, Gradye Parsons, the PC(USA)’s stated clerk, told the Committee on the Office of the General Assembly. Word is that Americans are dumping 25 percent less stuff in landfills, “which begs the question of why did we need to buy that stuff” if we were going to throw a quarter of it away, Parsons said. With the new economic realities, “we have a chance to build something different than what fell down,” he said.
The Executive Committee of the General Assembly voted to postpone to the fall of 2010 the next joint meeting of the General Assembly Council and synod and presbytery executives, “for reasons related to cost-cutting and scheduling conflicts.”
