the last three days...

Greetings to fellow Presbynerds and curious entities,
I apologize for my silence these past few days. My time has been quite filled! To catch you up:



Sunday morning, my roommate Sarah (from Union PSCE) and I attended worship. It was held at two large venues -- the San Jose State Event Center and the Convention Center Civic Auditorium. I attended the latter, which was pretty dang full by the time the service got started. The above is my hasty photoshop work to paste together the three photos it took to get it all in. There was a jumbotron screen in the front where Joan Gray was beamed in to us from her place at the SJSEC and the organ music rocked the rafters. They chose all of those huge-sounding hymns that are amazing when sung by a large group of people. They recognized retiring missionaries, among whom was my beloved Bill Yoder in Thailand as well as his colleagues, John and Martha Butt. They also commissioned new Mission workers, among which was Carol Dolezal-Ng, a fantastic woman who I met when I was at NEST in Beirut.


After that, we began our committee work. So, um, now the committee time was not quite the hotbed of awesomeness that I once had thought it might be. There were 68 elders and ministers from a number of different presbyteries and church ministry contexts. Our first full day of committee work was spent listening to various overture advocates in regards to the proposed new form of government of the church. Most folks were just requesting more time for their presbyteries to study the document and offer some feedback. Others, such as the GA Committee on Representation, were concerned about the omission of their committee from this document ("How will we ensure full representation?"). By the end of the day, we had gathered all the evidence to begin our discussion.

The next day, though, we got caught in the tangled web so easily woven by those who don't know how to properly navigate Robert's Rules of Order (that would be most of us). Oy vay! We spent the whole day deciding on a motion! But, we finally got it crafted and were able to pass it. Here's our conclusion:

To refer and recommend the Report of the Task Force on the Form of Government (FOG) to the Office of the General Assembly for a period of consultation and study with churches and presbyteries through a system or systems designed and implemented by the FOG Task Force and members of the 218th General Assembly Committee on the Revision of the Form of Government. The participation of every presbytery in the period of consultation and study will be strongly urged. New members of this expanded Task Force are to be chosen from the 218th General Assembly Committee on the Revision of the Form of Government by the Moderator of the 218th General Assembly in consultation with the moderator and vice moderator of the 218th General Assembly Committee on the Revision of the Form of Government.

The new task force will revise the Form of Government Task Force Report, taking into account the concerns and suggestions gleaned from the consultation and study process. The guidance of the Advisory Committee on the Constitution, the overtures, and the testimony received by the 218th General Assembly Committee on the Revision of the Form of Government and its comments are referred to the task force for serious and studied consideration.

The revised report of the Form of Government task force is to be submitted to the stated clerk of the General Assembly no later than October 15, 2009, for distribution to the church at large no later than January 15, 2010 for consideration by the 219th General Assembly.

Basically, we are suggesting that the document go out to Presbyteries for study and response over the next two years and then craft a revised form of that in light of everyone's feedback. Phew! Then, we submitted comments in regards to the issues that people noted in the document for the committee and presbyteries to take into account. After a long day and evening in circulated air under florescent lights, I was ready to be free!


And free I was -- first to visit the moderator who had invited seminary students to his suite for conversation, then to the Witherspoon Society Dance, where I danced my brains out. What a great way to end the day! Or, considering when I returned to my room, what a great way to start a new day! haha!


I've also got to give a shout out to my fellow Asian Presbyterians, with whom I had dinner last night. Thanks for a great dinner and thanks to Virstan for the ticket!