Home again

Robert's prayer at the end of the night was really wonderful, as we all stood holding hands with our neighbors. He hit the mark.

Other parts of the day included:

-the three amigas having a very poorly timed laugh attack at the beginning of the Serious Mental Illness report;
- Laleza having her photo printed in the GA daily news, and collecting copies for everyone she ever met;
- Eulando's appointment as bathroom monitor;
- David's orchestration of the purchase of a gift to the Presbytery from the commissioners (but I'm not gonna tell you what it is, because it's a surprise!);
- Jesse back in a sports coat,(but at least he left the tie in his room);
- Cece making her mama proud with her poise at the microphone;
- Katie taking me on a brisk after dinner walk around San Jose;
- Larry rolling his eyes a lot at the comments coming from behind him (that Nancy Nutter is a wild one!)

And that's all the people I can keep track of!

Friday was a really long day, with pain and frustration for everyone at some point. I am so grateful for the good humor, support and graciousness of my fellow commissioners from Charlotte Presbytery. What a great group of folks!

Saturday also ended up being longer than anticipated, with another long wait at DFW, sitting in the plane on the tarmac for several hours as we waited for thunderstorms to pass. With two out of two stops there being somewhat disastrous this week, I'm not looking forward to my return there NEXT week!

We arrived home at 1:30 this morning, and got to bed around 3. I was up, preaching the 8am service at Grace (and the 10:15 one, too) grateful to be able to utter coherent sentences.

Thanks for sending us a commissioners, and please continue to pray for the PCUSA: staff, ministers and members.

it's laaaate

Today was a very full day. I tried to pace less... the three amiga's behind me (Joanne, Nancy, Shirley) were at their raucous best. I spoke to a resolution I wrote and it got good support in the house and passed. CeCe spoke eloquently on a motion from her committee. I got to see Tamara up close at the end of the evening (almost midnight), when I closed in prayer. This is as serious as I'll get on this blog... there were some issues of significance to many. I will say that our Charlotte group was very supportive of each other, even when voting differently. I tried to acknowledge these differences and highlight our unity in the closing prayer as rows stretched across the hall with hands held.

Let us pray…

Heavenly Father,

We are divided on much. Chances are that the person beside us voted differently on significant issues, passionately held. It is so easy to see one another as “the enemy” and yet you declare those who hope in the Lord Jesus Christ to be family.

You declare it – in Christ, we are one family! Yet, we struggle so to experience it! Some of us believe truth is at stake; some of us believe justice is at stake; some of us distrust each other, and we struggle with other issues that would drive us apart. Some leave rejoicing; some leave in sorrow; some are not sure what they feel.

What hope do we have apart from your grace through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ? What hope? Grace seems a fragile flower in a room full of elephants.

Give us a vision for your grace – unconditional, true, winsome, and strong. Help us see the person on our left and on our right, not as the enemy, but like us, a broken son or daughter for whom Christ has died. Help us cling to your Word and live in your Spirit.

We ask it in Jesus’ name, Amen!

Thursday night. late

We met from 8:30am to 11pm, so am feeling punchy. Jesse DID show up without a tie- a nice red madras sort of shirt- it's a good look, Jesse. Robert paces a lot, Eulando does his funky chair exercises (and nearly fell off the chair, which we found very amusing), I cross stitch, Cece and the YAD next to her share a pair of earphones for music (one ear each), Shirley passes around tootsie roll pops, and I won't tell you who plays computer games (it's not me!- I'm busy cross stitching while I listen... a Celtic knot; I thought it appropriate to the occasion). And all the while, every one of us listens closely to the debates and knows exactly what is going on with each item of business. That last part seems to be outside the realm of possibility for a number of commissioners from other Presbyterys. The Charlotte folks are on it!

We've all been grateful for the goodie bags provided by the Presbytery, courtesy of Tamara and Warren. Juice, water and treats have gotten us through long hours of plenary.


Things have been fairly peaceful at the assembly, although they are moving slowly. Tomorrow will be a really long day, I think, with a lot of important things on the agenda, including the election of the new stated clerk.

moving along

We completed our first day of plenary (actually, just 2/3 of a day, since this morning was set aside for reading reports. Some shopping might have taken place, as well. How am I going to get all this stuff home?)

The Moderator is moderating well, I think, with good humor and confidence. We installed the vice moderator, who became Presbyterian at the church where I was baptized, and where my parents met, Vermont Avenue Presbyterian Church in Los Angeles.

Our our Jesse Hite has made his report, so there are bets being made about whether or not he'll feel compelled to wear a tie tomorrow. Nancy is getting her picture taken a lot by the techies, and Eulondo does sit-ups in his chair (you gotta see it to understand). Robert Austel made a geek point at the microphone, but besides that and Jesse's report, the Charlotte group has been quiet. Well, we've not really been quiet, but we haven't made formal presentations, just the peanut gallery comments. Who knew how funny Nancy Nutter is???

We're doing serious business in the midst of it all, and working through committee reports. You can get the official business from the PCUSA website, but you won't get reports on lifes with the Charlotteans there!

you'll have to be stealthy...

Jesse's watching out for you.

Sunday

Just so you know, I don't know why, when you look at my profile, you will find out that I am a Scorpio, born in the year of the monkey. There may be more interesting things to know about me. But maybe not.

GA worship was good, as usual, and held in two locations simultaneously, with some parts shown back and forth. The technology worked, which is better than can be said about the plenary meeting hall- but they are working on it.

Speaking of technology, we elected a techie moderator who may drag some of us into the new century and teach us something about ministry to the next generations. I'm hoping that's true, anyway.

It was fun for the Charlotteans to give a shout out to our Tamara when she was introduced as a platform assistant yesterday, and today we had a great lunch with all our commissioners, staff, observers and Charlotte groupies.

Tomorrow is Eulando Henton's birthday, so we say a big GA Happy Birthday to our minister commissioner from New Friendship.

We're looking for a whoopie cushion to put on Jesse Hite's chair in the meeting hall, and Nancy Nutter is really excited to be seated between chatty me and chatty Shirley Hutchins. We'll just have a brief meeting in the plenary hall this afternoon, for routine business plus the nominations for stated clerk, then it's off to committees for the next 2 days.

also seen...

I'm also here, though the trip was less eventful... didn't form any new presbyteries or anything.

I saw Nancy Nutter (she's apparently high profile), saw Joanne Sizoo across the exhibit hall, spoke to Larry James waiting for the bus from the airport, and saw Warren Lesane (but he was deep in conversation).

This is my first GA, but I saw lots of familiar faces from various conferences like Montreat Wee Kirk. I met Bill Teng, Bruce Reyes-Chow, and Roger Shoemaker... all gracious and outgoing.

I got a mini-frisbee from the Presbymergent (oh look, there's the frisbee) booth and met the very outgoing and interesting Karen Sloan.

I'm in the Penthouse suite - well the 25th floor at least - of the Marriot, which is attached to the convention center. There's a beautiful view of San Jose and the ring of mountains on the edge of town.

The first three business meetings are tomorrow, and will include worship, welcome/orientation, opening remarks, and moderator elections (tomorrow night).

Online video for these and all plenary business meetings will be streamed online from the PCUSA site. The schedule for these meetings is HERE, and the link to the video should appear somewhere on that page tomorrow. In the past, the link has been available in advance, but this schedule is all I can find tonight. [Look for Tamara on the platform!]

~Robert Austell

Finally here

Well, Tamara comes sailing in at 2 something yesterday, while some of the rest of us cooled our heels at DFW for 5 hours waiting for a flight, since the delay in Charlotte made us miss our connection. We started a new Presbytery, the Presbytery of DFW (Dallas/Ft Worth Airport) while we waited- with YADs from Providence and Peaks presbyteries.

Today was anti-racism training, including a really interesting video on home loans and redlining after WWII. It has also been a day of quick hugs with old friends. After years and years of coming to the assembly every year, then having 5 years off, I'm finding that many of my friends have aged. Good thing I haven't!

I've seen Nancy Nutter and Shirley Hutchins wandering around, and Cece (our YAD and my daughter) has been seen dashing around in the company of other YADs.

We start in on business in the morning. I can't wait to see Tamara up there in all her glory! Although, I may not see anything from my vantage point all the way on the end down front...does the Board of Pensions pay for neck massages for kinks
from craning our necks to see what's going on?

Gettin' ready

OK, so I'm trying to figure out blogging while I'm preparing the list for the housesitter, paying bills and packing for the plane tomorrow.

I've been to 14 or so Assemblies, but this is my first as a commissioner. I didn't go to the last two Assemblies, though, which means that it's been five years since my last one. Denver, it was. I expect that it will be very familiar, and quite different, going to GA as a commish.

I'm on the Youth committee- a committee without an agenda. We'll see how it goes!

My first blog

It has taken me awhile to get all situated. As school was closing I got some new equipment... at any rate here is my first GA blog. I have a lot of reading.

LaLeza

moderator candidate interviews

Hey, if anybody is interested, two of the moderatorial candidates were nice enough to respond to some "get to know you" interview questions with me. Links to the responses are below:

Conversation with Bruce Reyes-Chow

Conversation with Bill Teng

Somebody else please post... Tamara and I are getting lonely in here!

Robert

what's big in my committee - #16 (worship)

I thought I would pick a conversation starter (hopefully) with my fellow commissioners.

What committee are you on and what do you think are some key overtures/issues coming before your committee. (Who knows, it might even help the rest of us sort through the 100's of pages to focus in on key stuff!)

I am assigned to committee #16 - worship and spiritual renewal. So far, we only have two pieces of business. Both of them seem pretty non-controversial. One is a statement that we are brothers and sisters in Christ (and inviting the moderator to remind us of that regularly). The other is an invitation to churches to experience a "solemn assembly" - a prayer meeting modeled on Old Testament prayer gatherings, for the purpose of worship and spiritual renewal.

The other interesting piece to committee #16 (and 17), as I understand it, is that these two "added" committees are going to use the consensus model of decision making and share with the rest of the Assembly how that goes. That should give me something unique and interesting to blog about the first few days!

G.A Commissioners and Committee Assignments

At its 95th Stated Meeting on February 19, 2008, the Presbytery of Charlotte elected its Commissioners to the 218th General Assembly. Due to the membership of our Presbytery, we have an allotment of six ministers and six elder commissioners, as well as one Youth Advisory Delegate (YAD). Each commissioner and YAD has been assigned to serve on a committee at the General Assembly. Below is a list of our G.A. Commissioners and their committee assignments:

MINISTER COMMISSIONERS:
The Rev. Robert Austell (Good Shepherd Church, Charlotte): Worship & Spiritual Renewal
The Rev. Joanne Sizoo (Minister at Large): Youth
The Rev. Larry James (Grier Heights Church, Charlotte): Review of G.A. Permanent Committees
The Rev. Eulando Henton (New Friendship Church, Huntersville): Church Growth & Christian Education
The Rev. David Speering (Troy Church, Troy): G.A. Procedures
The Rev. Shirley Hutchins (First Church, Hamlet): Bills & Overtures

ELDER COMMISSIONERS:
Laleeza Yorn (Clanton Church, Charlotte): Theological Issues & Institutions
Jesse Hite (First Church, Charlotte): Committee Moderator - Board of Pensions, Presbyterian Foundation & Presbyterian Publishing
Nancy Nutter (Pleasant Hill Church, Charlotte): Social Justice Issues

Bobby Overcash (Calvary Church, Davidson): Form of Government Revision

Linda Schrum (Mulberry Church, Charlotte): Peacemaking & International Issues

Katie Dunlap (Star Church, Star): Ecumenical and Interfaith Relations

YAD:

Cecelia Sizoo-Roberson (Myers Park Church, Charlotte): Health Issues