Photo provided by Rev. Bill McLean, First Presbyterian Church, Delphi

• Newly elected GA Moderator Heath Rada (Ruling Elder) and Vice Moderator Larissa Kwong Abazia (Teaching Elder) remind us:
  • "Instead of finding single issues that divide us, we need to find those common bonds that hold us together.  We are a family. We were baptized and made a promise to love and uphold one another throughout our entire lives. We have all been invited to share at the same table. Working toward justice is the right thing to do. But it must be done in the context of Christ's model of grace, gratitude, acceptance and inclusion, and not on any model of guilt and damnation..."
• Today the work of GA committees is complete, and their recommendations go to the General Assembly for consideration this afternoon, and into sessions on Thursday, Friday and Saturday.   You can check the business before GA today if you create a User at http://www.pc-biz.org and go to tab for Agendas and open Wednesday Consent Agenda (showing 135 items).
• Simply stated, the next step is that recommendations go from committees to the General Assembly for its discernment and actions. All changes to the PC(USA) Book of Order (The Foundations of Presbyterian Polity, The Form of Government, The Directory for Worship, & The Rules of Discipline) require the affirmative votes of a majority of the presbyteries, and to the Book of Confessions) require two-thirds majority vote. So any actions of GA come back to presbyteries for broader discernment. Some key issues pending this week:
  • Recommendation that Belhar Confession be added to Book of Confession.
  • Committee recommendation 51-18 for authoritative interpretation granting pastoral discretion to do same-gender marriages in states where legal.
  • Revisions and reduction in number of Synods in consultation with presbyteries
  • Recommendation for divestment from HP, Caterpillar, Motorola Solutions due to complicity in Israeli occupation
  • Recommendation amending PC(USA) constitution to describe marriage as being between "two people." Committee vote: 49 yes, 18 no. Minority report is also expected.
• Carol McDonald's work as moderator of the Special Committee to Review Biennial Assemblies is apparent as more routine, less debatable items are moved into a larger Consent Agenda (to be considered today) and more time for conversations in discernment (and less parliamentary procedure) is built into Thursday.
• If you love Les Mis and want a laugh and faces you may recognize, see orientation video for Commissioners at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M0iYniL2WKg - another gift from the Special Committee...
• At http://oga.pcusa.org/section/ga/ga221/ you can click on the video link to watch General Assembly, its work and worship in action, and on PC-BIZ to see the items for General Assembly Commissioners to consider these next few days.
• If that is more information than you are to navigate, specific news summaries may be found below in the center column. Frequently-Asked-Questions are linked with answers on the right side. On the left column, check out the faces of GA in the photos of participants. There are lots more faces of GA at https://www.facebook.com/spiritofga
• Our presbytery Facebook page has some general and some more personal updates from our Commissioners at https://www.facebook.com/WabashValley. Look for postings from our GA Commissioners Tom Albaum, Jill Kitowski and Judy Friend, and progressive Tweets from Bill McLean at https://twitter.com/wsmclean   Check out https://twitter.com/hashtag/ga221 for overwhelming stream of headlines and comments, sometimes funny, sometimes profound, sometimes simply informative, sometimes better ignored.

I, for one, am grateful for the technology that allows us to follow GA from our computers. That kinesthetic "sense of the room" is missing, but the worship with preaching, prayer, sights and song is enriching, and seeing the faces and hearing the voices of those making their best decisions on behalf of the Church brings continuing prayers for the blessings of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

--Linda L. Long, Stated Clerk 

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