The co-moderators of the 2020 General Assembly, Gregory Bentley and Elona Street-Stewart, have decided to intervene in the simmering, sometimes caustic dispute between San Francisco Theological Seminary (SFTS) and the Committee on Theological Education (COTE). Bentley told the assembly June 27 – just as some items potentially related to SFTS were about to come up on the agenda – that he and Street-Stewart will call the parties together “as soon as possible” after the assembly concludes to try to settle the disagreement. If needed, they will bring in a mediator to help, Bentley said. That announcement averted a potential floor fight at the 2020 General Assembly over the relationship of San Francisco Theological Seminary to the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) – essentially, the question of whether SFTS, which became a graduate program of the University of Redlands in 2019, is still a PC(USA) seminary. Bentley told the assembly that “this is not a clear item of business that … [Read more...]

The 2020 General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) voted overwhelmingly June 26 to approve a resolution declaring that Black lives matter; confessing that the church has been complicit in perpetuating injustice; and pledging to “confront and dismantle systemic racism” in the church and in society. The assembly passed that resolution – called “Responding to the Sin of Racism and a Call to Action” – by a vote of 407-72 (85% voting yes). According to Megan Acedo, a ruling elder from Philadelphia Presbytery who presented the resolution to the assembly, the document was written collaboratively by representatives of the Presbyterian Peace Fellowship, the Presbyterian Health Education and Welfare Association and the assembly Committee on Business Referrals. And that resolution is a stronger statement than one originally proposed by the Committee on the Office of the General Assembly — with some commissioners saying, as ruling elder Eric Beck from Presbytery of the Pacific … [Read more...]

Following worship, the first substantive matter the 2020 General Assembly took up June 26 addressed, essentially, the scope of the business this General Assembly will consider: whether to try to do more on more subjects, or focus more intensely on fewer matters related to COVID-19, racism and social justice. On the table was a a motion to reconsider Item 01-04 — the list of business that this General Assembly will consider, and what it will refer to the General Assembly in 2022. That motion to reconsider ultimately failed – with commissioners voting it down 377-97 – but the discussion on it reflected the intensity of views some commissioners bring to this assembly on how to address matters of race and social justice forcefully, given a truncated virtual assembly. The Bible says “there is a time under heaven for everything, but this is not the time for this discussion,” said commissioner Kamal Hassan, a minister from the Presbytery of San Francisco. “We have other critical … [Read more...]