Laurie's Notes from GA for Friday and Saturday

Friday June 20th

Friday morning after a good night’s sleep, I woke up with ulcers in my throat and a sinus infection. This is a normal reaction of the Chronic Fatigue Syndrome that sometimes gets me if I have pushed too hard. We had thought we might go visit a technology museum nearby, but instead I stayed in bed most of the day and took several naps since the next day was supposed to be very full.

Jim wandered around and found a Walgreens not too far away and bought snacks. The coke machines on the floors cost $2.50, the downstairs café charges $3.00 and the concession areas in the convention center charge $4.00 for a regular 20 oz drink in a bottle! A 16 oz bottle of water costs $3.50. The Walgreens wasn’t cheap, but it was cheaper… we are going to investigate a grocery store we heard about. If need be, we plan to empty one of our rolling bags and take it with us so we can haul back bottled water, Gatorade and the like. I brought a jar of peanut butter with me and Jim bought crackers and bread. The Assembly gave me a Visa credit card with my name on it that is pre-loaded with $261 that is supposed to cover all of my meals for the week…it will help, we’ll see how far it goes.

Friday evening we ran into a friend from seminary who serves two churches – one in Nebraska and one in Kansas. We went and ate dinner with Roxie and afterward went to check out the exhibit hall. We got quite a few freebies, resources and a few gifts. There are some really neat items in a word market area that we are going to revisit. We went back to the room and I crashed while Jim watched a movie on his computer.

218th GA Opening session - Saturday June 21, 2008
10:00 AM
Opened with prayers, several hymns and litanies and a commissioning service for all commissioners and advisory delegates. Welcomed by local Presbyterian leaders and COLA (Committee on Local Arrangements) who related the theme to what we can do while here: do justice, love kindness, and walk humbly with our God.

The moderator of the 217th GA, Joan Gray, gave her report…she told a “you have a tiger God” story from a missionary. A tribesman told the missionary that when monkeys are in danger, they travel through the trees. Their babies must hang on as they swing. If the baby is not strong enough, it will fall and be lost. But the tiger mother when threatened will take her cub and grasp the nape of its neck in her mouth and fight to the death to protect the cub. After the tribal leader explained this, he said in response to hearing the message of God’s love for the first time, “you have a tiger God”.

The Vice-Moderator gave his report. He gave this quote that a YAD (Youth Advisory Delegate – high school aged) had told him and I really liked it: “There will always be churches on the ‘loosy left’ and on the ‘wacky right’, but the majority are in the middle and want to move forward to continue God’s work in the world.”

Report from GAC (General Assembly Committee)
Financial Implications Explained (basically whatever we vote to do in committees, we have to consider what financial implications it will require…there is a committee who’s only job is to work out those financial details to present to the assembly with the committee’s work)
Broke early for lunch – it was a group meal and I ate with 5 from our Presbytery. Really enjoyed visiting with Mary Ellen from Kerrville. She knows John Stanger and thinks a lot about him. Lunch was served in boxes – “Chinese Chicken Salad” – I actually ate a lot of it…it was a chicken breast with greens, dressing. They had cookies and a fruit basket on each table with tea and water. Jim found Jeff Cranton, a seminary classmate and they went out to eat lunch today and partake of a “cool beverage”. I doubt I see him until this evening. Tried to call Mother to check on Mignon, but the line was busy…

Second session – 1:30 PM
Overview of the Office of the General Assembly – video presentations of what the OGA is involved in.
Broke into 3 groups for our commissioner orientation – we were named the “John Knox” group. The orientation was in three parts:
Our common mission – how to work the voting machines, processes of plenary floor discussions and other questions as to the nuts and bolts of how we will work together.
Our common work – tour of the exhibit hall and the agencies of the OGA
Our common life – discussion of our hopes for the week as they relate to the theme of Micah 6:8 – do justice, love kindness and walk humbly with our God.
Came back together after orientations and tried to do some ordinary business items, but PC-Biz (the intranet set up that we are supposed to be able to connect to in plenary and committee that has all the business items) kept going down. When a large number could not access the pieces up for vote, the Stated Clerk asked the Moderator to table the business until after dinner and she agreed.
Went back to the room at break where Jim had ordered Pizza Hut…I was too tired to try to go out to eat and rush back to tonight’s meeting. Slept for about an hour before time to go back.

Third Session – 7:00PM
Opening prayer by minister from New York.
Comments from representatives of the Confederation of Swiss protestant churches and European protestant churches.
Tried to resumed business that was previously tabled, but the system was still not functioning properly, so it was tabled again and we are supposed to return earlier tomorrow.

Nominating speeches for Moderator:
These are the remarks pertaining to each candidate that stood out to me made by the persons who were formally nominating the candidate…

Bruce Reyes-Chow
Extensive experience in diverse groups. Church growth a part of calling. Church of 150 predominately under the age of 40. Leads indirectly, encourages open dialogue…acts as a bridge between differing ideas. Described as “excruciatingly fair”.

Carl Mazza
“I am because we are” proverb from Global village. Brings vision, mission, ministry in a communal form. Relational mission ministry. Not afraid to engage in ministry and be with congregations to work out sense of mission. Feels led by power of Holy Spirit to do this now, here.

Bill Teng
Fair, decent and in order, competent. Deep commitment to PCUSA. Vision of hope. Alexandria Virginia pastor. Moderator of National Capital Presbytery. Committed to unity of church. Deep faith, speaks candidly of faith that unites us to Christ and one another. Chinese American, experience in cross-cultural ministry, experience in global partnerships. Deep roots in Presby heritage.

Roger Shoemaker
Metaphor of a fig tree…servant willing to serve and cultivating the life of the church. Tree-planter state (Nebraska??? I’ve never seen tress in Nebraska!). Trees have to be nurtured on the plains and sees the church as an entity that need to be nurtured and cared for. Lots of diverse cultural experience in many types of churches throughout Nebraska.

Next the candidate each gave a short speech followed by an hour of questions and answers with the candidates. Finally we voted. There are two different groups that vote – advisory delegates and then commissioners. The advisory delegates vote first. They are made up of one youth from each presbytery (YADs), theological students who are from our different seminaries and higher education institutions (TSADs), missionary representatives who are serving in various countries (MADs) and ecumenical representatives from other denominations or faiths (EADs). As their names suggest, their votes are shown to the commissioners and serve in an advisory capacity only. Only the commissioner votes are counted toward the final action.

It took two votes to elect the moderator – with the first vote one candidate did not have a clear majority, which is required. The second one did, but it was the same candidate had the lead in both – Bruce Reyes-Chow.

This is who I voted for. He may be the youngest GA Moderator ever at 39 years old. He serves a church of about 200 in San Francisco. I thought he was very articulate, knowledgeable and passionate. One other candidate impressed me. He was a Chinese American named Bill Teng whose great-grandfather had received Christ through Presbyterian missionaries in China over 100 years ago.

After the election there was a very moving instillation service for Bruce. A lot of members of his family, friends and church stood with him on the stage. The most moving part was the Instillation prayer that was given jointly by his mother and his oldest daughter who was about 12 I guessed. It choked me up and Jim said it did the same for him as the girl asked God to guide her father and the mother asked God to guide her son.

By the time this last session was over it was after 10PM here, which is midnight for you all. I was exhausted and really feeling badly. Luckily, the commissioner sitting next to me is a retired MD from San Antonio and he is keeping in a close watch on me! It took almost 20 minutes to get an elevator. If we were on the 3rd or 5th floor, I might have considered the stairs, but we are on the 25th floor…so we waited.

I don’t know if I will make it to the opening worship service in the morning. It starts at 10AM and is in two different locations at the same time. It is going to be rebroadcast on the internet tomorrow afternoon, so I may just sleep in and rest instead. Tomorrow is fairly relaxed. The first plenary session isn’t until 4:45 in the afternoon and my first committee session is to start at 7:30PM. I think it will mostly be team building and orientation. Then Monday we will hit it hard with all day work.

I don’t know if I will be this detailed each day, but I will try to take notes when I can throughout the sessions, otherwise I doubt I will remember much. If you have questions or comments about something we write, please list them and we will try to respond.

Grace and Peace,
Laurie