GA Day 5 - O Canada! And a Final Decision on Belhar

With the only free morning of the entire week, my room mate, Nancy Wilson, and I decided to leave the country. Fortunately, from Detroit that involved a 30 minute ride on a $4.50 bus ride. We walked around Windsor, Canada for a few hours.

Now in all honesty, Windsor is not all that different from other American cities. But it was nice to see Detroit from across the river...

as opposed to seeing Windsor, Canada from across the river.

It was a breath of fresh air to get away from the United States and walk around the great town of Windsor, have lunch on the river, and get a couple of Canadian souvenirs for the kids.

Then it was time to get down to work...well kind of. There were many presentations and non-business items that took up our time.  My favorite was this video called the Spirit of GA: part 5.  http://vimeo.com/98572797   It was a way to laugh at ourselves about what we find humorous about the General Assembly. There are other Spirit of GAs that are also very interesting.

But seriously, the most important item of business was whether or not to approve the Belhar Confession and send it on to the presbyteries for a 2/3 vote to include it into our Book of Confessions. I was so passionate about this topic that I was one of three people who spoke in favor before we voted on it. While a small contribution to the discussion, I was happy to be a positive part of the next step in including this in our Book of Confessions.  It passed 86%-14%. For all you Presbyterians, it will go before your presbytery next year. Please be an advocate for it.  It's a wonderful confession and prophetic word we need for our country today.

Finally, if you want a more official reporting of what goes on at GA, please see the Presbyterian Outlook page which writes several articles a day on the latest news.  You can find them at http://pres-outlook.org.

Tomorrow we talk about marriage equality issues: whether or not redefine marriage and to allow pastors to do same gender weddings where it is legal. Stay tuned!  More to come!!