General Assembly, back at it

We were in plenary (the whole group) until 11:30 pm last night.  Part of the reason for the long meetings is a recurring issue -- when the General Assembly commissioners begin their deliberations, there is little sense of urgency, so lots of changes and discussion takes place.  Eventually, the commissioners realize that the time is limited, so we need to be more efficient.  By the end of the evening and the final vote on a fairly important issue, the vote tally had 15% less commissioners voting, presumably due to commissioners getting tired and leaving.  Hopefully, things will move more efficiently today.  Please note, that when I suggest efficiency, that does not mean (at least to me) glossing over important conversations; rather, it suggests that we spend time on the important issues and not so much time over the little stuff.

Prayer.  Prayer follows (or leads) us throughout our time together.  Some of the prayers are scripted and part of the formal process; others appear as we go.  For example, as my committee began our work, we prayed for a commissioner who was supposed to be on our committee, but instead had to go to her sister's to care for her on her deathbed.  Yesterday morning we prayed for a fellow commissioner who had fallen on the way back to the hotel and broken her arm and had a concussion. Last night, when news broke that the UK had vote to leave the European Union, one of the commissioners called us to pray for those impacted by that vote.  We prayed this morning for the people and churches of West Virginia as they deal with recent flooding.  Those moments of prayer remind us that even as we think in global terms about the church, we serve a church that is made up of real people in real situations.

Perspective: Yesterday I was talking to a friend who is an Executive Presbyter, and he mentioned that he had skipped out on the morning session to go hike with his daughter at Multnomah Falls.  When I was on Clergy Renewal five years ago, I was driving from WA to Salt Lake City and saw the signs for Multnomah Falls, so I stopped and hiked it myself.  I did not realize that it was merely thirty minutes away from Portland.  I realized that except for about an eight block radius of Portland that surrounds the Convention Center (I did take a train ride downtown one night), I have seen almost night of Portland.  I suppose I will have to come back to Portland if I ever want to really see it.  That reminded me of the challenge we have as a denomination -- how do we take what happens at General Assembly back to the congregations that minister in their own contexts?  It's easy to feel the importance of these issues as we debate them, but fail to see how they translate to being the body of Christ in our own congregations.