Drink ‘n’ Dive

Okay, y’all, here’s the entirety of my Birmingham experience. I just wrote it out for my Presbytery, and am now posting it for your consumption…

My apologies for not being able to report on my experience in Birmingham, but my days and nights were full with committee work. There were too many people attending and participating to all stay in the one hotel attached to the Birmingham-Jefferson Convention Center, so there were shuttles to take people everywhere. There were some hotels located downtown, not too far from the convention center, but a large portion of people ended up staying in the far reaches of Birmingham. Shuttle buses were provided and were continually running for people. This caused problems when we were meeting in committee so late – we had to end on time, so that people were able to get back to their hotels before the shuttle buses ended.

My time in Birmingham, Alabama, for our church’s General Assembly was time well-spent, in my opinion. I learned some very wonderful truths and learned from some great people. There is much life in this church and we need to look to our youth for the future of God’s church.

My committee was the Ecclesiology Committee, the committee that dealt with the final report of the Theological Task Force on Peace, Unity and Purity of the Church. Because I was on that committee, I flew out to Birmingham a full two days before the Assembly convened. My committee met for the first time on Wednesday evening, to do group building and to get to know one another. We had all been deluged with mail from a very vocal minority about the committee’s upcoming work. Some of the mail was positive, but most cried out that the church would come to an end if Recommendation 5 of the Task Force Report were approved.

As commissioners, our first “assignment” is to elect the moderator for the upcoming two years. Prior to that, we heard from Rick Ufford-Chase, the outgoing moderator. His words about his travel around the world were inspiring – to be able to go and listen to and share with other Presbyterians around the world would be a dream come true, for this traveler. I was prepared to not get much sleep on Thursday night, because of what I had heard from people about how long it sometimes took to elect a moderator – this wasn’t the case, and we were able to go rather early. This was a help, since I knew that we would have plenty of work to do on Friday.

Friday was the first day of committee work, and it was a crash course in parliamentary procedures for me – I learned all about Quasi Committee of the Whole and all about what is necessary for motions and about all of the proceedings that are required for the General Assembly. As a committee, on Wednesday, we had laid ground rules for the conversation about the report and we kept to them. We heard a presentation from the Task Force itself, and then we heard several hours of open hearings, along with Overture Advocates. It made for a long day, which would only continue Saturday and Sunday, if needed. We took action on one item on Friday night, before we recessed, as the buses to other hotels were not going too late into the night.

Each of the Recommendations of the Task Force were embedded in one item, with 7 Recommendations. We had to take each Recommendation separately and debate them individually. Saturday proved to be a long day of debate between people with varied views on the report. We had no problem approving Recommendations 1, 2 and 3 and slightly amended Recommendation 4. We all engaged in healthy debate with respect for one another. We came very close to the end, but ended up needing more conversation on Sunday afternoon.

On Sunday morning, each commissioner or observer was encouraged to attend worship in local congregations. I went with a group of Youth Advisory Delegates to hear Rick Ufford-Chase preach at the First Presbyterian Church of Birmingham and then made a pilgrimage to Starbucks. I knew that this would be yet another day of debate, and could only attempt to down caffeine for the journey! We spent several hours debating Recommendation 5, the most contentious part of the report, and did take a break for dinner and a joint communion service between the Cumberland Presbyterian Church and the Cumberland Presbyterian Church in America – the second worship service I was able to partake in as part of General Assembly. It was then back to committee for more work, until the busses stopped running, yet again. We finally reached a conclusion, in passing recommending the approval of Recommendation 5, as amended and Recommendations 6 and 7 in full, to the General Assembly, by a vote of 41 yes and 22 no, with no abstentions. We debated for many hours and I think we all felt heard. As a committee, we did know that there would be a minority report on the part of the minority, upon presentation of the committee report to the General Assembly. With that, we adjourned our healthy debate and left the committee behind.

It was on to the General Assembly floor on Monday for some fairly fast-paced movement through Assembly business with very little disagreement. It seemed as though people were saving their energy for a few of the topics that would invite disagreement. Worship on Monday evening was a celebration of women’s ordinations and was well-done.

Tuesday started off with nothing too hefty, and broke for lunch before my committee’s business came up. As we returned to our business meeting, we were invited by the Moderator into a time of quite and discernment, as the Task Force invites us to. It was a tremendous experience and I thank Joan for leading the quiet time.

I feel very strongly that the passage of the Task Force’s Report, in its entirety, is a good thing for the church. It is imperative that we realize our oneness in Christ, and that we realize that our oneness in Christ is above all else. This is something that the Task Force modeled and respectfully gave to us. It was characterized as an “experiment,” which is, as Mike Louden (a member of the Task Force) said, an “experiment” that has worked for 300 years in the Presbyterian Church.

After some more debate on the floor of the Assembly, which didn’t feel nearly as congenial as it did in our small committee, the vote came for the Minority Report, which was voted down by 287 to 234, and then a referral motion was brought forth, which was also voted down by 281 to 234. The final vote was to affirm what our committee had done (as amended by the Assembly) was passed by a final vote of 298 to 221 with one abstention (57% to 43%). All of the stress that had been building had finally come to an end. We all prayed together and then recessed till after dinner.

I was able to enjoy some time with the delegates and observers from our Presbytery over dinner and was able to enjoy some good barbeque. Each place in the South has its own kind of BBQ, I’m learning – each is quite delicious, but different. Sitting in a restaurant was a nice respite from sitting in the hall. The air conditioning was on too high and I had to bring my blanket each day!! It was very odd to be so cold inside, and then to go outside and be very hot. In addition to being hot, it was very, very humid.

Wednesday was a full day of work in a business meeting, where we discussed health issues, polity, peacemaking, Montreat, and social justice. We made some decisions that I was not in favor of, but such is the will of the body. It made for a long, long day. We finally adjourned at 12.30am on Thursday morning!!

Thursday was a wonderful service and then the finalizing of the business we had undertaken. It was all over by 11am, at which time Donna Lee and I had to get to the airport. It was a good thing we did at that time, as I know of people who were scheduled to leave much later, and were unable to, because of thunderstorms.

All in all, I learned that we are so blessed that even when we are in disagreement with people, we are far more united as Christian than we are divided as mere humans.

Being on the Ecclesiology Committee and debating this whole thing made me realize that we need to learn from one another and really push each other to live more fully into the world that Christ has asked us to. We are all part of the same world. The report asks us, as Presbyterians, to really examine candidates to ministry and to apply the standards of our National Church. It is local application of national standards. The Task Force Report encourages us to “outdo one another in honoring one another’s decisions…” Seeing how 20 different people come together to come to a unanimous decision is inspiring and we should all work to that end.