Shaking and Moving The 218th General Assembly of the PC(USA)
In San Jose, California, close to the San Andreas fault, the 218th General Assembly, though resting on the solid rock of Jesus Christ, felt tremors of change and shifts in the denominational ground.
SAN JOSE -- “There is hardly any family or congregation that is not touched by serious mental illness,” says the Rev. B. Gordon Edwards, who was instrumental in bringing “Comfort My People: A Policy Statement on Serious Mental Illness” to the 218th General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) for adoption on June 27.
SAN JOSE -- By a 5-to-1 margin, the 218th General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) on Friday (June 27) approved “A Social Creed for the 21st Century,” exactly 100 years after the “Social Creed” of 1908 spoke to the harshness of industrial life at the turn of the last century.
SAN JOSE -- After much docket delay, the Church Polity Committee gave its report to the 218thGeneral Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) late Friday afternoon (June 27).
SAN JOSE – Just hours after voting to recommend that the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) change its rules to make it easier for gays and lesbians to be ordained, the 218th General Assembly turned down a overture that would have changed the definition of marriage in the church’s constitution, to say that marriage is between “two people” rather than a between a man and a woman.
SAN JOSE – An amendment to a resolution on homelessness adopted by the 218th General Assembly on Friday asks PC(USA) members to forgo one meal per week “as an act of worship and humility.”
SAN JOSE, Cal. – “We are called to be involved and engaged in the world that God cares deeply about,” said Rev. Nancy Kahaian, moderator of the Committee on Peacemaking and International Issues. “I believe that Presbyterians can truly lead the way,” she continued in a press conference Friday afternoon.
SAN JOSE -- The 218th General Assembly on Thursday (June 26) rejected by a five-to-one margin a recommendation from its Mission Coordination and Budgets Committee that the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) institute a fifth church-wide special offering to support mission personnel.
