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

My work in November

During the month of November I am working at the Puckety Presbyterian Church here in Lower Burrell. The congregation recently elected the Rev. Kirk Orr as pastor, and I will be providing pastoral care services before he moves up here and starts.

In addition to preaching every Sunday in November and doing some pastoral visitation, I will moderate one meeting of the church's session.

From the pastor's study I look across the church parking lot to the Burrell High School.



It feels good to be back into a weekly work schedule connected to a congregation. In supply preaching my responsibilities have been limited to preparing a sermon and leading worship.

File under : Lower Burrell, Presbyterian Church, worship

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

Some pictures from my life

On May 1 I went to the "Building Block Blitz" in Macy's Court of the Galleria at Pittsburgh Mills. Ten teams of young people competed to build houses out of building blocks, the trademark name for which is not being used. The young people were way ahead of us. A number of them were thinking about green architecture and sustainability, but we did not even have a category for judging them on those criteria. The young people did this to raise funds for Habitat for Humanity of Allegheny Valley.



On Wednesday evening I went geocaching in Riverview Park in Tarentum with a few others. We found two well-hidden nano caches. There are no spoilers in the photo above. I just included it because it is a pretty park.



On May 8 I went to the CD release party for Nadina's Cube's CD "Shipwrecked: from birmingham to jericho with no prozac." What an adventure getting into downtown Pittsburgh - couldn't find a place to park. Lots of visibly empty, well-lit parking garages with signs out front saying the garage was full, and not an open parking meter for blocks around. Eventually found a place to leave my car.

The release party was happening in SPACE on Liberty Ave. I've been waiting a number of years to get a copy of this CD. Good stuff.



There was a neat exhibit at SPACE called "Rock, Paper, Scissors" featuring art in a wide range of media from a large number of artists. I gravitated to the piece above. Maybe it reminded me of people to whom I must relate from time to time. Or maybe I recognized something of myself in it. Or maybe it just dominated that corner of the room.

Yeah, that's it. It was big and filled that corner of the room.



This morning I was the guest preacher at two churches where I had never preached before. I've driven past the Mt. Zion Presbyterian Church, pictured above, a number of times when driving from my apartment in Lower Burrell to Cooperstown New York. Now it is a place I've been, with people I've met, rather than just a place I pass.



The Concord Presbyterian Church is the second place I preached this morning. Usually I am pretty successful in determining the location of the churches where I will go for the first time. I blew it when I was programming the location for this one into my nüvi. My nüvi would have taken me a few miles further down the road, but I noticed the sign as I drove past this church. If I hadn't turned back to check the sign I would have been late for church.

File under : Allegheny Valley, Frazer, Habitat, Pittsburgh Mills, Presbyterian Church, Tarentum, art, music, worship

Upcoming work

After a long period of being unemployed, I can finally say that I will start a new full-time job on Monday. I will work for the Allegheny Valley Association of Churches as the coordinator for the Self-Sufficiency Program. Today's Valley News Dispatch had an article about the program. I just spent three and a half hours today following the current coordinator, and I know that I will be on a steep learning curve.

When I was the pastor of a church and frequently had to deal with people who came to the church door looking for various kinds of help I was glad I could rely on the expertise of the staff at AVAC. Now I will be in a different role, but still trying to help people in need.

In addition to this new full-time job, I will continue supply preaching in various churches. My preaching schedule during February will be as follows.

February 7, 10:30 AM, at the West Glade Run Presbyterian Church in Kittanning.

February 14, 11:15 AM, at the Tunnelton Presbyterian Church.

February 21, 9:30 AM, at the Jacksonville Presbyterian Church in Kent, and 11:15 AM at the Ebenezer Presbyterian Church in Lewisville.

February 28, 11:15 AM, at the Tunnelton Presbyterian Church.

File under : AVAC, Allegheny Valley, Kittanning, Presbyterian Church, worship