224th General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A)
June 19 – 27, 2020 Historic First/Only Virtual Assembly of the PC(USA) Barbara Weiss, Commissioner, Peace River Presbytery Setting the “Stage” After a flight from RSW to BWI, the shuttle takes me to the Baltimore Hilton Hotel, right across the street from the Baltimore Convention Center. I settle into my room and then head over to the convention center to see the exhibits before the first plenary begins. I take a peek into the auditorium – and see the decorations, dramatic staging, theatric lighting, and hear loud music. I can feel the energy in the sound of old friends and new friends talking and milling around before the opening Plenary. All feeling the excitement of the seven days of important work, discernment, learning, ministry, service, fellowship and prayer ahead of us. I see the huge banner “FROM LAMENT TO HOPE” introducing the General Assembly’s theme for the week. It’s here – the experience for which I cannot believe I have been elected to serve! Nice dream, but not this year. . . . Instead, inside my windowless den I set up my own equipment and decorated my space with letters from Melana Scruggs and Rex Childs, and a care box sent from the Presbytery filled with bubbles, pipe cleaners, legos, silly putty, coloring book pages with colored pencils (and candy)! After attending one of the 17+ training sessions led by Nathan Young (Nathan was the General Assembly Producer. . . awesome man!), commissioners and advisory delegates learned how to Zoom the plenaries while reading amendments and reports AND voting on a second device. It soon became obvious how my convention center needed to be staged. The laptop computer was fine. My tablet needed to be placed on my husband’s old humidor on the left of the computer to keep it at eye level and easy to access for reading and voting. Cell phone charged and nearby should I need to contact the Help Desk. Bring it on . . . I’m ready! First Plenary – Friday, June 19th, 7 p.m. – 11:30 p.m. Opening night! I got on line early to make sure I could get all my connections working. I could go through the pages and pages of other Commissioners eager to start. In total, there were about 475 Commissioners. 75% of the Commissioners had never been to a General Assembly before. We had about 180 Advisory Delegates representing Young Adults, Theological Students, Mission Partners and Ecumenical Partners. Advisory delegates voted before Commissioners voted, thus sharing their advice with us. In order to establish a quorum before each plenary, we had to use the online voting system. “Advisory delegates vote!” Followed by a report out of their advice. Then, “Commissioners, you have been advised, please vote!” While the Agenda for the first plenary was short, the discussion and intense involvement with the present circumstances requiring that most of OUR business be deferred to the 225th General Assembly took some time to understand and accept. We had been told before the GA started that our Assembly would be abbreviated for several reasons: (1) we could not hold virtual working Committee meetings, (2) we therefore would not need Agenda time to discuss, debate and vote on Committee Overtures and (3) under our current Book of Order, we are not allowed to have an electronic meeting for the General Assembly AND we MUST meet in the year specified, not a year later. This meant that we could ONLY vote on things that impacted the PC(USA) immediately, specifically: Co Moderators for this Assembly, the Stated Clerk and the Budgets for 2021 and 2022. Anything that we voted on would have to be approved by the 225th General Assembly in 2022. The Commissioners approved the amendment of one Standing Rule which would allow us to meet electronically and suspended another Standing Rule which conflicted with the amended Rule. We approved another suspension of a Standing Rule that would allow Commissioners to add late business to the Docket. To me, this was the sticky wicket. A special vote was requested by a Commissioner to review the Co-Moderators’ decision to not seat a representative from the University of Redlands Graduate School of Theology which now operates the former Presbyterian-related San Francisco Theological School. Based on the recommendation from the Committee on Theological Education to review the status of this merger and hold off seating privileges at this time, the Co-Moderators did not seat the representative. A Committee member spoke to their recommendation and the Co-Moderator requested a vote from the body on whether or not to seat the Redlands representative. The Commissioners agreed with the Co-Moderators’ decision to withhold a seat to Redlands at this time. When we reviewed the business to be considered in 2022 versus 2020, the Commissioners, in a 425 yes to 39 no vote, agreed that the business was properly separated. The Docket was approved by a 467 yes vote to 2 no vote. After we agreed to the Rules, the division of business and the docket, several Motions came to the floor. Three Motions to add items to the Agenda passed (see: 02-095, 02-096 and 02-030 on www.PC-Biz.org). At this point, we had not even started the process to consider and vote on Co-Moderators for our General Assembly. It was 11:30 p.m. We voted to add an extra session to Saturday evening, June 20th, for that purpose. Saturday, June 20th, 10 a.m. – 1 p.m. Poor People’s Campaign Moral March on Washington. Commissioners and Delegates were encouraged to participate in this virtual March on Washington. Numerous celebrities, religious leaders (including our PC(USA) Stated Clerk) spoke to the virtual attendees about the importance of this movement. A number of people impacted by their lack of ability to get work, have food and proper housing spoke to us about the need for justice for all. Continuation of First Plenary – Saturday, June 20th 7 p.m.- 10 p.m. We meet the candidates for Co-Moderators of the 224th General Assembly:
Second Plenary – Friday, June 26th 1 p.m. – 3:30 p.m. While the Commissioners approved, confirmed, invited and established many items with gusto, the most important work we did, in my view, was learning about the budget for 2021 and 2022. Staff did an excellent job of making very complicated “financial issues” seem understandable. Remembering that one of the major reasons we had a virtual General Assembly was to adopt the budgets for 2021 and 2022, this orientation to the budgeting process was very helpful. Third Plenary – Friday, June 26th 4 p.m. – 6:30 p.m. I would strongly encourage the reader to go to www.pc-biz.org to read the critical business items that were approved during this session: 00-29 The amended “On the Church in This Moment in History” 00-30 “On Responding to the COVID-19 Pandemic” 00-95 and 00-96 A Report from the Native American Coordinating Council and the Native American Church Property Report Here is the Church at its best trying to deal with immediate issues of the day. As you might imagine when you read these statements, the discussion was lively and heartfelt. Fourth Plenary – Saturday, June 27th 11 a.m. – 1:15 p.m. The fourth Plenary’s Order of the Day was to hold the election of our Stated Clerk. Reverend Dr. J. Herbert Nelson was nominated to serve his second four-year term. We learned about his educational and career background along with all that he has accomplished during his first term as Stated Clerk. He was elected and celebrated by all participants as we met his wife, also a pastor, and his daughter, a seminary student! Fifth Plenary – Saturday, June 27th 1:45 p.m.- 4 p.m. The majority of this plenary was devoted to higher and theological education. We confirmed the election of the new President of McCormick Theological Seminary, David Crawford. We also approved new Trustees to related seminaries, granted permission for theological schools to celebrate the Lord’s Supper and approved the list of Presbyterian-related Colleges and Universities. We also approved extending the terms for special committees, teams and task forces whose work began at the 223rd General Assembly. Sixth Plenary – Saturday, June 27th 4:30 p.m. – 7 p.m. Here is where the excellent staff work earlier made a difference. The budgets were approved. The issues for discussion were not related to the work presented as much as they were for trying to set up a procedure to meet again if the budget projections were not satisfactory. And to try to place a Motion that would say that no PC(USA) agency would lay off any staff. Neither of these Motions passed, but it DOES show the heart of Commissioners who are very proud and protective of their denomination and staff. The only major change made was to the per capita. Since 2018, the per capita has been set at $8.95 per full time member of a church. It was recommended and approved that the per capita been increased by three cents per full time member, to $8.98. It was noted that per capita giving is down 2.7%. The General Assembly adjourned after spending eight minutes and 46 seconds in silence as we prayed. Saying Good Bye to 224GA -- What I will never forget. . . -the opportunity to serve Peace River Presbytery as a Commissioner and for their graciousness in preparing me before, during and after this privileged service -the pastors, staff, Session and friends at First Presbyterian Church in Naples, Florida for their prayers, love, support and food -the wonderful leadership of PC(USA) – what an incredible staff! Can you imagine having only two months to go from Auditorium “bricks and mortar” convention planning to meeting in a Cloud? Can you imagine the patience shown by the Parliamentarian, the Help Desk staff, the Office of the General Assembly Staff and amazing tech people led by Nathan Young? Their faces, their kindnesses, their abundance of love was amazing! -the opportunity to support the Poor People’s Campaign, to feel totally accepted in saying Black Lives Matter, to better understand and care for the rights and needs our indigenous brothers and sisters -hearing the voices of my sibling Commissioners and Advisory Delegates who expanded my belief that we are in “this” together and that despite differences of opinion, we truly care for one another. -that, in my own way, I was a pioneer. I was part of either “the first ever” or “the one and only” virtual General Assembly -feeling sad that there were people and programs and Motions and reports that weren’t able to be cared for, supported, voted on or received. Pioneering isn’t perfect. But I believe that we came as close to perfect as we could. And pray for forgiveness if I misjudged or misunderstood. -
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