What Kind of Church Will We Be?

From Luke 18:9-14

A message in the wake of this year’s Presbyterian General Assembly looking at the church through the lens of unity and purity: What Kind of Church Will We Be about the struggles among the faithful and the possibility of help in Sinners Anonymous.

220th Presbyterian General Assembly Video Clip Guide

(C) Presbyterian Church (USA) Used by Permission. Photo by Danny Bolin

Here are some video clips of some of the mountaintop moments and walks through the valley of the 220th General Assembly of the PC(USA) meeting in Pittsburgh in July 2012. Not official or complete! Have one not on this list? Leave a comment to get it considered! 

Mountaintops - Inspirational

• Welcome to Pittsburgh! by Committee on Local Arrangements (COLA)
  Muli-Media presentation 
  A LIVE Speedy Delivery from Mr. McFeely of Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood  (David Newell)
• Neal D. Presa Speech for Election to Moderator
• Small group prayer
• Mark 2:1-12 Reading & “The Welcome Mat” worship drama
• Jump Prayer with Children at Tribute to Mister Rogers
• Energizer by the YAAD to “Revolution” by Kirk Franklin & the Family
• Advisors are here to advise

Valleys - Difficult

• Vice Moderator resigns office “I am a pastor”
• Redwoods Presbytery’s compliance with the PJC decision’s rebuking Rev. Jamie Sphar
• We Need Greed
• “…large number of people incarcerated through our social justice system”
• Abortion payments by the Board of Pensions
• Merging Pensions & the EPC church discussion
• Same gender domestic partner benefits
• Divestment discussion

 Memorable Speak-Outs

• Jeremy Glideen welcomes cousin Sally & Andy’s upcoming child
• Followed by Dale Deist leading the Assembly in “God Bless America”

 Featured Overtures

• Forwarding of Per Capita  03-02 (Presbytery of Detroit)
• Property Trust Clause Intro 06-06 (Stockton Presbytery) & 06-07 (Santa Barbara Presbytery)
   Resuming Property Trust Clause 
   Mr. GA Help himself, Robert Austell asking about ruling recorded above
• End of Corporal Punishment (Spanking) 11-05 (Presbytery of Grace)

The Best of Gradye

• Strange Birds
• Limits of the Clerk’s Expertise
• Counting Abstentions in a Majority Vote
• Praying Gnome for Bills & Overtures

Videos

COLA’s Welcome to Pittsburgh

• Walk
• Run
• Soar

1001 Worshipping Communities

• The Bridge @ Union Church
• Northland Village
• Common Table
• New Hope
• Team Sweaty Sheep 
• Thien An
• Water’s Edge
• Bare Bulb Coffee
• El Buen Pastor
• New Faith

Last General Assembly’s Come Walk with Us video invitation to Pittsburgh

Reports

•  PCUSA Demographics Report

Still working on this as I go through the videos, emails and comments.

Other Sites

There are other individual sites for General Assembly information.

Robert Austell at the GAHelp.net site

 Steve Salyards at the GA Junkie site

GENERAL ASSEMBLY Plenary Sessions

Times when the entire General Assembly…assembles…are called “plenary sessions”, meeting times whenever all the commissioners (never “representatives”!) are invited and entitled to meet together, to watch, listen, vote, debate, pray and worship.

The assembly opens the week in plenary session, elects a moderator, breaks up into committees then comes back to plenary to vote on the committee recomendations at the end of the week. 

Here is the schedule. It may be changed by the assembly during the session lengthening a session or starting a session early, but generally the commissioners will be meeting during these 12 periods of time.

REMEMBER - You must be registered with a badge ($30) to enter the meeting hall. (Not the exhibit halls or other free and ticketed events.) Video monitors on site and streaming on the internet are available for those not in the hall.