Matters of Conscience

Today, without too much surprise, the General Assembly adopted two actions concerning same-sex marriage.

The first was to issue an Authoritative Interpretation (AI) for W-4.900 in the Directory of Worship, which allows that pastors may perform same gender marriages in jurisdictions where such is legal. It is extremely important to note that the full text of this explicitly states that such action is a matter of conscience, meaning that no pastor can be compelled to officiate, nor can church property be used without authorization of the session.

It is important to understand that an AI has an immediate effect over all the councils of the church, directing how the constitution is applied, while not actually changing the constitution. While it is an action of the General Assembly that has been used many times for many good reasons in prior years, it seems to many Presbyterians in this particular instance, to be an “end run” around constitutional process.

The second action was to amend the definition of marriage within the Directory of Worship as being between two people, traditionally a man and a woman. The words “traditionally a man and a woman” were added as an amendment during the floor debate on the overture. This second action, because it is a change to part of the PCUSA constitution requires approval of a majority of the denominations presbyteries over the next year, and would take effect one year from the adjournment of the GA on Saturday.

In assessing the process today, I believe there is a legitimate complaint that the Authoritative Interpretation in this case circumvented advisable process in this matter, because, while perhaps legal and permissible, and AI for such a controversial matter might seem to some as bending rules unnecessarily or even unfairly.

Irrespective, this is what this General Assembly did, and we need to figure out where we go from here. I strongly urge all of us to look for ways to hold together. From my perspective, I believe we must clearly and faithfully promise to each other that we will, at all costs, uphold that no pastor or session can be compelled to do something which, in their understanding of faith and discipleship, they cannot do. 

If we do this for each other, we can live together in faithful covenant.     

Southern North Stars

At my core, I am still a city kid. There is something familiar, comforting, and very unthreatening about spending time in cities, even though at this stage in my life (and indeed for the couple of stages before) I want to live in a somewhat less hurried and more gentle setting.

For lots of obvious reasons, General Assemblies meet in cities, although no longer the really, really big ones like New York or Chicago, for reasons, I suspect, of economy – those places can be extraordinarily expensive. Nevertheless, I have enjoyed sampling the differences in the “downtown urban cultures” of the different cities in which we have met as a church.

This holds true again this year in Detroit.

Without question, Detroit is a city under great stress. What had once been the fourth largest city in America, the Motor City has been beset myriad economic woes which have brought so many other trials raining down – violence, physical decay, and a near complete desertion of a viable middle class.

But amid this, there are many women and men standing fast in their hopes and dreams for Detroit, and there are clearly pockets of urban design and energy testifying to those hopes and dreams. This is largely true of much of the city’s downtown core. Wide and gracious boulevard-like avenues are flanked by majestic and bold architecture gracefully mixing visions of the city’s proud past with promises of a bright future -- interesting examples of wonderful twentieth and twenty-first century design. “Downtown” is bordered by the football and baseball athletic complex of Ford Field (Lions) and Comerica Park (Tigers) on the north, and the Detroit River on the south. The riverfront is accessible, pedestrian friendly, and altogether a fine piece of urban landscape architecture.

Across the river is Windsor, Ontario. Now think of that slowly – from Detroit, one looks south into Canada!

And despite the numerous times I have been to Detroit over the last forty years or so, I cannot get used to this. Canada cannot be south of the United States! It is not supposed to be. Yet here, it is.

This makes Detroit, for me, a city kid, very disorienting. So much so that I am always thinking that I am heading one way, when in fact I am heading another! Normally it only takes one block or so before I figure out both that and where I have gone wrong, but it doesn’t seem to matter. I keep doing it!

The People Mover makes things both better and worse.

Worse because even though it is a one direction (clockwise) loop, there is really no discernible geographic direction. Because all of the twists and turns, it is possible to see Comerica Park in the distance on the right side of the train, only to have it reappear two minutes later, closer but now on the left! Go figure. So it is nearly impossible to get a sense of how the streets (with their intersecting grids and angular avenues) relate to each other.

But the good (or better) news is that all one needs to do is get on the thing and it’ll eventually get to where you want to go.

Sort of like a Yellow Brick Road. Oh my!

Unscripted

Monday, Tuesday and part of Wednesday are reserved for General Assembly committee meetings. This is the time when commissioners and advisory delegates wade through the often large and complex agendas with the goal of recommending specific actions to the full assembly in plenary session which will begin on Wednesday evening.

Since very few executive presbyters ever represent presbyteries as commissioners, these two and a half days allow for significant periods of “unscripted” time. Some of this unscripted time is used for stuff clearly related to being an EP – interviewing pastors who are looking for interim work or new calls; monitoring committee doings (particularly in those committees dealing with “hot button” issues) to being the process of trying to imagine what effects on a presbytery’s congregations might ensue should the assembly vote one way or another; consulting different national staff about new initiatives and programs; and networking with other EPs, sharing experiences over vexing issues, or even commiserating with others who understand the work’s particular and peculiar travails and frustrations.

But beyond all of that, for me, this unscripted time offers a tangible and important reminder of one of the hallmarks of Presbyterianism – that we are a church of connection.

I get to spend time in conversation, support and prayer with colleagues who, were it not for these opportunities, would be little more than disembodied voices on the telephone or completely impersonal written lines of an email. While this might seem for some, on the surface, as of little consequence, it is important to remember that from the practical perspective alone, in order to truly usefully assist each other in ministry, we need to trust each other. How better to do this than to spend time together?

But even more importantly than the practical, is that our connections with each other embody the early church’s history of how nascent and often-persecuted Christian communities supported each other – think of Paul’s letters to the church in one place engendering support for the church in another. And perhaps embody is not a strong enough word. Perhaps witness is.

And beyond my connecting to others during this time at General Assembly, I get to witness others connecting with each other.

Feels like church.

Consent to Advise

There are services of worship every day at General Assembly. So what then might make Sunday worship somehow different?

The last few GAs have given opportunities for Sunday worship in local Presbyterian congregations – with the denomination providing transportation and the churches providing lunch. This allows for many diverse and often rich experiences of music, culture and fellowship as well as reinforcing the main thing that really binds us together -- our faith in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. About 40 congregations in the Presbytery of Detroit – faith communities of all shapes and sizes -- welcomed their Presbyterian brothers and sisters this morning – a true witness of welcoming the stranger.

The balance of the typical Sunday schedule is pretty light. There is a reception for those to meet the new moderator; a “mission tour” of the Detroit Zoo; and several other events of specific interest to people. There is also a brief convening of a plenary session, in which little business is conducted, but often full of many points of information; updates of some rules and procedures; greetings from different agencies with whom the PCUSA has a relationship.

This plenary session brought one unexpected piece of business – a commissioner’s resolution (there is a provision for some types of additional business to be presented in this manner) to provide executive presbyters with an advisory vote on issues which will be assembly will decide throughout the week. The motion passed. While there are some parliamentary nuances in this action, effectively this means that before commissioners vote on something – the collective EPs present will vote to “advise the assembly.”

Those who have followed this blog at other assemblies know that I have been critical of the usefulness of such advisory votes – whether they come from Young Adults, Seminary Students, Ecumenical Partners, or Missionaries. I find advisory votes to be often misleading because different “interest or affinity groups” see things in often very constricted lenses. In addition, we bestow the privilege of voting on a commissioner with the clear understanding that for every voter Jesus Christ is Lord of the conscience. This is why we do not allow presbyteries to instruct or mandate how their commissioners should vote.

It seems to me that advisory votes run counter to this by introducing a sense of not only “what others might want,” but “what might be popular,” and for me, this undermines any hope for discernment of the Spirit’s leading.

That I now may be given this privilege changes none of this thinking. While I maintain that executive presbyters can provide valuable help in “contextualizing” how an assembly’s action might play out – an advisory vote does not do this. There are better ways.

I will not exercise my newly found privilege.      

Answered Prayers

The 221st General Assembly, for the first time in many years, elected a moderator on the first ballot this evening. Heath Rada, a ruling elder from the Presbytery of Western North Carolina received a bit more than the 50 percent of the votes cast, defeating teaching elders Kelly Allen and John Wilkinson. Rada is the former CEO of the Greater Richmond (Virginia) Chapter of the American Red Cross and the former president of Presbyterian School for Christian Education (now part of Union Seminary). As moderator, Rada will preside over what might be yet another contentious assembly, and is well deserving of our prayers.

We would also do well to pray that the evening's election process does not portent a foreboding and difficult week. 


This year, the assembly, in a move seemed both economically wise and uncommonly sensible, decided to move away from the rented individual voting terminals that commissioners have used for years, instead opting for an internet based, secure tally system accessible from computers, tablets and smart phones. The system promised speed and efficiency.

Tonight, the assembly received neither.

For reasons either not completely understood or easily explained, the internet access in the convention center seemed unable to carry the load of the nearly thousand devices necessary to log onto the voting system simultaneously, thus rendering our new paradigm completely useless.

That this might not have been either properly tested or perhaps calculated is, in the words of Vizzini, that weaselly villain in The Princess Bride, "Inconceivable!"

But the powers that be (or better named "the powers that organize") did have a Plan B. There were wireless voting "clickers" -- smaller and somewhat simpler machines than the former hard-wired terminals -- that seemed a reasonable substitution. However, after numerous attempts to verify their accuracy, it was apparent that many of the test votes were not recorded at all. Making matters even worse, or at least more embarrassing, on one attempt to record advisory votes the computers brought up results from the tallies of the moderator election of 2012!

All of this delayed everything by perhaps an hour or more. 

So, and I kid you not, paper ballots were distributed,eliciting a text message from a former GA moderator (who shall remain nameless to protect those with senses of humor) that read, "Now we'll see if we can count and add......what a clown show!"    

I have no idea how many years it has been since an assembly used paper ballots but it has been at least two decades. However, because the rules also require that there must be advisory votes prior to the actual election, the comedy continued. The intent of an advisory vote is precisely that -- advice given to commissioners as to the choices of particular "interest" groups -- young adults, seminary students, ecumenical partners, missionaries -- so how to do that in a way that will not take the obvious time of a paper ballot but still be effective?

First a simple show of hands was tried -- but in a room seemingly half the size of a football field, with upraised hands scattered throughout a thousand people -- the results were predictably dismal -- no one could see anything clearly enough to draw any conclusion. This was followed by raising red index cards. This was only marginally better -- a 3 x 5 card a hundred feet away is not easy to pick out. Finally they asked that the advisory delegates hold up a red flyer, about 11" x 17" -- whether that was in any way effective is anybody's guess, but from the cheap seats, it sure looked amusing.

So with no more options available the commissioners filled the name of their choice on the paper ballots, which were collected and about thirty minutes later we had a moderator.

My guess is that during that half hour of waiting (there was some music and hymn singing during the interval) many prayer were offered -- not for any particular candidate but rather for someone to get the necessary votes on the first ballot.

Perhaps we can put this one in the answered prayers column.   

Moving Day

Officially, the 221st General Assembly does not begin until tomorrow morning at 11:00 when convened with a service of worship that will be full of the pageantry and splendor most of us associate only with Christmas and Easter. It is always a fitting way to begin these gatherings; and always full of the hopefulness of God's provision and love.

Today is essentially "moving day" -- commissioners arriving from all across the country (for most people it is doubtlessly their first time in Detroit), navigating hotel lobbies, elevators and corridors, and finally making their way over to the convention center for registration. 

Downtown Detroit has a handy elevated transportation loop called the People Mover, which makes  a dozen or so stops at many of the major hotels and buildings for a couple of miles or so. It is essentially two-car "trains" travelling in a single direction, with very reasonable short waiting times between. The whole loop, with all the stops, probably takes less than fifteen minutes. It seems a pretty good solution for moving a bunch of conventioneers so that they don't get too lost. 

I believe that when the Office of General Assembly affirmed its commitment to keep GA 221 in Detroit despite all of the city's economic hardships and bankruptcy, it was a shining moment -- a witness saying we commit to our principles and values, even when the prudent thing to do might be to bail. 

I hope that we can take away from that commitment one that allows us to remain in our Presbyterian relationships as we move forward through what may be our our own hardships, some of which might grow out of this assembly. 

Not just in Detroit, but all across our denomination, may we all be full of the hopefulness of God's provision and love.