MINNEAPOLIS, Minn.—The Form of Government Revision committee began hearing from overture advocates today at the 219th General Assembly meeting here. Criticism of the proposed FoG included “consider the cost,” comparisons to an uncooked, diseased pig and the prospect that the new FoG will be a “litigator’s dream.”
MINNEAPOLIS – The Presbyterian Outlook honored Syngman Rhee with the Ernest Trice Thompson Award at its 219th General Assembly banquet here yesterday (July 3). The presentation came after the attendees heard brief speeches by the six candidates for moderator. The moderatorial election came six hours after the luncheon banquet adjourned.
[caption id="attachment_21916" align="alignright" width="270"]
Syngman Rhee holds up E.T.Thompson Award. Jack Haberer, Outlook editor, and Laura Mendenhall, Outlook board member, look on.[/caption]
MINNEAPOLIS — “We pray for living waters, for all we left behind and all we need to do today and in the days to come,” prayed the Rev. Alika Galloway of the Kwanzaa Community Church here, as she led commissioners and observers in worship to open the meeting of the 219th General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) yesterday (July 3).
Dancers embodying the four directions and processional banners symbolizing living water heralded the opening worship service of the 219th General Assembly in Minneapolis, Minn., today (July 4).
MINNEAPOLIS – Opponents of a report aimed at forwarding efforts to forge a peaceful, two-state solution to conflict between Israelis and Palestinians said Sunday (July 4) it instead risks making a bad situation worse.
MINNEAPOLIS— The proposed Form of Government revision that the 219th General Assembly will consider this week might be considered like an architectural plan, some members of the task force which proposed that revision suggested.
MINNEAPOLIS – After four rounds of voting and some worry about technical difficulties with the electronic voting keypads, the 219th General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) elected as its moderator Cynthia Bolbach, a lawyer and the only elder in a six-person field.
Bolbach – tall, plain-spoken, with a crisp sense of humor – brings to the office decades of experience in church life, from the congregational to the national levels of the denomination.[caption id="attachment_21910" align="alignright" width="426"]
Cynthia Bolbach, newly elected moderator, addresses the General Assembly in Minneapolis. Photo by Erin Dunigan.[/caption]
She has served as a deacon and clerk of session for her congregation, First Church in Arlington, Va., as well as moderator of National Capital Presbytery, chair of the presbytery’s Committee on Ministry and its interim general presbyter. She also serves as co-moderator of the Form of Government Task Force, that is bringing to this assembly a proposal – four years in the making – to streamline and make more flexible the denomination’s Form of Government.
After the fourth ballot, the candidate with the second-highest number of votes was Julia Leeth, a pastor from California, who earlier in the evening said she guessed she might be among the most conservative of the candidates.
In that final ballot, Bolbach received 325 votes (51 percent) and Leeth 148 votes (23 percent). But Bolbach led from the start, winning 149 votes (30 percent) in the first ballot – with things splitting neatly from there, with four of the other five candidates drawing from 71 to 76 votes apiece that time around.
MINNEAPOLIS — A brief, pointed exchange during a pre-General Assembly workshop July 3 hinted at what could prove an impassioned struggle over the Middle East Study Committee’s report and recommendations to the General Assembly.
Six members of the General Assembly Special Committee on Civil Union and Christian Marriage – two of whom were authors of a minority report from that committee – presented the special committee’s findings and fielded questions from a group of 150 commissioners and advisory delegates on July 3, at one of the Riverside Conversations that preceeded the formal opening of the 219th General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). Many of those who attended the session were Young Adult Advisory Delegates.
MINNEAPOLIS, Minn.— An overview of changes in Christian churches today, and recommendations about changes to the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) form of government highlighted the Form of Government Revision committee meeting here today (July 3), a full day in advance of the convening of the 219th General Assembly.
Robert Austell, pastor of Good Shepherd Church in Charlotte, N.C., has set up a Web site called GA HELP — that he’s calling an “unofficial, one-stop help site” for the assembly.
The University of Dubuque has announced it will “step away from the table” on plans to enter a partnership agreement with Sheldon Jackson College in Sitka, Alaska, according to Dubuque President Jeffrey F. Bullock.
Randy Harris, pastor of Highland Church in Winston-Salem, N.C., and book editor for The Presbyterian Outlook since April 2005, concludes his service as book editor with this issue of the magazine.
Editor’s Note: This address was delivered at the January 4, 2009, worship Service of Palma Ceia Church in Tampa, Fla.
LOUISVILLE — The General Assembly Council of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) has changed its policy regarding closed meetings to allow it to exclude “corresponding members” from such discussions.
LOUISVILLE – While budget concerns and impending layoffs are on the front burner for the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) right now, the General Assembly Council also has other concerns bubbling on the stove.
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SAN JOSE – They had to endure some scolding, but the General Assembly Council (GAC) and the Presbyterian Foundation seem to have found a path for resolving future disputes over the disbursement of funds — disagreements that, during the meeting of the 218th General Assembly, slid messily out into public view.
Near the end of her remarks at the Presbyterian Writers Guild (PWG) luncheon June 26, Marj Carpenter said, “I like to write so much that I feel sorry for people who never get to write.”
SAN JOSE — The 218th General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) has urged the denomination’s Board of Pensions [www.pensions.org] to expand its medical coverage for children with congenital developmental disabilities to include occupational, speech, and physical authority.
The expanded benefits would apply to children with such maladies as Down’s syndrome and autism.
SAN JOSE — In a dangerous world, interfaith dialogue is even more important because “a fire next door will consume your own house,” a leading U.S. Muslim told the 218th General Assembly’s Ecumenical Breakfast June 26.
SAN JOSE — Youth groups in New Jersey, Indiana, and southern California have been chosen winners of the inaugural Youth Video Challenge sponsored by the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) Foundation on its social networking site, ymiLIVE.org [www.ymilive.org].
SAN JOSE — The 218th General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) approved with amendments a resolution “On Calling for Tolerance and Peaceful Relations Between the Christian and Muslim Communities.” The vote was 547-149.
SAN JOSE — In two separate but related initiatives designed to address the persistent decline in Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) membership as well as the church’s commitment to grow in diversity, the 218th General Assembly wholeheartedly approved June 25 a Strategy for Church Growth for African American Congregations and a resolution to help Christ’s Church Grow Deep and Wide during the report of the Assembly Committee on Church Growth and Christian Education.
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