Preaching Schedule Lent and Holy Week 2013

This Lent and Holy Week I will be preaching on a number of the Sundays and holidays.

February 13, 2013, Ash Wednesday, 7:00 PM at the NuValley Presbyterian Church in Rural Valley.

February 17, 2013, First Sunday in Lent, 11:00 AM, at the Presbyterian Church of Goheenville.

February 24, 2013, Second Sunday in Lent, 9:00 AM at the Plumcreek Presbyterian Church in Willett. and at 10:30 AM at the Washington Presbyterian Church in Home.

March 3, 2013, Third Sunday in Lent, 11:00 AM at the Presbyterian Church of Goheenville.

March 10, 2013, Fourth Sunday in Lent, available.

March 17, 2013, Fifth Sunday in Lent, 9:30 AM, at the NuValley Presbyterian Church in Rural Valley.

March 24, 2013, Palm Sunday, 9:00 AM at the Atwood Presbyterian Church in Rural Valley, and at 11:00 AM at the Plumville Presbyterian Church.

March 28, 2013, Maundy Thursday, 7:00 PM at the NuValley Presbyterian Church in Rural Valley.

March 31, 2013, Easter Sunday, 9:00 AM at the Atwood Presbyterian Church in Rural Valley, and at 11:00 AM at the Plumville Presbyterian Church.

My Preacing Schedule for July

I've received my preaching assignments for July.  I am scheduled to preach a total of seven times at three congregations, each of which I have visited previously.

July 8, 9:30 AM at the Saltsburg Presbyterian Church, and then 11:00 AM at the Tunnelton Presbyterian Church.

July 15, 11:00 AM at the Tunnelton Presbyterian Church.

July 22, 9:30 AM at the Saltsburg Presbyterian Church, and then 11:00 AM at the Tunnelton Presbyterian Church.

July 29, 10:00 AM at the Apollo United Presbyterian Church.

By the way, I've been maintaining a map showing the locations of local congregations I have visited, sometimes to preach, sometimes for worship for a special occasion, sometimes for a meeting.  (I wait until I actually visit the church before adding it to this map to be sure that I have marked the correct location.) If you don't know where any of these congregations are located, my map might help you.

My next four preaching engagements

Three of my next four preaching engagements will take me to congregations that I will visit for the first time.

Sunday, February 27, 2011 at 8:30 and 11:00 AM at the Newlonsburg Presbyterian Church in Murrysville.

Sunday, March 6, 2011 at 11:00 AM at the Ebenezer Presbyterian Church in Lewisville.

Ash Wednesday, March 9, 2011 at 7:30 PM at the Atwood Presbyterian Church.

Sunday, March 13, 2011 at 11:00 AM at the Trinity Presbyterian Church in Clarksburg.

I am looking forward to visiting the Ebenezer Presbyterian Church again, and to visiting the Newlonsburg Presbyterian Church, the Atwood Presbyterian Church, and the Trinity Presbyterian Church for the first time.

File under : Clarksburg, Ebenezer, PCUSA, Presbyterian Church, Trinity, worship

Preaching in January 2011

In January I will have a full month of guest preaching, with commitments made for each of the five Sundays.

January 2, 2011, 11 AM at the Presbyterian Church of Goheenville, Templeton, PA.

January 9, 2011, 9:30 AM at the NuValley Presbyterian Church, Rural Valley, PA.

January 16, 2011, 8:15 and 10:45 AM at the Westminster Presbyterian Church, Greensburg, PA.

January 23. 2011, 10:45 AM at the Worthington Presbyterian Church, Worthington, PA.

January 30, 2011, 10:45 at the Apollo United Presbyterian Church, Apollo, PA.

Some of these are churches where I have preached before, but there is always something new. This will be my first time at the Presbyterian Church of Goheenville, but I have been past it a number of times. This church is along the route I normally follow when I make the long drive from Lower Burrell to visit my parents and siblings in Cooperstown, New York. I pass it during the first hour of my journey up, and it is one of the landmarks that tells me I am getting close to home on the return trip. I am probably not the only preacher whose attention is drawn to houses of worship when on long trips. I usually find myself wondering about how the congregations that use those buildings reach out to their communities. I am looking forward to the first time that I actually will stop in Goheenville.

When I saw that I was going to preach at NuValley Presbyterian Church, I did a double-take. My printed 2009 directory for Kiskiminetas Presbytery does not list that church. Then I learned that this is a new congregation formed from the merger of two congregations that had done many things together over the years. In fact, just last January I preached for both of the congregations that went into the merger. At each church I had conversations with leaders of the two congregations in which they told me about their upcoming decision on merger. They felt trepidation about whether they could get the merger to happen, but it was clear to the leaders on both sides that the merger was something that had arisen out of the shared lives and ministries of the two congregations. I am looking forward to January 9 when I will guest preach for the first time at the NuValley Church, barely five months into its existence and service as one congregation.

I have not preached at the Westminster Presbyterian Church before, but that was where I met with a team from the Committee on Ministry of Redstone Presbytery about being put on their pulpit supply list. This will be an interesting and full morning of two services, with an informal service with Communion early, and then a traditional service later.

I believe this will be my second time at the Worthington Presbyterian Church. I preached there at the beginning of this month for a service of Communion. They have many friendly people and a lovely, intimate worship space with the Table in the center.

I have preached a few times at the Apollo church, and look forward to being back with their friendly people and fascinating architecture.

File under : Apollo, Greensburg, PCUSA, Presbyterian Church, worship

Sights, sounds, tastes, feelings at the end of November

This is just a description of random observations from yesterday.

When I woke in the morning I was hearing gunshots in the distance from various directions. It was the first day of rifle season for hunting deer and my apartment was on the top of a hill overlooking the Allegheny valley, so I often hear sounds that come from a distance. I remembered that the previous day in worship at Puckety Presbyterian Church one of the prayer requests was for the hunters. Ever since I moved to Western Pennsylvania, it has been my consistent experience that someone makes this prayer request in church on the Sunday of Thanksgiving weekend. So the day started with sounds that reminded me to pray.

Part of my day involved making a hospital visit at the Alle-Kiski Medical Center. Before I made it in the door I was amazed at the beautiful clouds in the sky. Truly the heavens declare God's handiwork!





When I stopped for lunch in the hospital cafeteria, I was surprised to hear the sounds of accordion playing in the dining room. A musician was there playing for the entertainment of the volunteers, staff, and visitors. He only played a few polkas, but people sitting at the table closest to him were making requests, and he clearly knew a lot of music. The cafeteria was offering kielbasa, pierogies, potato pancakes, and halushki. It must have been in honor of some Polish holiday. I found on the internet that November 29 is a celebration called Andrzejki (St. Andrew's Eve); I was not sure if the day was special for that or if it was a remembrance of the November uprising in 1830. Whatever was the occasion for this Polish theme, it made for a memorable and tasty lunch.

I went back to Puckety Church in the afternoon to do some cleaning out of my office. On Sunday I had not noticed the creche set out in front of the church.



I took home from the office the few items I had brought at the start of the month: my preaching robe and the selection of stoles I had planned to use for the month. As I folded them up I recognized that I was going through another transition in my life. Even though I was only going to be at Puckety for a short time, it had been significant to me to have a place to hang my robe, where it would be ready for me on Sunday morning. Of course, I still have a place to hang my robe in my closet at home, but there is a different feeling when one has a regular workplace where a few personal tools and items can remain for when they are needed. I was reminded of how many offices, cubicles, or lockers have been vacated by so many people affected by the downturn in the economy. So many people have been going through these transitions. God is leading us somewhere.

Sunday was the last of the series of four Sundays where I had preached at Puckety, and a number of people had kind words to say about how I had been helpful during the month. The congregation is definitely is looking forward to the arrival of Rev. Kirk Orr this week. This will be a good Advent season for them, and I am glad if I was able to do anything to help them prepare for it.

For those who are interested in where they will be able to hear me preach in December, I have been booked for two Sundays next month. This Sunday, December 5, I will be at the Worthington Presbyterian Church. And then Christmas Eve, I will lead the service at the Calvin United Presbyterian Church in Scottdale.

File under : AKMC, Advent, PCUSA, Puckety Presbyterian Church, food, music, pictures, prayer

Adult Sunday School class - developments in the PCUSA

A gap developed in my supply preaching schedule, so the United Presbyterian Church of New Kensington (the congregation where I worship when not out preaching somewhere) invited me to do a two-session adult class on polity changes in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). The class will be held in fellowship hall at 9:30 AM on Sunday September 19 and 26.

There are so many things that came out of the 219th General Assembly, including seventeen different proposed amendments to the church constitution. The congregation has done some creative things with the arts in worship, so I will probably want to speak at least briefly about the opening worship service at the Assembly. The congregation has an active youth program, so I probably will also want to say something about the contributions of the Young Adult Advisory Delegates to the Assembly.

Each of the seventeen proposed amendments is about something important to the life of the church. Three of the proposed amendments are going to be getting a lot of attention, so I will probably use my limited class time to open conversations about them in the class. (Of course, I wouldn't be myself if I didn't believe that at least one of the apparently innocuous proposals was a bad idea. I may have to sit on those thoughts and save them for a rainy day - or for debate in presbytery.)

On September 19 we'll discuss the implications of adding the Belhar Confession to our Book of Confessions, and then turn to a discussion of amendment 10-A (the one about ordination standards).

On September 26 we'll look at the Revised Form of Government, and discuss the implications of the paradigm shift envisioned in this major amendment to our Form of Government. If there is time, we may be able to have a discussion of some of the other proposed amendments.

If you'll be in the area on either of those Sundays, please join us.

File under : GA219, New Kensington, PCUSA, Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), nFOG, polity, rFOG

Is your congregation ready for the Revised Form of Government?

Earlier this month the 219th General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) voted to submit an amended version of the Revised Form of Government (called nFOG by some) to the Presbyteries for their affirmative or negative votes.

During a break in the work of the Assembly Committee on the Form of Government Revision an observer voiced a concern to me that I summarize in the following hypothetical:

After adoption of the Revised form of Government, the session of a PCUSA congregation discerns that in order to participate in God's mission, a specific step must be taken that requires an affirmative vote of a congregational meeting. A member of the congregation is unhappy with the decision made by the rest of the congregation, and goes to court challenging, among other things, whether the members of the congregation had adequate notice of the meeting and whether a quorum was present. He argues that because Revised Form of Government gives the congregation the authority to determine its quorum and this congregation has not adopted a rule stating its quorum, the congregation needed to have at least half of the membership present in order to have a quorum. He also argues that the session had a responsibility under the Revised Form of Government to give adequate notice of the meeting, and that the way the session publicized the meeting did not meet that vague standard of adequacy.

What is the best way to head off this problem?

(a) The session should never let the congregation vote on anything with which anyone might disagree.

(b) The session's presbytery should overture the General Assembly to propose an amendment to the Form of Government that would specify what the quorum is for every congregational meeting, and determine what adequate notice would be for every congregation in the PCUSA.

(c) The session should call a congregational meeting at which the congregation could agree on its quorum and what notice of a meeting would be adequate.

(d) Stop the nFOG! The session should exert all of its efforts to ensure that the Revised Form of Government never gets adopted and they never get put in a situation where this hypothetical situation might occur.

(e) Maybe you have ideas of your own.



(a) If you selected (a), you are partly right that the session needs to do some groundwork (and sometimes a lot) with the congregation before taking important actions. But if the fear of displeasing a single member of the congregation will prevent the session from leading the congregation to join in God's work, this session may be too risk-averse to attempt anything.

(b) If you selected (b) you might do well to revisit the history of the PCUSA's trial with this very approach to specifying the quorum of a congregation. Only two years after the 1984 Reunion the church adopted the rule expressed in the current Form of Government as a replacement for a formula that specified the quorum of every congregation - a rule that was not working for many congregations.

(c) Option (c) makes the most sense to me, and is in accord with the advice of the Advisory Committee on the Constitution to the 218th General Assembly (2008), in which it said "the right to establish a quorum for meetings of the congregation is assigned to the congregation itself by G-7.0305. It is not a power assigned to the session, or to any other governing body."

(d) If you chose option (d), you may have many valid reasons for opposing the Revised Form of Government, but you failed to recognize that it is a red herring in this hypothetical. If your congregation has not acted to determine its own quorum, you are just as vulnerable to a challenge in court under the current Form of Government as under the Revised Form of Government.

Let's take a look at what our current Form of Government at G-7.0305 actually says:

The quorum of a meeting of the congregation shall be not less than one tenth of the members unless the particular church upon application to the presbytery shall obtain the consent of the presbytery to a provision for a smaller quorum. A congregation by its own vote may fix a higher quorum. No meeting of fewer than three members shall be considered a congregational meeting.

Your disgruntled church member could go into court and argue that the first sentence does not say what the quorum is, but what it is not. If the congregation has never voted to state what its quorum is, how would you plan to show the judge that your quorum is not what this one church member claims it is?

(e) If you chose option (e) you may have other ideas, and I am eager to hear them.

File under : GA219, PCUSA, nFOG, polity, rFOG

What do demonstrations accomplish? or Did Soulforce save the Presbyterian Church?

I am accustomed to seeing demonstrations at or around meetings of the General Assembly. I don't mind people exercising their freedom of speech as long as they don't interfere with the orderly conduct of the Assembly's business. I observed two demonstrations at the 219th GA, and they each have me wondering what the demonstrators hoped to accomplish, and what did they actually accomplish. (Obie Holmen asks about the effectiveness of civil disobedience strategies.)

On Wednesday July 7 there was a demonstration at the Assembly by a group from a Korean-language congregation in the Chicago area.

As I made my way from the Convention Center back to my hotel, members of this group handed out stapled packets of documents that adequately explained to me why an administrative commission of the Synod of Lincoln Trails was justified in taking the actions against which these protestors were demonstrating. Their distribution of literature may have been against some policy of the General Assembly. At no time did these protesters obstruct my passage to or from the Convention Center. Nor did they (to my knowledge) intrude into the meeting of the General Assembly.

This demonstration seemed particularly pointless to me. The protesters' concerns were not related to any piece of business that was properly before the Assembly, and the deadline for commissioners to introduce new business had passed days earlier.

On the other hand, the enthusiasm of the group in lining up to take photos to commemorate the trip does suggest that the demonstration may have served some group-building purpose for members of this faction of the congregation. They had gone on an adventure to Minneapolis, had taken a stand for something important to them, and could go home thinking they had done the right thing.

But the demonstration that received the most attention at the 219th General Assembly was the Soulforce civil disobedience action on Friday, June 9, when protesters entered the assembly hall and prayed in front of the podium until the Minneapolis police removed them. This protest was an expression of frustration over decisions not made by the Assembly.

On Thursday evening the Assembly had considered the report of the Assembly Committee on Civil Union and Marriage Issues (Committee 12). This issue had its own committee because the 218th Assembly had authorized a Special Committee to Study Issues of Civil Union and Christian Marriage, but also because a number of presbyteries had sent overtures to the General Assembly asking for various actions concerning marriage. The special committee's report recommended that the issue continue to be studied across the church with a number of resources, but did not make any specific recommendations for policy change. A minority of the Special Committee had also filed a minority report with a different slant on the issues. The Assembly decided to send both the majority and minority reports from the Special Committee to the whole Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) for further study.

The Assembly then disapproved two overtures that would have reaffirmed the traditional understanding of marriage, and voted to answer a number of overtures calling for change by the previous action to send the majority and minority reports from the Special Committee for study. This action left those hoping for a change in policy frustrated by no sign of movement.

The next morning when I walked to the Convention Center through the skywalk I passed demonstrators calling for the Assembly to reconsider the action. I don't know whether this sign-posting and sign-holding violated any rules, but they never slowed up my walk to the Convention Center.

During the morning session there was a motion to reconsider the previous night's action. It was debated at length and defeated.

In the afternoon the Assembly approved changes to the Pension Plan that would extend spousal and dependent benefits to same-gender domestic partners of plan members.

Then came the report of the Assembly Committee on Church Polity, in the middle of which the Soulforce protesters entered the Assembly hall. The timing of this protest is significant to me. The issue is not that it came after a series of successes for those working for full inclusion of LGBTQ Presbyterians. (John Shuck puts the protest in the larger context of the General Assembly's actions on LGBTQ issues. Antony offers a critique of the view that people should be happy with "a few legislative crumbs.") What is significant to me is the specific item the Assembly was considering when the protest began. The Assembly was discussing Item 05-21, a proposed authoritative interpretation about authoritative interpretations - a topic that may appear to some as a highly obscure point of Presbyterian Polity, but one which could have had significant implications.

In order to explain what I want to say about the protest, I need to make a brief digression to explain Item 05-21. (Dan Saperstein offers a detailed explanation of the issues, with which I largely agree. But it is interesting that Dan's article makes no mention of the protest that interrupted debate on 05-21.)

The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) has two ways of getting authoritative interpretations of the constitution. One way is that the General Assembly in plenary, after being advised by the Advisory Committee on the Constitution, may adopt an authoritative interpretation by a majority vote. The other way is that when the General Assembly's Permanent Judicial Commission is deciding a case or appeal, it may authoritatively interpret the constitution. The most recent authoritative interpretation is binding upon the whole church.

The question that was being debated was whether the authoritative interpretations by the General Assembly in plenary have an authority that trumps the ability of the General Assembly's Permanent Judicial Commission when it is deciding a case. They don't, but an argument can be made to suggest otherwise, and a minority on the Assembly Committee on Church Polity offered such an argument.

The argument for this view depended on painting the GA PJC as just another commission of the General Assembly. The counter-argument, if there were commissioners ready to make it, would have been that unlike other commissions that the Assembly might appoint, the GA had no choice about whether to form its PJC, and could not give its PJC instructions, except perhaps to meet at a specific time and place.

It had been suggested to me that the energy for the minority report came from certain recent decisions of the GA PJC that included dicta apparently contrary to the clear intention of more progressive authoritative interpretations rendered by recent assemblies.

I had heard the argument for the minority view a couple times before Item 05-21 came up. Each time I had heard it, I found it difficult to grasp. Short of some appeal to emotion that would motivate the commissioners to support it, the success of the argument would require the Assembly commissioners to give it their undivided attention.

In the floor debate the proponents of this minority view carefully placed the elements of their argument before the assembly. They had a good rhythm, and were skillfully creating the impression that their view was rising out of the full body.

Enter the Soulforce protesters.

Moderator Bolbach stopped the proceedings, rebuked others who started to boo the protesters, had the Assembly sing and then pray, then let the Assembly be in a brief recess while the police came and removed the protesters.

During that short break the ACC huddled near our table to vote on verbal advice (that we would never give, as it turned out).

When the Assembly came back to order to continue debate, those on the podium needed to remind each other (and the commissioners) what they had been doing before the protest started. The debate continued, but with much less commissioner participation and more comments from Microphone 9 (the one used by elected members of the Assembly). The minority report was not approved, and the assembly approved the committee's recommendation.

Why? Part of me would like to think that it was because the ACC's written and spoken advice was so clear and persuasive. It is also possible that the minority never had enough votes to succeed from the beginning. But it is also possible that the interruption by the group of protesters tilted the playing field of the debate against the committee minority.

I'm glad this vote turned out the way it did, but I wonder: Did the hand of God intervene through that group of Soulforce protesters to protect the Assembly from making a mistake?

File under : GA219, Minneapolis, PCUSA, Presbyterian Church, polity

About those manuals

Just a week ago the 219th General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) approved the Foundations of Presbyterian Polity and Revised Form of Government, with a number of amendments, and submitted the documents to the presbyteries for their approval.

One of the significant changes in this form of government has to do with increased flexibility in each of the governing bodies (called "councils" in the proposal). If approved, this flexibility will come with new responsibilities at every level of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.).

In the months before the General Assembly, I heard numerous people voicing concern about the manuals required by the Revised Form of Government. The current manual provision in the Book of Order at G-9.0405 has mandated manuals of administrative operations for every governing body above the session since 1984. It would be reasonable to assume that these manuals exist by now, and do not require radical revision.

The new manual provision in the Revised Form of Government at G-3.0106 would mandate manuals for each council. This would give sessions the responsibility to develop manuals, if they have not already done so. Contrary to the fears voiced by opponents of the Revised Form of Government that it was a charter for presbyteries to control sessions, the manual provision would give sessions a charter for taking ownership of how they will participate in God's mission in the world.

If the task of developing a manual at the session level seems daunting, sessions will be able to start with the handbooks approved along with the Revised Form of Government. In many cases, the session may already have addressed questions asked in the handbooks, and will already have established policies that can be gathered into the session's manual.

Without regard for whether the presbyteries will approve the Revised Form of Government, it would be a healthy exercise for sessions to review the questions asked in the handbooks and determine whether they need to develop additional policies.

File under : GA219, PCUSA, rFOG

The month of May

I have an interesting month ahead. I understand that May is Mental Health Month and National Stroke Awareness Month, among other special observances.

My own activities will include the following:

May 1, 12:30 PM: Building Block Blitz, in Macy's Court of the Galleria at Pittsburgh Mills. I'll be there taking pictures of children building houses with Legos™ to raise funds for Habitat for Humanity of Allegheny Valley.

May 2, 11:00 AM: I'll preach at the Pine Run Presbyterian Church in Apollo.

May 9, 9:30 AM: I'll preach at the Mt. Zion Presbyterian Church in Templeton. At 11:00 AM I'll preach at the Concord Presbyterian Church in Dayton.

May 16, 11:00 AM: I'll preach at the First Presbyterian Church of Avonmore.

May 23, 9:15 AM: I'll preach at the Crooked Creek Presbyterian Church in Ford City. At 11:00 AM I'll preach at the Appleby Manor Presbyterian Church also in Ford City.

May 30, 10:45 AM: I'll preach at the Apollo United Presbyterian Church.

File under : Allegheny Valley, Apollo, Habitat, PCUSA, Presbyterian, worship

Some of the cool things I saw in Minneapolis

This past weekend I visited Minneapolis for the first time. I spent most of my time there working on business for the Advisory Committee on the Constitution. But I did have a bit of time to look around at the part of the city near our hotel. I flew in a few hours before my meeting began on Saturday at noon, used the light rail to get close to my hotel, and walked down part of Nicollet Mall; Sunday morning I took a walk before breakfast, and walked around the area for a couple hours after my meeting ended on Monday at noon before I headed back to the airport.

I thought the city was very attractive, and I am looking forward to when the PCUSA General Assembly meets there in 2010.

I had researched how to get to from the light rail stop at Nicollet Mall to my hotel. Google Street View helped me orient myself in advance, so that I would recognize what landmarks I would see — as long as I was going in the proper direction. But I chose to use Nicollet Mall as the route to get close to my hotel; Nicollet Mall is a pedestrian mall, so unfortunately the Google Street View vehicles have not captured images of what a beautiful street it is.

Of course, I had to stop at the Mary Tyler Moore statue in front of the Macy's at the corner with 7th Street. It's not that I was a big fan of the show, but while the show was in its first run, it was one that I watched, largely because I didn't have cable.

There are lots of larger statues in downtown Minneapolis, and I really appreciated the art being made available to the public everywhere I went.



On Sunday morning I took a walk early to get breakfast and a cup of coffee. While I was walking down 6th St., I saw flashing lights like an emergency vehicle slowly approaching me in the distance. As they got closer I saw that they were three police motorcycles followed by a crowd of something that seemed to be moving low and close to the ground. Then I saw that what was following the police were a group of people in racing wheelchairs. A bystander explained to me that this was the Wheeler division in the Twin Cities Marathon. I saw about 20 participants in this division, and was very impressed.



On Monday I was warned traffic for a football game that day might complicate my trip back to the airport. Everywhere I went that afternoon I was seeing Vikings jerseys and cheesehead hats. This Minneapolis camoflage would not work in Pittsburgh.

Monday afternoon I also hung out a bit at the PCUSA Polity Conference and caught up with a number of old friends. No General Assembly event would be complete without seeing the Stated Clerk Gradye Parsons and Moderator Bruce Reyes-Chow, two cool people.

File under : Minneapolis, PCUSA, Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), art, sports

When I was ordained

Just some random recollections of myself and the church at the time I was ordained in 1980:

I needed to wear running shoes because during the previous month my youth group had talked me into trying to water ski and I had injured my ankle. (My ankle returned to normal size in a matter of weeks, but it has never been the same.)

The church in which I was ordained was the United Presbyterian Church in the United States of America.

The denominational headquarters was at 475 Riverside Drive in New York City.

The terminology of 'teaching elder' and 'ruling elder' was very much in use and well-understood in the Presbyterian Church.

There was a position called Assistant Pastor. (That was my first position in the first church I served as a teaching elder.)

Assistant Pastors and Associate Pastors were not members of the Session. (Soon after I was ordained the church would vote on changing this rule. At the time, I thought the change was a bad idea. I was wrong.)

The session of the first church I served had recently studied the blue book report on Homosexuality and the Church. But they were uncomfortable even talking about the experience of studying the issue.

The General Assembly (the church's most inclusive governing body) met annually.

The Book of Order was published annually and was an inexpensive paperback with a non-glossy cover.

The Presbyterian alphabet soup of organizations and committees was populated with acronyms I have not seen in a long time, such as COWAC.

The UPCUSA was in conversations with the Presbyterian Church in the United States about reunion. Someone showed me a copy of the PCUS Book of Order and I could tell by the much smaller size of their book that the two churches had markedly different cultures and ways of relating to their constitutions.

There was no Committee on Representation. (I would later chair one of those for a couple years.)

The General Assembly had no Advisory Committee on the Constitution. (As the church considered reunion, I thought the addition of the ACC as part of a second way for the General Assembly to render constitutional interpretations was a bad idea. I was wrong.)

File under : PCUSA, Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)

Poverty housing and Habitat for Humanity in the Allegheny Valley

In many older communities in the Allegheny Valley there is an ongoing problem of substandard housing, which is often the only option available for families living in poverty.

Habitat for Humanity of Allegheny Valley offers one faithful response to the problem of poverty housing. Organized in 1996, it has been building decent homes with partner homeowners since 1997.

Support for Habitat is so broad that it is easy for people to forget that Habitat is a Christian ministry. Countless local church groups volunteer their time in our building projects. Church groups come from out of state as well. Although we don't require volunteers or homeowner families to make to make a formal profession of faith, we do invite them to join us in something that Jesus is doing in the world.

Beyond faith groups, our local affiliate has had help from American Eagle Outfitters, State Farm, and Comcast, to name just a few of the corporations who have lent a hand and provided resources. We've had an amazing partnership with the new mall in the area - the Pittsburgh Mills.

Habitat's work involves a careful balance of enlisting and deploying volunteers, soliciting donations of funds and materials, identifying and supporting partner homeowners and their families, and developing projects in which all of the above can come together. A couple years ago I visited one of our local affiliate's work-sites on a day when an unexpectedly large group of volunteers showed up. I was amazed by the flexibility of our Executive Director Diane Belitskus in adapting to the greatly increased number of volunteers that day, and her ability to identify tasks that were suitable for the unexpected group.

Our local affiliate is working on increasing its building capacity. We have benefited from a special partnership between Habitat for Humanity International and Thrivent Financial for Lutherans called Thrivent Builds with Habitat for Humanity. Under this larger partnership Thrivent Financial is providing $125 million over five years to help Habitat for Humanity significantly increase the number of homes it builds. Habitat for Humanity of Allegheny Valley is one of the many local affiliates that has received grants and extra commitments of volunteer hours from Lutherans to build more homes.

As I have seen the wonderful things that Thrivent Builds has been able to accomplish in partnership with affiliates around the world, I have been asking myself one question: Is there an entity of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) that is in a position to make a similar partnership with Habitat for Humanity?

File under : Allegheny Valley, Church, Habitat, PCUSA, Presbyterian, housing, poverty

Magical mystery moderatorial powers

It's hard to tell exactly what Bruce Reyes-Chow is doing in this photo taken while he was visiting Heartland Presbytery yesterday.

Is he summoning a manifestation of the Holy Grail?

Is he causing a chalice to levitate?

Is he doing a little bit of stage magic?

Or is he simply "doing his thing" as the photographer modestly describes?

File under : PCUSA, humor, picture

Can there be common ground in the midst of our differences?

On Saturday I attended a listening session sponsored by Pittsburgh Presbytery at the Cross Roads Presbyterian Church in Monroeville. The 218th General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) sent a number of proposed amendments of the church constitution, along with four ecumenical statements, to all of the presbyteries for their votes. The Assembly recommended that presbyteries use a listening process in voting on these amendments.

Pittsburgh Presbytery has formed a task force to prepare recommendations to the Presbytery on each of these matters. That task force scheduled six listening sessions in order to hear from ministers and elders about each of the issues. I decided that I would try to get to the three that were closest to me in order to hear from people in the presbytery.

Saturday's session was held on a cold day, but the temperatures did not stop 21 people from coming out to listen and be heard. The Rev. Tom Moore led the session that morning.

Those in attendance identified proposed Amendments 08-B, 08-E, and 08-F, and ecumenical statement 08-K as the ones about which they wanted to speak.

The majority of our time was spent discussing proposed amendment 08-B, "Ordained Officers: On Amending G-6.0106b, G-14.0240, G-14.0450." The energy expressed around 08-B primarily had to do with the amendment of G-6.0106b. The thrust of the amendment is to replace a reference to a specific standard with a more general, but specifically Christ-centered, standard for officers "to live lives obedient to Jesus Christ the Head of the Church ...."

As I listened to the statements people wanted to make both in opposition to this amendment and in support of it, it seemed to me that the major division we were experiencing had to do with our differing interpretations of Scripture. For some the proposed constitutional change seemed like a relaxing of clear teachings of Scripture; for others the same change seemed like a move towards greater faithfulness to Jesus Christ as revealed in Scripture. With such great differences of perspective, is it possible for us to find common ground? I continue to hope so.

When we discussed Ecumenical Statement 08-K "Ecumenical Statement with the Roman Catholic Church on Ratifying a Common Agreement on Baptism" many were pleased at the prospect of formalizing agreements that that some of us had assumed were already in existence. Yet even as we looked with favor on this statement, there were some who were still concerned about the fact that the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) and the Roman Catholic Church have different understandings of justification. Should a disagreement on justification (not addressed in this ecumenical statement) be a sufficient reason for disapproving an agreement on eight points where there is no dispute? I don't think so.

I plan to attend other listening sessions that are reasonably close to me, to continue to hear the thoughts of others in Pittsburgh Presbytery. I need to know how these potential changes affect them. The people with whom I may have disagreements are all recipients of the same grace that God has shown to me in Jesus Christ.

File under : Bible, Christian unity, PCUSA, Pittsburgh Presbytery, Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), discernment

Some cool upcoming events

During the past week I learned about a couple of cool upcoming events. So I thought I would fiddle with Zoundry Raven (my blogging software) to see how it could handle the XHTML code for describing the events in the hCalendar microformat.

This Tuesday, December 9, 2008 at 3:00 PM EST, Bruce Reyes-Chow (Moderator of the 218th General Assembly of the PCUSA) will have an online conversation with Beau Weston about his paper "Rebuilding the Presbyterian Establishment." The event is Moderator Musings, Episode 2: Conversation with Beau Weston, and anyone can watch it live online at http://www.ustream.tv/channel/moderator-musings.

Early next year on February 19, 2009, from 2:00 PM to 5:30 PM, Pittsburgh Presbytery will sponsor a convocation on "Our Freedom of Religion at Risk: A Presbyterian Crisis" to be held at the Beulah United Presbyterian Church, 2500 McCrady Road, Pittsburgh, PA 15235. The speakers will include Joseph Small, Beau Weston, Euan Cameron, Mark Tammen, and Jeff Tindall. More information is available at www.presbyterianconvocation.org.

These two events are now on my calendar.

And, as a side note, I've discovered that it is a real benefit that Zoundry Raven allows me to edit the XHTML code.

Powered by Zoundry Raven

File under : First Amendment, PCUSA, Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), blogs, religious freedom

Visual impressions of General Assembly in San Jose

It has been almost two months since I was in San Jose for the 218th General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). There has been a lot going on, and I am not back up to speed with my blogging, but I wanted to share some of the things I saw while in San Jose.



When I arrived in San Jose one of the first things that caught my eye was the crape-myrtle that was blooming everywhere. These trees with beautiful purple flowers lined the streets throughout the city and especially in the area around the convention center.



One of the first things I did after checking into my hotel and registering at the Assembly was to visit the meeting hall and find my assigned seat. As a corresponding member of the General Assembly my seat was about twenty rows ahead of the place where I used to sit, but still behind the black curtain that separated the voting commissioners and advisory delegates from the rest of us. There was a lot still being set up in the meeting hall. A few commissioners had found their seats and were doing some meeting preparation. The photo of the empty hall above was taken from the spot where I would sit during the meetings of the Assembly.



Of course, when the hall was full of people the view would be very different, such as when the Assembly was at worship.



On Sunday evening, Monday, and Tuesday I sat with Committee 06, the Form of Government Revision Committee. A Task Force had prepared a proposed revision to the Form of Government (part of our Church's Constitution). I was with this Committee to give them the advice of the Advisory Committee on the Constitution. Many presbyteries had sent overtures to the Assembly asking for different things to be done with the so-called FOG Report.

On Monday morning I gave this committee a twenty-minute presentation with PowerPoint, helping them to understand the options they had. The Committee (and I) made the news.

In the end, this committee recommended that the report be referred to an augmented Task Force to report back to the next General Assembly.

The photo above was taken from my assigned seat when the committee was meeting. Far away at the front of the room (and to the left of the projection screen) the woman in the white sweater was Carol Hunley, an elder commissioner from Pittsburgh Presbytery. A recent news story this week announced that Carol is one of the members who were added to the Task Force to prepare the FOG report for the next Assembly.



During the meetings of the Assembly there was a camera crew ready to focus a camera on members of the Assembly when they were speaking at microphones. The images of the speakers would appear on one of the large projection screens at the front of the meeting hall. I got used to paying attention to the pictures of speakers, and the amplified sound of what they were saying. At one point in a debate, I noticed that I was hearing an odd echo. Past Moderator Jack Rogers was speaking to the Assembly. I realized then that Microphone 10 was about fifteen feet to my right and that what I was hearing were his spoken words followed after a very short delay by the amplified version of what he was saying.

File under : PCUSA, Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), picture