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Shuffling the deck: Way Forward votes to reconfigure the PC(USA), A Corporation, board

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ST. LOUIS – The Way Forward Committee of the 2018 General Assembly voted 51-5 on June 19 to approve the recommendations from the Way Forward Commission. There were some amendments to those recommendations along the way, but the committee essentially voted to ask the assembly to approve all of the report, including a joint recommendation from the Way Forward Commission and the All Agency Review Committee to reconfigure the board of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), A Corporation. The committee also voted 58-0 to approve the recommendations of the All Agency Review Committee. The dispute over control of the A Corporation - a secular corporation  serving the PC(USA) -  has been hugely controversial for months now at the top levels of the denomination. The  assembly committee ultimately voted in favor of the commission's recommendation and did not support the approach recommended by the Governance Task Force of the Presbyterian Mission Agency Board. Conrad Rocha, … [Read more...]

Tagged With: GA223 • Way Forward Commission

Panel agrees PC(USA) should defend right to boycott over human rights

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  ST. LOUIS — In its final day of work, the Middle East Issues Committee sent forward what its advocates call a free-speech measure — one that could potentially set the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) at odds with legislation that has drawn strong support in Congress. On June 19, the committee endorsed a call for the church to resist federal and state efforts to levy penalties for boycotts, divestments or sanctions (BDS) aimed at human rights violations in Israel and Palestine. The measure (overture 12-01, from the Synod of the Covenant) describes legislation embodied in Senate Bill 720 and House Resolution 1697 as a looming threat that would impose civil and criminal penalties for nonviolent BDS actions. The overture passed on a 50-2 vote with some slight change of wording. Like other actions passed by the committee, it will go next before the plenary session of the denomination’s 223rd General Assembly. Referring to the defense of free speech, one advocate told … [Read more...]

Tagged With: GA223 • Israel/Palestine • Middle East

Prayer labyrinth, a hidden gem of the General Assembly

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There is a sacred space in the middle of the St. Louis Convention Center, a place of reflection and respite, a circular room in the far corner of the building with almost 360 degrees of windows. On the floor of that room is a hand-painted labyrinth, prepared with love for the General Assembly by a thoughtful team of volunteers from the Presbytery of Giddings-Lovejoy. The presbytery hopes all who are present at the assembly will have the opportunity to experience this sacred space, and offers the invitation: “We hope you will take the time to visit this light-filled room with walkable art beckoning you to a time of meditation and prayer with God.” Walking a labyrinth gives people the opportunity to find serenity in the midst of the chaos of the General Assembly. Walkers are encouraged to work through three stages: release, receive and return. Walkers are invited to quiet their minds, and release the daily details of their lives. Then they are invited to receive what God has to … [Read more...]

Tagged With: GA223

Way Forward and ACC grapple with corporate authority, church authority

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ST. LOUIS – The Way Forward Committee began making progress on parts of its work June 19, plowing through recommendations involving translation services, the role of the stated clerk of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) and more. That followed a long, unusual delay while the Advisory Committee on the Constitution (ACC) sorted through constitutional implications of a recommendation from the Way Forward Commission regarding the PC(USA), A Corporation. “It’s been a real crazy 24 hours,” said Dan Saperstein of the ACC. Here’s a short version. The ACC met during the lunch break June 19 to draft advice to the assembly on constitutional implications in sections of bylaw changes the Way Forward Commission is proposing. At the heart of that advice is the principle that in the PC(USA,) corporate authority needs to be subordinate to church authority. The PC(USA), A Corporation, is a civil corporation that the denomination uses to interact with the secular world (for example, to … [Read more...]

Tagged With: GA223 • Way Forward Commission

GA Procedures Committee takes up the statistical report and commissioners’ resolutions

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ST. LOUIS – Who do you say that I am? That’s the question clerks, sessions and sometimes the church administrator answer in the annual statistical report. Annual statistical reports And therein lies the problem, according to Barb Gaddis, moderator of the Committee of the Office of the General Assembly. When presenting the Session Annual Statistical Report (SASR) Update (03-09), which recommends replacing a number of questions on the current report, Gaddis said, “You don’t decide who other people are.” And yet, in practice, this is exactly what happens with the SASR. Gaddis pointed out that whoever is filling out the report asks: “How many people are black? How many disabled people do you think we have?” This reality (and 10 years of work) prompted COGA’s recommendation to change several questions in the report and eliminate others, including the breakdown of men and women in the congregation. The General Assembly Procedures Committee’s questions focused on categories of race … [Read more...]

Tagged With: GA223

Can the General Assembly direct the Board of Pensions to divest?

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  A General Assembly committee voted 35-20 on June 18 to recommend approval of a proposal asking the 2018 General Assembly to direct the Board of Pensions and the Presbyterian Foundation to divest from the fossil fuel industry, and to seek out and invest in securities of companies focused on renewable energy or energy efficiency. On the surface, that seems to be a major win for the Fossil Free PCUSA movement, which has been organizing intensely in recent months to sway public opinion and  General Assembly votes in favor of divestment – with 40 presbyteries lining up to support the main overture calling for divestment. But a contentious issue rose before the Environmental Issues Committee in its discussions: whether the Board of Pensions of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) is compelled to follow when an assembly votes in favor of divestment. There’s disagreement about that – with Frank Spencer, president of the Board of Pensions, telling the committee that “the board is … [Read more...]

Tagged With: fossil fuels • GA223

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