Ruling Elder Yenny Delgado-Qullaw, a native of Peru, gave the sermon when the virtual plenary week of the 225th General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) opened with worship on July 5, 2022.

The 225th General Assembly returned to plenary after two weeks of committee work on Tuesday, July 5, with worship. Ruling Elder Yenny Delgado-Qullaw, a native of Peru and now a licensed psychologist, gave the sermon based on Luke 4:18. (You can find that sermon, as well as the opening worship service by Rev. Gregory Bentley and the Juneteenth sermon by Rev. J. Herbert Nelson, on the worship page of the GA 225 website.)

A misunderstanding of my schedule led me to miss almost all of Plenary 4. (I had scheduled a medical appointment because my calendar looked blank, somehow overlooking the line that meant to indicate that General Assembly was meeting.)  It appears that the Assembly considered items from the Theology, Worship, and Education Committee. Those included:

TWE-04 will provide worship resources for ministering to veterans. It was amended to include first responders and is intended to be available by the 2024 General Assembly.

TWE-05 will amend portions of the Directory for Worship in several different places, most of which were approved. (To be honest, none of this appeared to be earthshaking stuff.)

TWE-06 would amend W-4.0403 to allow the laying on of hands at an installation. This overture came out of our own Presbytery of West Virginia and was originally sent to the 2020 General Assembly but was deferred to this year’s GA. It was approved by a vote of 371-23.

TWE-08 would form a Commission to write a New PCUSA Confession. The intent is for this confession to specifically address racism within the United States. While the most recent confession added to our Constitution, the Belhar Confession, does deal with racism, it comes out of a South African context. Commissioners, as well as those who had proposed taking this step, felt like there is sufficient justification for the church to speak to the racism existing within the United States.

TWE-11 includes Davis & Elkins on the approved list of schools, colleges, and universities related to the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) This may have been a slam dunk, but it is still worth noting.

TWE-12 was the Report of the Special Committee to Study the Reformed Perspective of Christian Education in the 21st Century. Among other things, it includes adding a staff person to equip and connect Christian Educators. This seems to be an appropriate way to support this significant ministry.

It also appears that a few items from the Mid Councils Committee were addressed during the morning session:

MC-07 A Resolution on Chartering Immigrant Fellowship from the Racial Equity Advocacy Committee was adopted by consensus but would seem to have some significant impact. It allows Immigrant Fellowships, Worshiping Communities, and New Church Developments to all be counted or considered as New Church Developments and included in the national statistics of the PC (U.S.A.). While this may not seem like a big deal, the members of those groups tend to skew much younger and include a much higher percentage of people of color. With this step, our denomination becomes younger and more diverse, as well as larger. In a lot of ways, these folks are already Presbyterian. Now, we are recognizing them as such. Some have argued that our failure to accept them as a full part of the church was racist. That was probably not our intent, but if I don’t have white skin, it probably looks and feels that way.

Co-Moderators of the General Assembly, The Rev. Shavon Starling-Louis and The Rev. Ruth Santana-Grace, meet with Assembly parliamentarian The Rev. Tricia Dykers Koenig and Stated Clerk of the General Assembly, The Rev. Dr. J. Herbert Nelson, II, during the fifth plenary of the 225th General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) on July 5, 2022, held online and at the Presbyterian Center in Louisville, Kentucky. (Photo by Melody Smith)

Plenary 5 ran from mid-afternoon to early evening. The Assembly continued to hear from the Mid Councils Committee and specifically voted on:

MC-O5, which would amend G-3.0101 to allow moderating session meetings electronically from a remote location in extenuating circumstances. The argument was made that this is already allowed by our Book of Order, but this amendment would clarify that it is indeed permissible.

MC-02 would allow Ruling Elders serving on Mid-Councils the option of enrolling in the Pastor’s Plan of the Board of Pensions. The Assembly voted to encourage the Board of Pensions to make this happen. Apparently, the President of the Board of Pensions indicated a willingness to do so during the committee hearings on this proposal. If this happens, it probably would save this presbytery over $10,000 per year.

MC-03 would establish the authority of presbyteries to define severance plans for installed ministers. It was amended to also include those serving in temporary pastoral service, Certified Christian Educators, and Certified Associate Christian Educators. This would be accomplished by amending G-3.0303c. It passed by a vote of 386-18.

MC-08 seeks to clarify the intent of G-2.1001 regarding the use of commissioned pastors. Apparently, some felt that the Book of Order did not permit anyone to be commissioned to serve more than one church or validated ministry. The proposed language makes sure that is permissible.

MC-06 seeks to facilitate full participation and representation in synods by allowing the election of additional members. The intent is to provide for more racial diversity at the synod level by amending G-3.0401. Eventually, language suggested by the Advisory Committee on the Constitution was adopted.

MC-10 wants to establish a Task Force to Explore the Theology and Practice of Ordination to Ordered Ministry for Ruling Elders. This is meant to address the leadership within new immigrant communities and fellowship, as well as New Worshiping Communities, which currently don’t have a path to elect ruling elders.

The Assembly Committee on Polity was up next. The items they brought before the Assembly included:

POL-06 proposed amending G-3.0303 by adding a new paragraph regarding authority to convene meetings. This clarified that a presbytery can convene a session or a congregational meeting if it had concerns about the financial viability of a congregation. The committee determined that a presbytery already has this authority, and this change wasn’t necessary. The Assembly agreed.

POL-14 wanted to streamline the sale of property. The committee and then the Assembly disagreed with this proposal and shot it down.

POL-16 sought to amend F-1.0302 and F-1.0404 by adding “abilities and genders” to the list of characteristics to be considered and recommending that disability be included in future lists of marginalized people in policy, procedure, and liturgy. The Assembly agreed with the Committee’s recommendation.

It was then that the Assembly got bogged down. I had not thought ahead and made plans with my wife about when we would need to eat, so I took a dinner break while the Assembly was dealing with POL-10. The original overture wanted to have councils add an anti-racism policy to the list that they are required to implement. POL-17 wanted to have councils add a harassment policy to that list. The committee decided to combine the two. Some people apparently had a hard time getting their head around the idea or had serious objections to implementing this. A number of complaints and motions brought up how hard this was going to be on small churches. Anyway, the Assembly was dealing with this before I stopped listening to eat dinner and was still dealing with it even after I had finished eating and doing the dishes. It took them well over an hour to finally come to the decision to propose amending the fourth paragraph of G-3.0106 as follows: “All councils shall adopt and implement the following policies: a sexual harassment and misconduct policy, a non-sexual harassment policy, a child and youth protection policy, and an antiracism policy.” I suppose it was worth the wait. I will also say that one of the commissioners from North Alabama Presbytery really got on my nerves.

POL-15,  A Resolution on Receiving Immigrant Pastors as Members of the Presbytery, seeks to amend G-2.0505a (1) to allow presbyteries the permission to receive immigrant pastors who may not have the education levels typically required for Presbyterian ministers. There was often a perceived racial bias in keeping such pastors at arm’s length. While that may not have been the intent, that was the impact.

POL-13 is titled “On Amending G-2.0505b. Regarding Ministers Surrendering Membership with Other Christian Churches.” The title doesn’t really suggest what this overture is about. It came from the Presbytery of Western North Carolina and asked for the PCUSA to establish full communion with other historically Black denominations as we have with the UCC, ELCA, and others. The overture was disapproved with the comment that the Presbytery of Western North Carolina should come up with a proposal about this.

With that, the Assembly took their dinner break, knowing that the Polity Committee still had more stuff to bring before the Assembly.

First up after dinner was POL-04, which proposed allowing ordaining commissioned ruling elders as Ministers of Word and Sacrament after serving six years. The committee felt that the response to MC-10, which established a task force to explore the theology and practice of ordination to ordered ministry for ruling elders, would provide a resolution for the problem that POL-04 seeks to address, so they recommended disapproval. The Assembly agreed.

POL-08 wanted to amend G-2.0301 to allow congregations to elect members as Ruling Elders for service to the larger church without having served as a ruling elder in a local church. The committee was divided (the vote was 15-16) but decided to recommend disapproval. The Assembly agreed.

POL-12 would amend G-2.0504 to restore language permitting Parish Associates once again. The committee decided that even though the Book of Order is silent on this issue, it’s still permissible, so it wasn’t necessary to clutter up our constitution with such an amendment. They recommended disapproval. The Assembly agreed.

POL-07 wants to amend G-2.0503 to change the Designation Honorably Retired to Retired. There was an amendment to give presbyteries the option of designating ministers as either retired or honorably retired. The YAAD advisory vote ended in a 7-7 split. Commissioners went their own way, rejecting the amendment 98-201. During the following debate on the motion, all the speakers were teaching elders. The motion passed 270-128.

The last item presented by this committee was POL-09, which wanted to amend G-6.04e to require a two-thirds affirmative vote to amend the Book of Order. The committee decided the current process was sufficient and voted to recommend disapproval. The Assembly agreed.

Even though it was after 10 PM (10:05 to be exact), the Assembly took a 5-minute break before continuing their work with the work of the Committee on Immigration. Three of the 4 items were approved on the consent agenda. Among those were IMM-03, A Resolution to Establish a Network of Immigration Lawyers, and IMM-08, Regarding the Treatment of Refugees.

The final item of business from this committee and for the evening was IMM-06, On Declaring the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) to Be a Sanctuary and Accompaniment Church. It was pointed out that there’s a difference between the Sanctuary Movement of the 1980s and the New Sanctuary Movement today. After much debate, the committee voted to keep the original language from the Presbytery of San Jose. They used the equity prime process by asking “who are we hearing” and “who are we not hearing” as they considered this issue. One of the committee members speaking for the overture said that this overture mandates nothing but encourages congregations to act and gives them an opportunity to minister to the people who have come here seeking safety.  It is talking not only about Central American immigrants but also Ukrainian refugees. After a minor amendment, the Assembly approved the motion by a vote of 340-25.

I’m not sure that was the best way to wrap up the day. It was obvious commissioners were tired as they started getting a little snippy. This could be considered an important issue that got “pushed through” at the end of the day. But it could also be considered an important issue that didn’t get the attention it deserves because of its placement on the docket.

For an in-person assembly, finishing up at 11:16 PM is not all that bad. It felt like a long day, though, with perhaps four more long days ahead.  Staring at Zoom meetings for almost 10 hours will do that to you.

If you want to learn more about any of these items and see wat they actually say (or check if I’m accurately describing them), you can do that on PC-Biz.