Today was the last full day of the General Assembly. Tomorrow (Saturday) we take a few hours for appreciation and closing worship before everyone goes home. But today we HAVE to get all our business done, even if it takes all night. Fortunately, we only went to midnight after starting at 8:30 am and having an hour and a half for lunch and dinner. Needless to say, it was an exhausting day.
We had a lot of business before us. We voted to limit the number of synods from 16 to 10-12 and referred this to a process for doing it in a responsible way. We dissolved the Korean Presbytery of Hanmi so they could join the presbyteries that are in their geographic area.
After much discussion the General Assembly voted to refer to the the Mission Responsibility Through Investment the request to divest from fossil fuel companies. MRTI will make a report to the next GA. We condemned the use of drones in war to facilitate targeting and killing of suspects. We asked the US government to lift travel restrictions to Cuba and to take off Cuba from the list of state sponsors of terrorism.
We also passed several policies for our church governance. If a pastor leaves the denomination while in a church court proceeding, they cannot be work in a PC(USA) church again until they go through the court process. We strongly urged all presbyteries and churches to do background checks before hiring. And finally, several suggestion on how to educate, train, and evaluate those who want to be ministers, including allowing a 3/4 vote to waive ordination requirement for special circumstances.
Yes, there was a lot of work needed to be done. But all of this paled in comparison to the most controversial issue of the day, and for that matter the week. There is a special committee designated for the Middle East, specifically Israel/Palestine, because of all the resolutions that are sent to the GA about this issue. Three resolutions in particular stood out.
One wanted to call Israel an apartheid state. According to the definition of apartheid, many feel that Israel meets every single requirement. The committee narrowly defeated this motion 33-32 and so did the assembly. Also, we defeated making a distinction between the ancient nation of Israel in scripture and the country of Israel today. We did not feel this distinction was necessary.
Finally we voted on whether or not to divest our money from three American companies (Motorola Solutions, Hewlett Packard, and Caterpillar) doing significant business with Israel and profiting/contributing to the violence going on in that region. PLEASE NOTE: This was not a motion to divest from Israel. This was not against Judaism or the Jewish people. This was not a means to use our finances to cripple companies and get our way. In fact, this will have little or no financial impact on those multi-million dollar corporations. This was a symbolic statement saying what is going on in Israel/Palestine is wrong and so is profiting from the violence. There was passionate debate. This was not so much against Israel as it was against war in general. In the end, the motion did pass 310-303. It was our closest and most controversial vote. A moment of silence was held for those who would be hurt by this decision. It was an extremely difficult and heart wrenching vote for the GA.
Since I've been home, many have asked how GA was. I often respond with two words: exhausting and exhilarating. It was a lot of meetings, a lot of work, a lot of everything. But the atmosphere was one of mutual respect and understanding. We knew we were doing important, significant, Godly work and took our responsibility seriously. But we also had a little fun, a few laughs, and yes, even a few drinks along the way. I am grateful for the opportunity to serve the Presbytery of Charlotte and the greater church in this way. It was an experience I will never forget. And through it all, after it all, I can say with more confidence than ever, "I am proud to be a part of the Presbyterian Church (USA)."
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