The 220th General Assembly of the PCUSA is off and walking...running....soaring in hope! The meeting opened, as it always opens, with worship. Moderator Cynthia Bolbach, donning a green cellophane "wig" in recognition of the chemotherapy she is undergoing brought down the gavel. Immediately identical green wigs appeared on heads all over the worship arena in a moving display of solidarity. The worship included lively and spirited music, much of it drawn from a sampler of the new Presbyterian Hymnal, and a commissioning of each of the Commissioners and Advisory Delegates which reminded them of their baptismal calling and called them to renew their ordination vow to serve the church this week with energy, intelligence and imagination and love. Moderator Bolbach, speaking from a wheel chair, delivered a homily based on Mark 2:1-12 - the story of the four people who brought a paralyzed man on a pallet, cut a hole in the roof where Jesus was speaking and lowered the man through the roof so that he could see Jesus. She noted that two years ago she had used this text while running for moderator. At that time, she had imagined that the church most resembled the paralytic in the story, a church paralyzed by theological divisions, economic down-sizing, cultural upheaval and an uncertain future. But after two years of traveling around the church, she told us, she no longer sees the church as the paralytic. Far from it! She told stories of the amazing movement and ministries happening in and through congregations and presbyteries all over the country and, in partnerships, throughout the world. She told of the outpouring of support and prayer she has received in the "paralysis" of her own cancer from around the church - those who know and love her as well as those who know and don't like her, as well as those who don't know her at all. Yet all of them a place around the pallet on which she finds herself and lifted her up so that she could see Jesus. As a result, she now views the PCUSA not as the paralytic but as the four unnamed pallet-bearers commended by Jesus in the story and she challenged the Assembly and, indeed, the whole church, to be the ones who will lift up others and stop at nothing so that they might see Jesus and be healed and whole. In song and prayer, reverence and praise, challenge and comfort, call and response, the 220th General Assembly is underway!
Nourished by the Word, the worship and the sharing of bread (plus little groups hitting the many wonderful local eateries around the convention center) the Assembly reconvened in plenary. The significant order of business for the evening plenary was the election of the moderator. After a thoughtful process of speeches, questions and answers (centered around such things as the definition of marriage, how to embody missional communities, how we deal with conflict and develop relationships), and prayer, the Assembly, on fourth ballot (balloting continues until some candidate receives a majority vote) elected Rev, Neal Presa as Moderator.
After a moving "passing of the mantle" - a beautiful cross forged in the heat of tension during WWII, and the moderator's stole - from Cynthia Bolbach to Neal Press (and after a charge to the new moderator and prayer by his young sons which had the whole assembly in tears) the assembly sang and prayed and wept and laughed and dispersed for the night with praise and thanksgiving to God.
Tomorrow, commissioners will attend worship at congregations throughout the Pittsburgh area and then reconvene at 2:00pm in plenary after which the committees will begin their work.
Signing off from Pittsburgh....
The 220th General Assembly of the PCUSA is meeting in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania from June 30 through July 7, 2012. The theme of this year's assembly is taken from the prophet Isaiah. "But those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not faint." (NIV)
Join me on this site for regular updates, news and reflections from the assembly. In the NRSV the text is translated, "Those who wait for the Lord....." And so we wait.
220th General Assembly
