Worship and Work

Today I did three things at GA: eat, worship, and listen --- by far I mostly listened.

I began the morning at the GA breakfast and morning worship, where I heard a wonderful talk by folksinger and activist David LaMotte (pictured) entitled, "World Changing 101." He emphasized that a simple semantic clarification could go a long way in altering folks' attitudes about "changing" the world. Most people, he suggested, mean "fix the world" when they talk about world changing, and so conclude it is impossible ("as if we could say, 'There. Now the world is fixed. Let's hit the beach.'"), and so they never take the idea seriously. But even small things quite literally change the world --- make it different than what it was before --- and those are changes toward God's justice that we can all make.

From there it was to morning, afternoon, and evening sessions of committee hearings, in my case dealing with the proposed new Form of Government (and its "Foundations of Presbyterian Polity" section). There was both light and heat shed on the subject, but tomorrow the committee moves into its formal deliberations about what it will report / recommend to the General Assembly.

Each of my meals were different. For the breakfast, I was at a table of commissioners whom I had never met before. Lunch was a sandwich I grabbed from a vendor as I sped off to my hotel room to take care of a committee assignment that required an actual internet connection. At dinner I was able to enjoy a leisurely (well, as leisurely as possible considering) conversation with a faculty member from my graduate student days at Vanderbilt. Together those meals are a fine summary of the total GA experience --- new friends, old friends, and more work to do than the time allows.

Tim Cargal
Vice-Moderator, NCP
Pastor, Northwood Presbyterian Church