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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

More than church as usual in St. Louis: General Assembly to address community issues

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The 223rd General Assembly will address issues of racial justice in the convention hall and on the streets. Look for it, weaving in and out of the 2018 General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.): a persistent, intentional focus on issues related to systemic racism and injustice. Look for it, both in the work of the assembly and on the streets. When white police officer Darren Wilson shot and killed black teenager Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, in August 2014, people took to the streets night after night in protest. St. Louis activists have remained mobilized and engaged ever since on issues involving poverty, racism and systemic injustice — and Presbyterian leaders want that commitment to inform the work of this assembly. “It really inspires me to see what God is doing in this city through people of passion and people of justice who are ready to say ‘this is wrong,’ and are willing to do the work to make things right,” said Erin Counihan, who’s pastor of Oak … [Read more...]

Tagged With: 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

Singing the faith to our children

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“Go in peace, go in love, go with blessings from above. Help a friend, say a prayer for the children everywhere. Amen. Amen. A-a-a-a-a-men.” Have you heard that one? Or maybe: “Raindrops, oceans, lakes and rivers; welcome, child of God. Mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters; welcome, child of God. When the world feels wide around you, when the dark of night surrounds you, we are here to tend and guide you. Welcome, child of God.” For our two daughters, Hannah and Catherine who are now seven and five, these two songs were as ubiquitous as the books “Goodnight Moon” and “Moo, Baa, La, La, La.” They were both a part of our regular nighttime routine: the first one at dinner, the second just before bedtime. “Welcome, child of God,” sung to the familiar AR HYD Y NOS hymn tune (“All Through the Night”) was introduced to us through a short children’s book given at Catherine’s baptism. It remains one that she pulls off of the bookshelf regularly for us to sing before going to … [Read more...]

Tagged With: family life • music • parenting

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