However, the momentous events of this day will not go unnoticed here:
- The Rev. Gradye Parsons was elected Stated Clerk of the General Assembly (the highest continuing office in the denomination), filling the opening at Clifton Kirkpatrick's retirement. Gradye is well known to GA insiders, but perhaps not so well known around the denomination. Gradye has served as Associate Stated Clerk in Louisville for many years, after having previously served as a pastor and then as Executive Presbyter in Holston Presbytery in Appalachian Tennessee. Gradye exuded his typical low-key personality, dry wit, deep thought, and spiritual passion during the hour-long examination by commissioners this morning. While Gradye was the first choice of GA loyalists and most progressives, he has strong conservative credentials as well, and is the first Stated Clerk to have graduated from evangelical Gordon-Conwell Seminary. In his address to the Assembly, his first act was to look into the TV camera, wave his hand, and with a big grin say, "Hi, Mom!" Gradye won on the first ballot with 57% of the vote. Vote totals for the other three candidates ranged from 3 - 25%.
- The rest of the morning was taken with the report on Church Orders and Ministry, which was handling the "PUP II" overtures and "G-6.0106b" overtures. The votes on these items followed a very consistent 54-46 split in favor of the progressive positions. This wasn't a case of "lockstep" organization so much as it is the mix of commissioners at this Assembly. Conversations with a key liberal organizer indicated that the progressive organizations are as surprised at the vote counts as are the rest of the denomination. Among the actions, sure to spark controversy in the church, are the approval of an amended Authoritative Interpretation of G-6.0108 which attempts to re-open the possibility of "local option" in the examination of candidates (but, see the analysis below). Also, the presbyteries will be voting on new language for the "fidelity and chastity" provision of the Book of Order (G-6.0106b) again this year. This is the third time around for this vote. A full analysis of the major decisions is found in the special posting below.
- The afternoon was taken up with "Peacemaking and International Issues" which was anything but peaceable. Significant debate -- perhaps the most intense of the Assembly -- was had over policy advocacy in matters concerning Israel and Palestine. Ultimately, the Assembly adopted the committee's recommendations (big surprise), which fairly well reiterate the current position of the denomination, and rejected a "hands off" policy alternative.
- The Polity Committee, which seemed to have the most diverse business of any committee, presented a recommendation to disapprove Overture 04-08 from the Presbytery of Baltimore, which would have sent amendments to the presbyteries to change the definition of marriage in the Directory for Worship so as to include same-sex marriages. After considerable debate (divided by the dinner break), the Assembly agreed with the committee and rejected the overture overwhelmingly.
Some highlights, lowlights, and sidelights:
- This Assembly marks the terminus of the 12 year service of Cliff Kirkpatrick as Stated Clerk. He was elected in 1996, the year G-6.0106b was approved by the GA; he leaves in the year its replacement was sent to the presbyteries. But the two assemblies could not otherwise be more different. The intense conflict and prolonged demonstrations evident in 1996 were nowhere to be seen today. When the John Knox overture passed, there was not a single clap of applause, not a groan of disappointment to be heard. Perhaps we have matured; perhaps we have just grown older and tired.
- The Assembly passed unawares a potentially embarrassing action from the Polity Committee. Item 04-18 was a request for clarification of the meaning of the action of the 217th Assembly in adopting an amendment requiring synod representation on all GA level committees. Rather than adopt the ACC advice, the committee instead recommended answering the question with the advice from 2006. Only, that advice answered an overture, not a request for interpretation, and was based on an entirely different version of the provision in question. The committee sought to use the remedy suggested in 2006, and passed on amendments to the Book of Order to address the representation issue. But the rest of the advice is essentially meaningless, and if the amendments don't pass, we'll have to issue new advice in 2010 on the same question. [I disavow responsibility for the committee's actions as I was resourcing a different committee when this occurred. I brought the mistake to the attention of the committee leadership, and rather than go through an awkward amendment on the Assembly floor, it was decided to leave it as is to be fixed next Assembly if need be.]
- Finally, my vote for the Theology and Civics Award goes to the YAD who argued in favor of allowing gay marriage with the argument, "we have a constitutional right to the pursuit of happiness." If you don't see the humor in that, check out the U.S. Constitution. Or, the Declaration of Independence. No one said you needed to have passed a civics course to be a YAD, or a commissioner, for that matter.
Tomorrow, the Assembly will meet for worship, then address budgetary matters (to see how much effect the Assembly's actions will have on the 2009 and 2010 per capita amounts). Then we are off to our respective homes to try to make sense of this "sleeping" Assembly to those who sleep in the pews.
P.S. Adjournment tonight was at 11:38 p.m. (And I had midnight in the pool!)
