This is the first of a series of postings about happenings at the current General Assembly, from First Pres member Virginia Koster.

Welcome to the 219th General Assembly (GA) of the Presbyterian Church, USA, in beautiful Minneapolis, Minnesota! As stated clerk of the Presbytery of Detroit, Ed attends to assist our group of 10 commisioners and 1 youth advisory delegate on paliamentary matters. I tag along to look and listen, and this year to link with you at FPC and bring you the news. We are a "connectional church,", so GA actions do, in fact, relate to us. For most of us, GA is out-of-sight-out-of mind, but really, some amazing things are going on in the denomination, especially in the areas of mission, which tends to get missed due to all the heat and light focused on the controversial issues of sex, war and church governance.

Whan happens at GA? The General Assembly is organized into committees with commissioners from all over the denomination, meeting each other for the first time on Sunday, July 4. Some committees have as many as 50 members. They take up overtures that are assigned to their committee by the Office of General Assembly (OGA) in Louisville, KY. An overture is essentially a petition  from a Presbytery, Synod, or recommendations from General Assembly Committees or staff with a proposal for some type of action. Overtures that would alter the Book of Order or the Confessions must be ratified by a majority of Presbyteries in the Denomination. Some overtures of particular interest at this time are:

OVT 094, PBY of C. Washington: Declare that God designed marriage exclusively to be between a man and a woman.

Ovt 103, Pby of Boston: Direct the Board of Pensions to Extend Benefits to Same-gender spouses and Domestic Partners.

Ovt 113, Pby of San Francisco: Declare opposition to war in Afghanistan, urge US government to use alternative, peacemaking actions and provide resources to churches and presbyteries for further study.

Ovt 111, Pby of San Francisco: Refer "Christians and Jews: People of God" and "Understanding Christian-Muslim Relations" to GAMC to organize and and fund a special commttee to rewrite reports after further consultation with interested and affected parties.

Ovt 091, Pby of San Joaquin: Show restraint when speaking out for Middle East peace.

Ovt. 095, Pby of C, Washington: Dismiss new FOG committee; take no action on recommendations.

Ovt. 112, Pby of San Francisco: Adopt a Gracious Dismissal Policy for churches wishing to leave the denomination.

You can follow a particular overture by logging onto http://www.pcusa.org/ga2i9/

Go to the "PC-BIZ" tab, register and then click on the relevant committee. Also feel free to talk wit me via my email address; vkoster@aol.com and I'll try to answer questions or clarify what's happening. More later... Virginia Koster

• ‹ previous
• 527 of 1162
• next ›