June 18
An early start to the day
after a late end to the last one. Because we are celebrating the Lord’s Supper
each day, more people than usual are needed to serve the elements. The
Executive Presbyter of Detroit Presbytery, and former associate pastor at First
Presbyterian Church of Bethlehem, invited those of us in Mid Council ministry
to participate. Given how rare it can be for exec-types (I should say “TP-types)
to be asked to do things at the Assembly (more on that later), I was keen to
volunteer. Unfortunately it meant leaving the hotel before 7am to get to the
convention center for training and the movement of juice-filled chalices and
bread-laden plates.
It was a night full of
thunderstorms, and the day only suggested more. Streets were flooded, affecting
both worshipers and Communion servers. And like any worship service,
particularly a mid-week one in the middle of summer, you don’t know whether
attendance will reflect Easter Sunday or…. mid-week in the middle of summer.
Complicating matters, if you think filling a large sanctuary is a challenge
when it holds a thousand people, try filling a convention center designed for
thousands! Understandably, folks were invited to move forward, meaning that
those of us who were instructed to serve in the bleachers had no one to serve!
Except by the time we got
to Communion, enough latecomers had arrived that we actually had a good number
of folks to serve. Like the ebb and flow of church attendance, through the year
and over the years, some days we can look out and hear Jesus ask, “Who is your
neighbor?” and wonder if anyone is out there. But if we look again, we can see
they are there, we can hear the call the serve. But we have to look, we have to
listen, we have to be equipped and ready.
We have been singing some
wonderful pieces, many from the new Presbyterian hymnal, Glory to God.
Having provided it in several colors, no longer can we just say “the red one”
or “the blue one,” or the green one that came in-between. There is a tremendous
range of hymns, traditional and more contemporary, rousing and contemplative, Anglo
and majority world. On a personal note, I’m particularly glad for the last. I
am grateful that many of our congregations make an effort to include music from
around the world, but it seemed like we used the same hymns over and over
again. Glory to God provides a whole new selection of hymns that speak
to the broader human experience.
I mentioned earlier that it is rare for TP-types to be asked to do
things at the Assembly. From my admittedly limited perspective, the best of
times, the worst of times:
As I walked into the plenary hall, a young man stopped me, “I’ve seen
you outside Committee 10.” “Okay,” I thought, hearing an urgency in his voice, “here
is someone who didn’t like the Lehigh overture.” But I was wrong. “I saw your
ribbon, the one that says ‘Presence Keeper.’ What does that mean?” I explained
that it is a group of Mid Council leaders who commit to praying for committees for
an hour or two a day, and to make sure that the plenary sessions are prayed for
in their entirety. Earnestly, he said, “Thank you. Thank you. I know that we
could not have had the kind of civil debate, Christian disagreement, without
people like you praying for us.” Shaking my hand, he said one last time, “Thank
you.”
On the other hand, it was proposed that Mid Council leaders have voice
in committee and plenary — not once, but twice, in two different ways. The
first time was when the voting chaos was taking place on Sunday night, and so a
decision made by voice or hand vote (Sunday was a long time ago!) was
challenged. It was defeated, an alternative was proposed, and the committee recommended
against having TP-types and Stated Clerks being given the right to speak. This
time there was more opportunity to speak on the floor this time, and as one of
only two TP-types who are also commissioners, I felt I had to speak on behalf
of my colleagues. I suggested that those of us who are in Mid Council ministry
are in a unique position to speak on matters before the church: we are closer
to congregations than synods, but have a balcony view on congregations.
Things are improving for me. The action was resoundingly defeated, but
at least I wasn’t shut out this time!
We accomplished a lot
this afternoon and evening, but at a certain point we hit a wall. A number of
challenging issues arose for which advice from constitutional and legal
authority was felt necessary. Now we will re-visit them tomorrow, along with
trying to address the already scheduled items, such as same-sex marriage. Time
to invest in a little caffeine, I think.
But to close on a
positive note, one of the items that passed today is 14-03 “Living Missionally.”
I think we’ll be hearing more about this in the Presbytery, but for now look at
these objectives and just think, “How could this be us?”
• Every congregation
would determine a number of volunteers and volunteer hours they would commit to
their community
and fulfill that
commitment for the year;
• Adopt a community in
need of refurbishing in the U.S.;
• Actively engage youth
and young adults in volunteer opportunities;
• Support young adults
and others called to serve in God’s mission in the U.S. and abroad;
• “Re-presenting”
Christ in their everyday lives through normal, day-to-day interactions with
friends, family members and colleagues.
• Support the Living
Missionally initiative in prayer
• Actively engaging at least 1,000 PC(USA) congregations each
year (2014 – 2016) to focus on becoming “Missional Churches” through acts of
service in communities around the world
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