I realize that I owe you a fuller report about what occurred at the assembly over the last two days, but I have to confess that I hit a wall of mental fatigue after Thursday's significant action.
What I didn't express with my post Thursday was the tremendous wave of change that this General Assembly has unleashed on the body of Christ. Not only did we recommend to presbyteries a revision of the ordination standard to remove exclusive language over sexuality and to send to presbyteries both reports on civil union and marriage, we approved a new form of government proposal and took substantial steps to allow middle governing bodies to make changes in their form and function as they find necessary to improve their effectiveness at doing and facilitating ministry.
Whew!
Thursday was an emotional day for this assembly, given its debate of the ordination issue and the reports on civil union and Christian marriage. While these issues seemed to dominate our energies, it didn't sap them. An amazing calm seemed to descend on the assembly, as we came to respect the need to take a collective breath.
Needless to say, debating a new form of government and a mechanism for allowing changes within middle governing bodies elicited plenty of strong feelings. The debate is one I've outlined in previous posts about my committee's work (middle governing bodies). Do we want to create a more flexible, nimble form of government that is adaptive to the individual needs of congregations, presbyteries and synods, or do we want to maintain one-size-fits-all rules for these bodies?
The debate over social justice and same-sex issues arose again Friday afternoon over a Presbyterian Board of Pensions proposal to extend benefits to church employees, their domestic partners (which I would interpret as same sex and opposite sex partners) and their children. The debate turned on two points: cost and fairness, though the underlying debate over same-sex unions was apparent. Or as my fellow commissioner, the Rev. Dana Waters, framed the debate: fairness vs. righteousness. Ultimately, the assembly voted to approve extending those benefits.
We've done all this (and still more I haven't yet covered) in the last two days, with more yet to do. But it is an exciting time and will be an exciting time in our denomination if we follow the Spirit that is moving among us.
Rick, thanks for your clear and heart-felt reporting. The Church is moving forward little by little. I appreciated your explanations of the actions. I live just down the street from your church and have recently met Sid. Look forward to meeting you at presbytery. (Wayne McLaughlin)
ReplyDeleteDitto to Wayne's excellent assessment.
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