220th General Assembly – Day 5 (Independence) Day

I awoke this morning to the realization that my roommate had not returned in the night. It concerned me, considering that I knew he was assigned to the committee on Middle East issues. That committee had worked until 11 p.m. the night before. I was afraid to know how late they may have been asked to work to prepare their recommendations for the plenary session. Then I noticed that none of his stuff was in the room- a detail I had missed before going to bed the night before. I had a ticket to attend the breakfast sponsored by the Presbyterian Publishing Corp. so I got up and got going. It was there that I ran into my roommate. His pastor had arrived at the Assembly in the role of alternate and he explained that he would be staying with him. I guess that means I get the room to myself.

Our committee convened for about 90 minutes to review the video summarizing the actions coming from each of the committees to the plenary sessions for the remainder of the week. The notable actions include a recommendation to disapprove the work of the Mid Councils task force calling for the elimination of Synods. This is good news to those in the Synod of Lakes and Prairies. Our Synod serves a vital role in resourcing a number of Presbyteries that cover a vast and largely rural portion of the country. While Synods may not be as necessary in those parts of the country with higher population density, ours has been extremely helpful in its training of Committee on Ministry and Committee on Preparation as well as in the coordination of our varied and cooperative ministries.

Other notable business being taken up by the plenary session include approval of the overture to change the definition of marriage from “a man and a woman” to “two persons.” We will hear the recommendation of a new, more accurate translation of the Heidelberg Catechism and (once again) the inclusion of the Belhar Confession as part of the Book of Confessions. We will hear the approval of MRTI’s recommendation to divest from Caterpillar, Hewlett Packard, and Motorolla in consideration for their non-peaceful business with the State of Israel in its occupation of the Palestinian West Bank. There was little discussion among our committee and concluded our time together with prayer before breaking for lunch.

I attended the lunch held by my seminary alma mater, Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary. There were a few people in the room whom I recognized, but I felt a little self-conscious about my presence there. About a year and a half ago I requested that APTS send me no requests for money. My reason was my objection to the way APTS had allowed itself to be extorted by the United Methodist Church. In an attempt to “create a more diverse campus” the Board of Trustees limited the consideration of faculty candidates for 4 of their next 5 hires based on race and gender. I strongly disagree with the fairly outdate notion that discrimination can be overcome by practice of the same. In fact is was that champion of the Civil Rights movement, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., who said we do not cast out darkness with more darkness. Lunch was fine. Ted Wardlaw, the school’s President, is an excellent speaker and the presentation on their newest capital campaign was put together well. I guess it makes me a little sad to feel like an outsider. It was my own action that put me there, and I recognize that. Truthfully, outside of the few friends that I made there among the faculty and classmates, I never was ‘on the inside’ at APTS. I have no legacy connections through the Synod or denomination, no connection to development dollars that might find their way to such a campaign. It doesn’t surprise me that the institution itself has little interest in me. I’m too much trouble.

When we finally convened for the plenary session, it was opened with the big news of the day. The Vice-Moderator in response to the contention surrounding her selection announced her decision to step down. Her selection had generated a considerable amount of criticism, including my own. What’s disappointing is that in praying after this action, our Moderator conflated the words “dissention” and “division.” Not having read all that was circulating in criticism of the Vice-Moderator, I can’t characterize what was being said. Certainly the usual suspects, like The Presbyterian Layman, are known for using inflammatory language with a kind of sinful glee. But dissent IS NOT necessarily divisive. It is the right we extend in recognition that God alone is the Lord of the conscience. The dissent over the Vice Moderator’s selection was legitimate. In her comments she defended her action by claiming a pastor’s heart. What she neglected to name was that she need not be a Teaching Elder to act pastorally, but she used the privilege of her ordered ministry to violate the constitution that grants her that privilege. Her violation was not the equivalent of pastoral jaywalking. It was a violation of a principal that is currently creating great turmoil in the church. Her failure to recognize that, and to act anyway, if anything demonstrated a serious lapse in judgment and profound blindness in discerning the whole body of the church on this matter. Her proposed replacement is a Teaching Elder from Colorado Springs who happened to be on my committee, so I got to know him a little this week. Actually, I got to know a little more than I wanted to- he was one of those who had a lot to say during the committee work.

We then began hearing business from committees and got our first substitute motion in response to a recommendation concerning the payment of per capita from Presbyteries. An overture had been submitted allowing Presbyteries to pass along only those per capita funds paid to them by the congregations in their Presbyteries. The committee recommended disapproval with comment. The substitute motion sought to offer a cap on per capita passed along as a percentage of the presbytery’s overall budget. The substitute motion failed. The rest of the procedures’ report was approved.

Next up was the business from the Committee on the Confessions of the Church. Todd Jones from First PC, Nashville was the moderator of that committee. Encounters with Todd bookended my time in the Presbytery of Middle TN. At my reception into the Presbytery, Todd challenged the lack of ‘Father’ language in my Statement of Faith. Right before I left for Sioux City, I was asked to preside at the funeral of a woman whose family attended the church Todd pastors. He came to that funeral in pastoral support and was extremely generous to me in his comments to me afterward. He even called the next day to offer any help he could as I moved into my new call.  Recommendations to approve the new translation of Heidelberg and to include Belhar were both sustained. There was debate about Belhar, a confession from the Reformed church of South Africa in response to the division created by apartheid in the church. It was sent out for consideration by the last GA, and while it was approved by a majority of presbyteries, it fell short of the 2/3^rd required to change the Book of Confessions.

The dinner break was filled with heated conversation about the vice-moderator’s decision to step down. I sat with a friend whose conservative cadre were in electronic consultation with a Presbyterian leader who has renounced the PC(USA) for the new ECO that he helped create, getting his take on the replacement vice-moderator. Facebook was filled with stunned reaction at the goings-on. I guess from the ground level here in Pittsburgh, I’m having trouble seeing how it makes one bit of difference in the execution of our mission other than to serve as a dramatic distraction for people who really have better things to be doing. Let’s get on with what we’ve got to do!

There wasn’t much meaningful business transacted in the evening plenary. There was a 30 minute exercise in trying to make a mountain out of this mole hill, but thankfully we weren’t subject to a descent in overwrought handwringing at the microphones in 2 minute increments. Phew! The order for the evening is fireworks. So I’m going up on the roof to witness the spectacle. Far more satisfying than the fireworks created by petty partisanship.