Getting Ready

Getting ready....

What a fascinating experience! And we haven't even left for San Jose.
A little email (not as much as I expected), some regular mail from various advocacy groups, a fairly predictable letter from six US Senators (who happen to be Presbyterians), and some helpful correspondence from committee chairs, and advice from arrangements people in Louisville (don't forget the cable lock for your laptop!) --- all coming across my desk, along with the pages of online reading of materials that will be coming before the Assembly. Hoping for the help of the Spirit in figuring all this out, I've read them all (or I will have by next week), had the usual knee-jerk reactions to several, and tried to figure out how best to approach some of these questions with sympathy, understanding, and insight.

The committee on which I will be serving is called General Assembly Procedures. Yes, my initial reaction, too, was a big yawn. Still, as it turns out, there are a couple of very significant proposals coming before that committee. Several overtures propose either to eliminate the per capita funds entirely over the next few years or to move them completely into the mission budget and away from any support for certain items, such as that for ecumenical organizations.

Another topic that is sure to generate conversation is a proposal to eliminate the geographical basis of presbyteries and synods, and allow both to decide where and how to affiliate. An individual congregation or presbytery, under this proposal, could choose to affiliate with others based on theological, missional or other considerations of importance to the congregations involved, rather than only the accident of geography. Obviously, this proposal represents a fundamental change in the way we think about connectionalism.

Former Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare John Gardner once remarked that "We are continually faced with a series of great opportunities brilliantly disguised as insoluble problems." Sounds like a lot of the business before the Assembly. Do continue to pray for all of us as we prepare and as we get ready to travel. Pray that we are able to discern the great opportunities.

Melissa Kirkpatrick