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.