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2020 Vision Team drafts recommendations to GA

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The 2020 Vision Team has agreed on draft language for four recommendations to the 2020 General Assembly in Baltimore. That means some revisions are possible by the Feb. 21 deadline – but this is likely to be close to what the final recommendation will say. One of those recommendations asks the assembly to approve a guiding statement for the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) for use by the church “until a time in which the church deems it prudent to form a new guiding statement.” That guiding statement says that God calls the denomination to be “prayerful, courageous united, serving, and alive” – with those words spelling out the acronym PC(USA). A second recommendation asks the assembly to commend the guiding statement and additional resources to PC(USA) agencies, seminaries, mid councils and congregations for study, conversation, spiritual growth and formation. And it asks the assembly to mandate that the Presbyterian Publishing Corporation develop curriculum with a focus on the … [Read more...]

Tagged With: 2020 Vision Team • GA224

Equity and inclusion: PMA Board considers issues of migration and Native American properties

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BALTIMORE – Equity and inclusion: How well is the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) doing? That question was like a bright thread running through the discussions as the Presbyterian Mission Agency Board met Feb. 12-14 in Baltimore. Some of it came directly, in presentations on assessments underway. And sometimes it surfaced in questions about how the PC(USA) deals with issues involving immigrants and people of color. Migration. Board member Michelle Hwang outlined recommendations that the Racial Equity Advocacy Committee(REAC) will be bringing to the General Assembly in June – saying the theme of REAC’s efforts this year will be migration, forced or voluntary. REAC held its meeting in January in El Paso, and also traveled across the border to Ciudad Juarez to meet with asylum seekers who are being forced by the policy of the Trump administration to wait in Mexico as their asylum claims proceed. Those conversations were powerful, Hwang said – and REAC wants to work to strengthen … [Read more...]

Tagged With: PMA board

Divestment, mental health ministry, Special Offerings, grants and more: Presbyterian Mission Agency Board takes action on wide-ranging topics

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BALTIMORE –The Presbyterian Mission Agency Board voted Feb. 14 to support the recommendations on fossil fuel divestment from the Committee on Mission Responsibility Through Investment (MRTI) – sending those recommendations on to the General Assembly in June. The vote came with no discussion. MRTI is recommending that the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) divest from three companies – Exxon Mobil, Marathon Petroleum and Valero Energy – that it says are not making enough progress on responding to climate change issues. The 2018 General Assembly approved a set of metrics that MRTI is using to measure the progress of nine companies it’s been tracking since that assembly, and those three companies fell into the “red” zone – the worst – using those metrics. Some Presbyterians want the church to do more. The Presbytery of Monmouth is sending an overture calling for the PC(USA) to divest fully from fossil fuel companies, and to invest instead in renewable energy, and already 11 other … [Read more...]

Tagged With: PMA board

“Get ready and stay ready” — Presbytery of Baltimore engages anti-racism work ahead of General Assembly

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BALTIMORE – Implicit bias. As in: When you see a photo of this man what do you see? What do you think? Or these men:   Or this person?   On Feb. 13, Shanea Leonard, associate for gender and racial justice in the Presbyterian Mission Agency, and Denise Anderson, coordinator of racial and intercultural justice, led cultural humility training for the Committee on the Office of the General Assembly and the Presbyterian Mission Agency Board, meeting jointly in Baltimore. Part of it had to do with addressing implicit bias – “the stories we make up about people before we actually know who they are,” Leonard said. As in: The Irish are alcoholics. Those young blacks will steal from your store. “Do we see them as Christ wants us to see them, or through the lens of our own stereotypes?” they asked (Leonard uses they/them pronouns). Leonard showed a series of photographs – asking people to write down their first reactions to the images. For … [Read more...]

Tagged With: COGA • PMA board

Convening in Baltimore:  Presbyterian groups plan proposals to General Assembly

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BALTIMORE – This is crunch time for groups making recommendations to the 2020 General Assembly, with the reports due Feb. 21. So, representatives of three groups considering big picture issues involving the future of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) – the Moving Forward Implementation Commission, 2020 Vision Team and Per Capita and Financial Sustainability Special Committee – came to a joint session  of the Presbyterian Mission Agency Board (PMAB) and the Committee on the Office of the General Assembly (COGA) in Baltimore on Feb. 13 to discuss what they’re planning to propose and to answer questions. Much of what they presented has been bubbling on the stove for a while now – those paying attention have a pretty good idea of what’s on the menu. But some final votes haven’t been taken – so there’s a chance the groups will make some adjustments depending on the feedback they’ve received. Here’s some of how the conversation went. Moving Forward Implementation … [Read more...]

Tagged With: 2020 Vision Team • Moving Forward Implementation Commission • per capita • PMA board

One in Christ: PMAB and COGA worship together in Baltimore

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BALTIMORE – “We are one body, whether we realize it or not.” That’s how Diane Moffett, president and executive director of the Presbyterian Mission Agency, started off her sermon Feb. 13 during worship at the start of a joint session of the Presbyterian Mission Agency Board and the Committee on the Office of the General Assembly. Both Moffett and J. Herbert Nelson, stated clerk of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), preached – Moffett using as her text a passage from Acts and Nelson one from 1 Corinthians. Moffett called on Presbyterians to pay attention, as the early disciples did, in order to see God’s power sweeping through the world today and to join together to do God’s work, because “we are one in Jesus Christ.” Nelson likened this struggle for unity to the wrangling that sometimes pops up in church politics: “There ain’t no PMA (Presbyterian Mission Agency) and there ain’t no OGA (Office of the General Assembly). We are one in the body of Christ. We are called to be … [Read more...]

Tagged With: COGA • PMA board

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