GA Summary - Day Six

First, let me apologize to my faithful readers (both of them) for my clumsiness as a blogger -- I have inadvertantly been shrinking the font size every day! I promise I won't let it happen again, but thanks for letting me know.

Every Assembly develops a personality. The 1997 Assembly (the year after "Amendment B" - the fidelity and chastity amendment - passed) became known as the "backlash" Assembly; another assembly (maybe Denver 2003?) became known as the "referring" Assembly for its penchant to postpone decisions. This Assembly has surprised veteran Assembly for its willingness to go along with committee recommendations, which in turn have been more often than usual in lockstep with the recommendations of GA entities or the ACC. I call it the "deferring" Assembly. This could all change tomorrow when some of the most controversial business comes up, including the Stated Clerk election first thing in the morning. But today, it was a case of wasting a lot of time on amendments that would ultimately fail, and endorsing the work of committees after the posturing and bluster of commissioners.

The biggest item on the docket today was consideration of the proposed New Form of Government. The committee that dealt with it answered all of the overtures (including one from Plains and Peaks) with a single recommendation: to refer the matter to an expanded Form of Government Task Force, to include members of the GA Committee which considered it, to provide for interpretation, study, and feedback from each presbytery over the next year, and to come back with a revised edition in the fall of 2009. A minority report to scuttle the report (with thanks) and to develop a "missional polity" based on proposals by presbyteries coordinated by the GAC (!?) thankfully died, although it was a slow and painful death. It's not that the FoG has any real chance of gaining sufficient support in two years to pass, but at least we are avoiding the mistake of allowing our mission arm to draft polity (which is nearly as bad as asking our polity arm to draft mission priorities). We can now advertise the plan to have the Rev. Dr. Paul Hooker, theological architect of the new FoG, be our special guest at the November 2008 presbytery meeting.

In other business, the GAC and the Foundation have kissed and made up, at least for now. The compromise solution, calls for a "Restricted Funds Resolution Committee" of 7 person (2 from each entity and three chosen by the moderator) to review the dispute and make a recommendation; if the dispute persists, it will be resolved by a civil court resolution. Personally, I think the GAC gave away too much. I find it fascinating to talk to two top-flight attorneys (one the moderator of the Advisory Committe on the Constitution, the other the moderator of the Advisor Committee on Litigation) and get two very different perspectives.

This assembly has been a "soft touch" for the "underdog." In one of the slickest moves by a Presbytery since Mid-Kentucky stole the denominational headquarters in 1987, the Presbytery of Northern New England secured a $185,000 gift from the GA to help with legal expenses in defending the Presbytery's claim to the Londonderry (NH) church property against a schismatic group and the "New Wineskins Presbytery of the Evangelical Presbyterian Church." Now, I understand what a strain legal expenses can place on a presbytery, but there are dozens of presbyteries facing legal bills, including some in synods that don't have the millions of dollars of reserves held by the Synod of the Northeast. The only saving feature of this giveaway bonanza was an amendment saying that the funds for this and a $2 million legal fund (keep dreaming) would come from Extra Commitment Offerings. Otherwise we would have seen nearly $1 increase in GA per capita.

There was some very good news shared yesterday I forgot to post. It was reported that 25 new full-time missionaries are budgeted for the 2009 budget year. It will mark the first net increase in global mission personnel in 50 years. I believe part of the responsibility for this change is due to funds from the Heiserman Trust bequeathed by a member of the Yuma Church.

Another symptom of this "deferring" Assembly has been the generally positive (in some cases effusive) praise for the ACC, especially from commissioners. This is in stark contrast to the vitriol extended in 2006, which culminated in the ACC being the target of a remedial complaint. I'd like to think I had something to do with the change.

If you are interested in reading about the actions of the Assembly in greater detail, check out the GA news feed at the presbytery website (http://www.plainsandpeaks.org/), or the news postings at the assembly website (www.pcusa.org/ga218). You can watch streaming video of the Assembly on the latter. (It will be on late, late Friday, by all estimations.)

A few high- and low-lights of the Assembly today: the vice-moderator of the Committee on Review of GA entities referred to committee moderator Elder Susan Gieser (pronounced "geezer") as "the Elder Geezer." Outgoing Stated Clerk Cliff Kirkpatrick was honored by a committee resolution adopted by the Assembly naming him "Stated Clerk Emeritus." In typical Prebyterian fashion, the motion passed the committee 49 to 1. Gotta love that "one." Then there was the hyperflorid prayer in which a commissioner repeatedly prayed in the name of God: Adonai, El Shaddai, El-Elyon, and "the name beyond our mentioning" -- which she then went on to mention. I could only think of the blasphemy scene from Monty Python's The Life of Brian.

As the Assembly dragged on past eleven p.m. local time, the faithful remnant in the gallery (including yours truly) started developing the biennial version of "GA bingo." We hope to have cards ready to play by tomorrow night's marathon. Spots might include GA stock characters like "the crying YAD" and the "coming out TSAD" as well as newer near-cliches like singing "Awesome God" and experiencing a "PC-Biz breakdown."

Tomorrow we have the Stated Clerk election, the Polity committee report, PUP part II (church orders and ministry), health (i.e., abortion) issues, and more. And I have to wear a suit again, since I am likely to be on camera during the postponed Polity report (figure somewhere between 11 and 12 PDT).