General Assembly Preliminary Report |
It was quite a week at General Assembly in Salt Lake City. Please consider this very much a Preliminary Report, with more communication to come. Bottom line: our desire would have been for the Olympia Presbytery overture, POL-01, to be voted down. It was approved. However, given the realities of the PCUSA, the amendments to the original overture seem to allow the room we hoped for to continue living out our mission.
Before getting to the details, we want to thank our amazing team who trained and supported the TFC friendly delegates: current board members Tammy Mitchell and David Won, and former board members Scott Mann and Bill Teng. They met with commissioners and delegates pre-GA, every night after committee work by Zoom, in person every night at GA in the TFC Hospitality Suite, and throughout GA. Thanks so very much to each for their hard work, prayer and commitment.
POL-01 was separated into two parts following constitutional advice. The first part concerns discrimination, sexual orientation, and gender identity. We don’t support discrimination. We affirm that every human being is made in God’s image and deserves our respect and welcome into our life together as the church. We were pleased to receive assurance that our traditional interpretations are within constitutional bounds. However, the process was a sobering reminder how few conservatives are elected to GA.
Part two was amended twice, specifically to provide more balance and respond to conservative concerns. Many of our TFC friends participated actively and there were others, including progressives, who helped adjust the language to preserve a big tent. Specifically, “non-discrimination” was removed, and a reference was added to the Historic Principles of Church Order, which include freedom of conscience and mutual forbearance, to balance the proposed inclusion of “the principles of participation and representation.” The GA was repeatedly reminded that all of the adjusted language in part two is entirely included in long-standing examination requirements and represents no change.
We have many questions, as we’re sure you do. The next step will be for presbyteries to vote on the constitutional amendment. A majority is required. If it were to pass, presbyteries and churches will determine how to act on it. More questions. Regardless, our encouragement remains the same: lean into your relationships within your presbytery and across the denomination with people who may hold a different view from you. Lean in, listen to their stories, convictions, and concerns, and share your own. By the way, Dwight Radcliffe’s plenary message at the National Gathering gave us a good model of engaging for understanding: Lean in, Listen, and Respond.
Our team came away encouraged that the GA responded to some of our concerns with more balanced language and assured that traditional interpretations are within constitutional bounds.
The second overture TFC focused on advocated for the National Caucus of Korean Presbyterian Churches to be recognized as an official caucus of the PCUSA. We were disappointed that it was disapproved but encouraged that a number of commissioners spoke in support of NCKPC continuing to make progress in affirming women in ministry.
Finally, we look forward to future conversations with the new co-moderators and new stated clerk. We think that there is openness to considering the concerns of the whole spectrum of the denomination, including ours.
The final form of the constitutional amendment can be found here.
We close in prayer:
Father in Heaven, we thank you for holding all of us in the palm of your hand. You are the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. We praise you for being faithful, righteous, compassionate on all you have made, slow to anger and rich in love (Ps 145). Jesus, Savior and Lord, Head of the Church, we submit to your leadership in our lives. Help us to lead like you; mold us into leaders who are humble, surrendered, and full of grace and truth. Holy Spirit, you are the one who comforts and convicts us of our own sin, the one who gifts us and inspires. We pray that you would give us what we need to learn from each other and take the next faithful step. We pray for your wisdom. We declare that we trust you. We ask for your guidance in all that we do. We want to glorify you now and always. In the name of Jesus we pray, Amen.
Together in Christ, The Fellowship Community Board |
TFC Board Mike McClenahan, President, Senior Pastor, Solana Beach Presbyterian Church, Solana Beach, CA Dan Baumgartner, Secretary, Pastor, The Cove Fellowship, Santa Rosa, CA Jim Witherow, Treasurer, Retired Pastor, Faith Presbyterian Church, Aledo, TX Cynthia Betz-Bogoly, Pastor, Elkins Park Presbyterian Church, Elkins Park, PA Paul Cunningham, Senior Pastor, La Jolla Presbyterian Church, La Jolla, CA Tracey Davenport, Senior Pastor, Grace Presbyterian Church, Plano, TX John Fullerton, Senior Pastor, First Presbyterian Church, Lakeland, FL Eric Hoey, Pastor, The Presbyterian Church, Henderson, KY John Joseph, Associate Pastor, Providence Presbyterian Church, Hilton Head, SC Tamara Mitchell, Associate Pastor, Presbyterian Church of Jackson Hole, Jackson, WY Timothy Scoonover, Pastor, First Presbyterian Church, Moncks Corner, SC Jason Tucker, Lead Pastor, Tower Hill Church, Red Bank, NJ David Won, Senior Pastor, New Presbyterian Church, Los Angeles, CA Advisory Board Jerry Andrews, San Diego, CA Donna Marsh, River Forest, IL Mark Perry, Peru, IN |
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We are pleased to announce a location for our 2025 National Gathering! However, securing the location meant that we had to change the date that we originally announced in April. So, please note the NEW DATE below! See you in Florida in March! |
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Regional Connections Opportunities to Connect with TFC and our Partner Organizations |
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Zoom Gathering Third Thursday of each month Next one - July 18 10:00 - 11:00 am eastern |
| Zoom Gathering for DFW area leaders Third Thursday of each month Next one - July 18 2:00 pm central |
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Lunch Thursday, August 8 12:30 pm eastern Pine Grove Presbyterian Church Airville, PA |
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If your region is not listed, we are working on plans for something in your area. If you'd like to help organize a TFC event in your area, please email us at office@fellowship.community. |
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I was probably twenty years old, in college and volunteering as a Young Life leader working with high school kids. One of the area staffers asked if I wanted to meet him for coffee. We did, sitting in a coffee shop somewhere, catching up on life and ministry and then...he asked the question. “So, what’s the Lord teaching you right now?” Very casual, as though he asked it all the time. It caught me a little off guard. To answer meant I would have to reflect a bit, not something I was well-practiced in at the time. Then it meant being honest, not just trying to come up with something that sounded good. And it meant looking at the immediate present, not something from long ago. I took a deep breath...and tried to answer.
In the forty-some years that have passed since that coffee date, I have asked a similar question approximately...a thousand times? Maybe two thousand? In life. With friends. Amongst family. In ministry. Of congregation members. With colleagues. Rarely has it failed to lead to a good conversation that goes several layers deeper than it otherwise would have. Inevitably, both parties end up answering the question. And it usually becomes not just one thing we’re learning, but several. Sometimes it dredges up hard and painful things, other times joyful ones. So, what’s the Lord teaching you right now?” To name something in the present moment, a learning edge of faith requires reflection. “Listen to your life,” was the way Frederick Buechner said it. Or “Let your life speak,” is Parker Palmer’s version.
TFC Board secretary Dan Baumgartner encourages us to ponder what the Lord is teaching us right now. |
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Last weekend, we were reminded that we live in a fallen world. We live in a fallen country and that we are all fallen men and women. Last weekend there were shots fired and casualties taken as an attempted assassination of former President Trump. Our response is not speaking of political alignments. I am not speaking of platform agendas. I am speaking of Godly intentions and outcomes. It is our charge as the Christian church to labor intentionally for the King. To cry out to Jesus on behalf of all others. It is our call as citizens of this great nation to defend life, liberty, and the pursuit of Justice. One of the greatest injustices that we face as a nation is not the threat of violence or the actions of a few, rather it is the muteness of the Church, withholding her cry for God’s justice in this land.
We are not moved by who you vote for or what yard sign you have out…May we be moved by our labor of love in obedience to the will and way of God.
The Fellowship is an expression of this exact labor of love. Pastors and church leaders as well as our churches find connections literally across the nation, not necessarily aligned politically, not necessarily aligned by the deep convictions for the similar needs of our communities, rather tied together by the historically evangelical reading of scripture. Tied to the Reformed faith, deeply defined by the Word of God and the call in our Holy Scriptures to be people of action, united in love, to bring about the presence of the Kingdom of Heaven here on earth.
TFC Coordinator for Connections and Recruitment Ray Garcia reflects on the deep connections within The Fellowship Community. |
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TFC is committed to helping churches find compatible leaders - and vice versa! To that end, we invite you to check out the "Find a Call" page on our website, where you can see a variety of open positions throughout the country. We have received quite a few new postings recently, so be sure to stay connected!
We are also looking for ways to improve this feature, so please think about how we might serve best in this area and send us any ideas or feedback. |
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The following events are not affiliated with The Fellowship Community, but they may be of interest to members of our community.
New Wilmington Mission Conference, July 19-24, New Wilmington, PA Theology Matters Conference, October 8-10, Hilton Head Island, SC Wee Kirk Northeast, October 14-16, Mt. Pleasant, PA Wee Kirk Montreat, October 21-23, Montreat, NC Connecting Mission Leaders Conference, October 24-25, Cordova, TN |
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written by Sister Joan Chittister, Benedictine Sister of Erie
Great God, who has told us "Vengeance is mine," save us from ourselves, save us from the vengeance in our hearts and the acid in our souls. Give us the strength it takes to listen rather than to judge, to trust rather than to fear, to try again and again to make peace even when peace eludes us. Give us the depth of soul, O God, to constrain our might, to resist the temptations of power to refuse to attack the attackable, to understand that vengeance begets violence, and to bring peace--not war--wherever we go. For You, O God, have been merciful to us. For You, O God, have been patient with us. For You, O God, have been gracious to us. And so may we be merciful and patient and gracious and trusting with these others whom you also love. Amen
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Do you have an idea for a future story? Are you involved in a ministry others need to know about? Let us know, and we'll include it in a future month's Together!
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