Posting #5 July 9, 2010
General Assembly Updates

Linda Bryant Valentine, daughter of our own Barbara Bryant, was reappointed to a second four-year term of the General Assembly Mission Council by unanimous vote and a shout of “Amen!” by the Assembly.

Middle East Peacemaking: Near East Report
As a follow up to my previous posting, many of the church leaders in opposition to the Near East Report withdrew their objections after actions by the committee making their report  more balanced. The respectful debate and process was a testimony to a reasoned process working well….many were saying the Holy Spirit moved through the process and some called the final unanimous vote “miraculous”.
The issues are too complex to adequately cover in this brief report but, in a nutshell, the report was amended to:
1.Affirm Israel’s right to exist with secure borders
2. Set up a monitoring group of 7, no more than 2 of whom could have been on   the committee writing the report (initially the whole group would have drawn from that group)
3. Deletion of Part III of the report and replace it with 8 narrative stories- 4 from a Palestinian and 4 from an Israeli perspective.
The amended report was adopted by the Assembly by a large majority. I commend the full report to those of you interested in this issue.

Definition of Marriage upheld
Thursday night the Assembly voted to maintain the definition of marriage. This was the result of a parliamentary maneuver and actually something of a surprise, since in Committee 12 changing the wording of a marriage as being “between a man and a woman” to being “between two people” passed by a 2 to 1 margin. Friday morning there were committee members stationed around the convention holding “Reconsider 12” signs. That was taken up as the first order of business and reconsideration was defeated by a 60%-40% vote, leaving the definition of marriage unchanged.

Middle Governing Body Commission
Declining membership and financial support is putting a squeeze on funding for middle governing bodies (presbyteries and synods).The Assembly rejected an overture to eliminate synods as well as an overture to create a new synod based on theological affinity rather than geography.

In an action with little heat and light but tremendous import, the Assembly voted to institute a 21 member group having the authority to “act on the Assembly’s behalf” to respond to requests to realign synods and presbyteries….in order to “make our structures more functional”. The commission can only act “upon a majority affirmative vote of the affected synod or presbytery…. with a 2/3 majority vote”.  Synods could be combined, divided or new synods created. The commission could “approve the organization, division, uniting or combining of presbyteries or portions of presbyteries by synods”.
Controversial Issues to go to the 173 Presbyteries for vote are over the next two years are FOG, Ordination Standards and the Belhar Confession

“FOG”.  For those of you not familiar with “FOG”, it stands for “Form of Government” –only in the Presbyterian Church could a sweeping action to simplify the Book of Order have the acronym of “FOG!” At issue is the belief that the Book of Order has created a church bound up in rules and excessive legalism. The new Form of Government is touted to enable the church to be more missional and open to the holy spirit. It now goes to the presbyteries for ratification.

Look for opposition in ratification process by presbyteries based on theological concerns. On the floor of the Assembly, a number of speakers decried that new FOG no longer begins with Jesus Christ as Head of the Church, but rather with missional language. Concerns were expressed that the document moves the church towards universalism by not including confessional language.

Ordination Standards…again! The Assembly narrowly approved an overture to amend the “fildelity, chasity” clause in ordination standards. There was a slim 50 vote difference (373-323-4) to amend the Book of Order G-6.0106b, thus now permitting local option in ordaining non celibate gays and lesbians. The speakers from the floor were passionate on both sides of the issue. For proponents, it is an issue of social justice, with analogies drawn to allowing women to be ordained; for opponents, it is an issue of fidelity to scripture which prohibits homosexual sex as well as sex outside the covenant of marriage. Once again, the presbyteries will weigh in on this issue.

Belhar Confession  If ratified by the presbyteries, the Belhar Confession will become the 12th confession in the Book of Confessions. The Belhar Confession deals with apartheid , providing confessional language defining the theology behind social justice.

Conclusion
Tomorrow Ed and I start back to Ann Arbor, spending the night in Chicago with my old college roommate and arriving home Sunday. I am putting together a slide show of the 219 General Assembly for any groups who would like to get broader sense of our connectional church. In 2014 Detroit will host the GA. I’m sure we will be called upon to help with this tremendous effort. It really is not too soon to get up to speed on the gestalt and structure of this great event.

Thanks for letting me share this experience with you! Virginia Koster

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