An Update from Mauri

(Written by Mauri) 

Well, we completed our committee work yesterday. 

And I must admit, it was a tiring and grueling process. I am surprised at how well I am holding up. This afternoon we head back to plenary to start discussing the committee reports.

To be quite honest, I have been quite discouraged about what I have heard coming out of the other committees. I really needed to see Jesus in a fresh way today. And He answered my prayer. 

I went to the PFR/Fellowship of Presbyterians breakfast this morning and was refreshed as we had a time of awesome worship and heard an encouraging message from Dr. Mark Labberton, president of Fuller Theological Seminary. He used the book of Daniel as his reference point, reminding us that we are living today in an "exilic" setting and that we are constantly fighting against idolatrous temptations in our culture. Our focus needs to be on the reality that we worship the true God alone and are a part of His Kingdom, wherever He has us serving.

I needed this to prepare myself for the final days of GA. Christ alone is my strength and in Him I will rest. Continue to pray for us and the PCUSA.

I Saw Jesus

Written by Eva

I expected to find Jesus in the words, actions, and attitudes of the people at GA, and more and more I am finding that to be the case.

Jesus is especially apparent in our YAADs.

There is our own Josh, who keeps well-informed, doesn't hesitate to speak out, and volunteers to haul my bulky laptop to the meeting hall. There is Raylynn, who articulated her opinions so well in the committee meetings and who broke down in tears when she was unable to complete those meetings because of illness. Then there is Peter, the quiet ones who takes in everything, rarely speaks, but when he does, is right on track.

Future commissioners extraordinaire!

When Polity Becomes a Weapon

I have a confession to make.

I have a love/hate relationship with Robert and his Rules of Order.

(I suppose this is a particularly scandalous confession seeing as how I am the Moderator of Beaver-Butler Presbytery. Perhaps impeachment proceedings will have begun before I begin the drive home on Saturday. ;-)

I LOVE that we have a tool that ensures those in the minority have a voice in any and every discussion.

I HATE that, like any good gift of God, it can be used improperly.

In my committee meeting yesterday, I believe I saw polity used intentionally as a weapon by a very knowledgeable person to prevent the possibility of passing a specific overture.

This was INCREDIBLY frustrating. I admit the overture as written would NEVER have passed (I don't know that I would have voted for it then) but the committee was denied the chance to reshape it through amendments. It is my belief that, had we been given the chance, there was a real possibility that we could have crafted something that people could have gathered around. (Instead, the original overture did its best to shove people into the farthest corners of the room; not a smart way to get something passed, if you ask me.)

This was also incredibly frustrating because, from the moment I stepped foot into the COBO Center, I have heard the refrain that all voices are welcome at the table. (You can read about my hopes because of this kind of welcome HERE.)

"Highlights" from The Plumb Line

Written by Mark Plumb

(originally published HERE)

“Highlights”

Good news:

    An overture to celebrate “Evolution Sunday” was defeated

        47-2 in committee.

    The mid-east committee recommended rejection of making a
        distinction between modern and ancient Israel.

    Committee votes to disassociate from the inflammatory 

        publication “Zionism Unsettled”, which has been         

        criticized as being racist and anti-Israel.

Bad news:

    A committee has opened the door for PCUSA pastors to 

        perform same-sex marriages.

    The same committee also approved an overture that would change the

        description of a Christian marriage in the Constitution from being 

        “between “one man and one woman” to between “two persons”. 

    (The good news for us is that language was included in the overture that 

        states that “nothing herein shall compel a teaching elder to perform nor 

        compel  a session to authorize the use of church property for a 

        marriage service that the teaching elder or session believes is 

        contrary to the teaching elder’s or the session’s discernment of the 

        Holy Spirit and their understanding of the Word of God.”)

    The middle east committee voted to divest of investments in Hewlit-

        Packard, Motorola and Caterpillar.

    The Church Polity and Ordered Ministry committee is also recommending 

        that the assembly reject efforts to clarify what is meant in the 

        denomination’s Book of Order by “Essential tenets of the Reformed 

        faith.”

These issues will now go before the entire General Assembly for a confirmation vote. Please continue to pray that the bad news will turn into good news during the plenary sessions.

I saw Jesus

She sits huddled between two other people, gently whispering.

Frequently she points to her laptop screen, highlighting a few lines of text as she whispers.

She gestures with her hands and pauses frequently to ponder the best way to phrase things.

She is the interpreter for some of the Spanish-speaking commissioners in my committee. I can't tell you her name, though I have thanked her for her ministry to my brother and sister in Christ. She laughed gently and accepted my compliment with a smile.

In her gentle whispers and patient face, I see Jesus, just by looking at my neighbors. What a gift she is to us, the church, providing access to and participation in our discussions for those who do not speak English as a first language.

EP Advisory Vote?

We encountered our first bit of confusing business not too long into our first full day of plenary.

There was a motion (and a second) from the floor of the Assembly to give Executive Presbyters an ADVISORY vote.

What does this mean? In addition to polling the standard advisory votes (Young Adult Advisory Delegates, Missionary Advisory Delegates, and Theological Student Advisory Delegates), prior to every vote, we would now ALSO vote Executive Presbyters/General Presbyters/Transitional Presbyters/Whatever else they may be called right now.

Lickety-split before you know it, the motion passed by a show of hands. And, judging from the buzz I heard from commissioners and advisory delegates, there were those who doubted that the voice vote was clear enough for a definitive answer to the motion.

Someone called for a "division of the house," which would require the number of votes on each side to be counted. Because we were in the midst of #technopalypse (when none of the technology we planned to use was working and it would have required a paper ballot), the Moderator, using his discretion, put off the "division of the house" until Wednesday when the plenary is in session again and all the bugs have been worked out of the system.

Based on the conversations we are having, now that we've had some time to think about it, I strongly suspect that this motion will fail when the votes are counted. Reasons tossed around include: we already have sufficient advisory votes; we don't have enough "clickers" for the EPs to use to vote; they're not always there when business is in session; not every Presbytery has an EP and not every Stated Clerk is in attendance to fill that role.

This was probably the case of a newbie Moderator who did his best to move things along--he seems eager to do right by the Assembly and God. And, in the end, the vote will probably end up coming out "right" (ie the will of the majority of the Assembly) even if it didn't start that way. We'll see for certain on Wednesday.

That's Jesus, I tell ya!

UPDATE: The vote fails, the motion garnering only 48% of the votes. 

A YAAD's Perspective

Written by Josh

This week we have been given the job to discern many hot-topic and sensitive issues.  Many of which may make some Presbyterians so upset that they in-turn decide to dissolve from the church.  But we need to look at the big picture, not that I am voicing my support one view or another.  This is God's church and need to work towards his will.

As a YAAD I may struggle to deal with things some of the more experienced commissioners may have an easier time dealing with, such as, not getting my way.  At first I will be upset about it as a natural reaction; however, I think that is the norm.  But I cannot let it get to me and affect the way I continue to carry on handling business the way God wants me to and to do my best for God's church.

This is a nice segue into another place I have found Jesus.  Well, I really should say places.  My mom is an absolute God-send I talked to her on the phone for probably 45 minutes today and at first we were fighting but by the end she had me calm and ready to get back to the table.  Another place I found Jesus was in the calm quiet hallways of Detroit's COBO Center just catching my breathe and I felt his presence there helping me to calm back down and to know that everything will be alright.

My hope is that everyone involved can resolve their issues together in a peaceful manner that will allow us to continue to worship God as one people united under one church. 

Romans 5:2-7
Through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God.  Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance;  perseverance, character; and character, hope.  And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us.  You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly.  Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die.

from The Plumb Line

Written by Mark, posted 06/15/14 at The Plumb Line--read more thoughts there.  

Last night’s meeting went very late. We listened as the three candidates for Moderator shared their vision for the PCUSA.

All three of the candidates are very progressive and proudly expressed their support for same-sex marriage - much to the delight of many of the GA commissioners.

After the votes were tallied (on paper ballots!), the General Assembly overwhelmingly elected Heath Rada as the new Moderator and Larissa Kwong Abazia as the Vice-Moderator. May the Holy Spirit direct them in all they do. 

After spending two hours this morning reviewing 2012 and 2013 minutes for two Synods, I had an opportunity to worship at suburban Orchard Lake Community Church, Presbyterian (pictured above). That church is pastored by a dear old friend, Paul Thwaite. It was wonderful to receive the hospitality of that congregation, to catch up with Paul’s wife, Jan, and to experience a wonderful worship service. In fact, the music reminded me of the incredible music that I experienced as a child at Pleasant Hills Community Presbyterian Church. I really needed a positive worship experience, and I wasn’t disappointed. 

When I returned to downtown Detroit, I finally got to go into the display area and visit with another old friend, Steve Ebling. It was so good to get caught up with a “friend-of-the-heart” as another mutual good friend, Stan Ott, calls it.

This afternoon, we had the privilege of sending missionaries into the world. As you know, the missional church has a special place in my heart, and that moment was inspirational to me. We’ve also been listening to many well-rehearsed special committee proposals that will be further discussed in the committee work that will formally begin at 7:30 tonight. 

After dinner, I will be off to the Mid-Council Issues Committee. The main work of that committee will be to consider a proposal that would decrease the number of Synods from sixteen to eight or less. 

Please continue to pray for the work of GA. The really hard, contentious work is about to begin.

#theBBP5

L-R: Josh, Mark, Mauri, Eva, Allison

A Quick Update from Mauri

Written by Mauri

What a beautiful sunny day today! 

We got off to a good start this morning by worshiping in a number of local Presbyterian churches. I attended First Presbyterian in Plymouth. I was warmly welcomed and blessed by the worship service. 

And to top it off, I had one of those "small world" moments--one of the associate pastors is a close friend of my pastoral colleague back in our Beaver-Butler Presbytery--Jordan Rimmer. 

Now we are back together to start our afternoon plenary session. Praying that all goes well and the technological problems we had yesterday will be cleared up. 

Here we go!

A New Moderator

(Written by Allison)

Nothing every goes exactly according to plan, right? It certainly didn't in the plan to elect a Moderator and Vice-Moderator of the 221st General Assembly. (On Twitter, it's been dubbed #technopalypse.

Not Plan A, which was to vote using an on-line program.

And not Plan B, which was to vote using "the clickers" as they are known in Presbyterian circles.

BUT Plan C came through for us: paper ballots!

And by an act of the hand of God, a Moderator and Vice-Moderator were elected on THE. FIRST. BALLOT. (Seriously, this is divine intervention. I saw Jesus right here.)

The hour was late and the commissioners and advisory delegates were beginning to grumble, as the plans failed. But a little bit of #oldschool technology saved the day and the fan-favorite (which was clear from the amount of clapping he received, was elected.

Meet HEATH RADA and LARISSA KWONG ABAZIA. (Check out what The Presbyterian Outlook wrote about the election.)

From a BBP perspective (generally, we are conservative-esque and evangelical-ish), none of the three candidates were particularly exciting to us. In fact, they were all pretty similar in beliefs. (Check out the post I wrote earlier about the candidates.)  (Fellow commissioner Mark Plumb astutely observed "shame on us" for not encouraging a conservative evangelical to stand for Moderator on his blog.)

I believe that God is alive and active and present in the PC(USA) so Mr. Rada must be God's choice for this Assembly. And while I might not agree with him on this year's hot-button issues, I do believe he will serve with humility and a great sense of humor, judging from the gracious and humorous way he handled an awkward moment in last night's meeting. (And by that, I mean he forgot HE was the one who was supposed to close the assembly in prayer! I can only imagine just how shocking and overwhelming it is to take over a GA plenary session as a newly elected Moderator so I fault him not for this. :-)

I look forward to seeing if he truly is as interested in unity as he says he is; if the conservative evangelical commissioners and advisory delegates at this Assembly are given the same place at the table as other sub-groups within the Presbyterian Church.

Only time will tell.

Reflection

Written by Josh McElhaney

To reflect on my time so far at the General Assembly I could use two words and that would be controversial and difficult. The one thing I was excited to experience was the different opinions I would hear but some of them have been so radical views on some issues that will have a huge impact on our church and this could be extremely negative. I believe that everyone is entitled to their opinions and that is the best thing about our country; however, these could be a death sentence for our church.

Last night we selected a moderator. None of the candidates truly stood out to me in the fact that they had many of the same views on the hot-topic issues. And in this vote we experienced the extreme negative impacts of technology and the more frustrating side of it.

Our theme for this blog and this week is where we find Jesus and I think, looking at it early on, the place I most find Jesus is the impact that the YAADs advice and vote has on the commissioners vote and selection. The YAADs choice for moderator was the overwhelming selection by the commissioners.

I am extremely excited to see what the rest of this week will bring and I have been very blessed to be given this opportunity and to work with 4 extraordinary people from the Beaver-Butler Presbytery.