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105 degrees, 210 miles, 1 goal: Walking for a fossil-free church

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Video by Ed Sackett EAST ST. LOUIS, ILL — In preparation for the 223rd General Assembly, Fossil Free PCUSA, a project of Presbyterian Peace Fellowship, organized a walk from the headquarters of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) in Louisville to the doors of the America’s Center Convention Complex in St. Louis, where General Assembly is being held. The asphalt at the BP station where marchers for Fossil Free PCUSA assembled on June 15 was a brutal incubator, pushing the heat index to 105 degrees. In a patch of grass, organizers and walkers who’d driven ahead set up lunch on a folding table. Soon, the rest of the Fossil Free PCUSA crew arrived, clad in orange shirts emblazoned with “for creation!” They came to congregate, eat and coordinate the final few miles of their journey. After lunch, about 30 people who had trekked from the offices of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) in Louisville, Kentucky, to a dusty BP in East St. Louis, Illinois, began assembling two-by-two along the … [Read more...]

Tagged With: fossil fuels • GA223

Discerning our way through General Assembly

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Did you know that, but for the commissioners’ vote on the floor of a plenary session at General Assembly, our Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) headquarters would be in Kansas City, Missouri, today instead of Louisville? It happened at the 1987 GA in Biloxi, Mississippi. A task force charged with researching a post-reunion location had been hard at work for over two years, narrowing down finalists and eventually presenting their choice of Kansas City with great fanfare. It was a site where the cost of living was reasonable, near a major airline hub and it was closer to the country’s center than the Eastern time zone. The responsible GA committee endorsed their choice and the whole team made a grand presentation: Kansas City dignitaries gave glowing welcomes, a video illustrated all that Kansas City had to offer and many balloons awaited overhead for dramatic release in the assembly hall. But then something happened. A surprise substitute motion was offered from the floor to move … [Read more...]

Tagged With: GA223

Building the kin-dom one prayer at a time: An invitation to prayer practices for the General Assembly

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Motel 6 famously advertises, “We’ll leave the light on for you.” A clever slogan that embodies a sense of hospitality and home, and in St. Louis the lights are already on in anticipation of the arrival of family for the General Assembly. It is a homecoming of sorts as denominational “relatives” from north and south, east and west, gather for a time of discussion, decision-making, reflection and worship. The connections between churches and leaders who otherwise would not cross paths is renewed or established, and we recognize one another as kinfolk. Although others stay back to tend the home fires, still we are one family, sheltering under the promise of the kingdom and kin-dom of Christ.  The theme for this year’s assembly – “Renewing the vision: Kindom building for the 21st century” – strives to emphasize this connectivity. Warmly captured by Isaac Villegas in “The Kin-dom of mi abuelita” (published in The Mennonite), he describes it this way: “God’s kin-dom looks like my … [Read more...]

Tagged With: GA223 • prayer

Compelled to respond:  The 223rd General Assembly and climate change

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To work for the transformation of society The two of us have spent the last two years (and longer) working in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) on overtures about climate change, with proposed actions including both divestment from the fossil fuel industry and a variety of other efforts to change individual and institutional behaviors. abby mohaupt (she prefers not to have her name capitalized) is the moderator of Fossil Free PCUSA (a grassroots movement focused on adding divestment to the other things being done to respond to climate change). Jim Allison has been active in the group trying to define alternatives and additions to divestment. It is not unimportant that Jim is an economist and former employee of a fossil fuel company, and abby is a Presbyterian pastor and activist, as well as a Ph.D. student in religion and climate change. With those kinds of credentials, it is perhaps not surprising that we do not agree on the particular question of divestment. However, we do agree … [Read more...]

Tagged With: fossil fuels • GA223

(Almost) 104 weeks later

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June 18, 2016, was the beginning of an excellent adventure. On election night at the 222nd General Assembly in Portland, Oregon, we declared that – if elected – we had two clear intentions for the next 104 weeks: to cast a vision of hope to the church we love and to hear your stories of faith. At this writing, those 104 weeks are soon coming to an end. As the first co-moderators of any General Assembly, we have found the experience to be life-giving and fun. Our former moderator/vice moderator teams shared responsibilities as well but – as co-moderators – our partnership has been more deliberate. We found that being friends prior to standing as co-moderators served us well in terms of working together and trusting each other. Occasionally we were specifically invited by name, but usually we divided the invitations according to our individual schedules. The two of us were rarely in the same place at the same time. One memorable weekend, however, we were both in Chicago on the same … [Read more...]

Tagged With: ga222 • GA223

Time’s up: Walking in pursuit of climate justice

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Guest commentary by Alison Wood, written for the Presbyterian Outlook in the midst of the PC(USA) Walk for a Fossil-Free World from Louisville, Kentucky, to St. Louis where General Assembly will be held.  We’re learning all kinds of things on the #walk2divest: It takes us two hours to walk five miles, with a snack break in the middle. Ten miles in a day is an easy goal; to finish 15 or more we have to push our pace a little. As a group, we like flavored potato chips better than plain. We learn that Casey often breaks out in dance, Ashley often breaks out in song and three people have broken out in poison ivy. We learn how to identify poison ivy. There are 14-25 of us on the Walk for a Fossil Free PCUSA at any given time. We are walking from Louisville to St Louis in preparation for the 223rdGeneral Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) in pursuit of climate justice. The youngest walker has been 11, the oldest walker in their 70s. On the walk so far, we … [Read more...]

Tagged With: fossil fuels • GA223

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