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218th General Assembly Update
2008

From June 20th to June 27th, the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A) met in San Jose for its biennial meeting. Many of you prayed for the commissioners who represented their presbyteries and made decisions on behalf of our denomination. The Assembly dealt with over 400 items of business. Some of their decisions included:

*the creation of a new partnership in global missions amongst the various mission ministries of our denomination.
*an invitation to each congregation and presbytery to come together in prayer, worship, and confession in order to seek God for spiritual renewal.
*an increase in funds for international mission workers (this may mean the first increase in the number of international mission workers for many years).
*the declaration of a church wide commitment to transform our denomination through a commitment to evangelism, discipleship, and servanthood.
*a call to presbyteries to be gracious and pastoral toward congregations seeking to leave the PC(USA).
*the approval of a balanced approach to peacemaking in Israel and Palestine.
*a statement supporting human rights in Zimbabwe, the Philippines, North Korea and Columbia.
*the sending of emergency food aid to North Korea.
*the commissioning of 18 full time mission co-workers, seven long-term mission volunteers, and 27 new PC(USA) chaplains.
*the approval of a strategy to help African American congregations in our denomination grow.
*the approval of a study group to find and present model programs on the needs and development of our youth.
*a declaration encouraging the observation of Children’s Day on the second Sunday in June.
*a call for the church to engage in more education and advocacy efforts around mental illness issues.
*the development of standards for schools that receive funds from Christmas Joy Offering,
*the creation of a national office to help with healing from clergy sexual abuse.

These are some of the many positive actions taken at this year’s General Assembly. Unfortunately there were some action taken that are less positive for our denomination.

*There was a report that our denomination had a net loss of 57,572 members
in 2007 (our denomination has lost members each year since the 1970’s).
*The assembly created a legal defense fund to help presbyteries with the legal fees on cases with churches seeking to leave the denomination with their property.
*The assembly approved the start of an investigation of the Evangelical Presbyterian Church on whether they are actively recruiting churches away from the PC (USA)
* The assembly voted to remove the 1978-79 "authoritative interpretation" of the PC(USA) constitution that declares homosexual practice to be contrary to God's will.
*voted to adopt another authoritative interpretation allowing sessions and presbyteries to ordain individuals who, for personal reasons, declare that they are unable to abide by the constitutional standards for ordination.
*The assembly voted (380-325) to send out for presbytery ratification an amendment to our constitution that would remove the requirement that church officers to live in “fidelity within the covenant of marriage between a man and a woman or chastity in singleness”

Of course, many of these decisions now require the approval of a majority of our 173 presbyteries before they become official. In recent years, for example, the ordination standards of our denomination have gone before the presbyteries three times and each time the presbyteries have voted to strengthen and maintain biblical faithfulness in our ordination standards.

None of us like to hear unfortunate news about our denomination and of course there is the temptation to have actions like the ones taken on our ordination standards this year to completely overshadow the good decisions and actions that were taken.

However, some of these decisions go against what we have affirmed we believe as a church. Much prayer is needed for our church and for our denomination. We served a God of spiritual renewal and of transformation and since this assembly has called our whole denomination to seek and work for spiritual renewal and transformation, I would suggest we do just that in our church and in our presbytery. If the last thirty years of debate in the PC(USA) have proven anything it is that there is much disagreement in our denomination on the Bible’s teaching on sexuality and on the whether or not the Bible is the authoritative guide for faith and practice. Spiritual renewal and transformation is desperately needed.

It is my hope and prayer that, as a church, we will remain faithful to Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, committed to upholding Biblical faithfulness, passionate about reaching out in love to all people, sensitive and compassionate with all people who struggle brokenness, and hopeful in our desire to see all people come to and receive grace and healing from Jesus.

Yours in Christ,

Ed