‘Caring for people is the mission’

ZEPHYR POINT, Nevada — The Presbyterian Life & Witness Board concluded its three days of in-person meetings Wednesday hearing from leaders and laying a few plans for taking on the enormous amount of work that’s ahead.

“This meeting has been packed with a lot of information” in an effort to “make sure we are all starting on the same page,” said the Rev. Jihyun Oh, Stated Clerk of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) and Executive Director of PL&W. “There is a lot of work the General Assembly has asked us to do, both internal and external work that is really needed on behalf of the church,” including efforts to eradicate Christian nationalism and Christian Zionism. Attendees went home with a copy of a new book by the Rev. Jimmie Hawkins, the PC(USA)’s Advocacy Director, “In God We Trust: The Origins of Christian Nationalism.”

Oh expressed gratitude for all the work the board accomplished during three days at Zephyr Point Presbyterian Conference Center, foundational work that will serve as preparation for “the things that will come before you as a board.” She said she’s also grateful for the relationships built between the board and staff and for the input from three corresponding members: L. David Alonzo of the Advocacy Committee for LGBTQIA+ Equity, Julissa Alvarez-Garcia of the Racial Equity Advocacy Committee and Oak Arias of the Advocacy Committee for Woman & Gender Justice.

For the PC(USA), “there are important things happening with partners in the U.S. and around the world,” Oh said, naming leader formation, discipleship “from baptism to completion of baptism,” progress on unification, “collaboration and breaking down siloes,” and “partnering with PC(USA) groups that have been asking for better integration and belonging for decades,” as well as “the diaspora communities we connect with.”

“We have a lot of work related to our [relationship] with mid councils,” she said, particularly on “what it means to thrive and how we help smaller congregations think about doing the work of polity and governance.”

Oh recalled that a previous Stated Clerk of the General Assembly of the PC(USA), the Rev. Dr. J. Herbert Nelson, II, was fond of saying, “We are not dying, but being reformed.”

“That reformation comes with some pain,” Oh said. “We are rethinking how we tell our story. How can we tell a more complex story over time as we look forward to the next General Assembly? How do we embrace both our polity and our policies in the face of the all-or-nothing thinking that goes on in the world? The church has always been one to make a middle way.”

“Thank you for giving your time and attention to this work,” Oh told board members. “I’m grateful for all the work that will happen.”

The Co-Moderators of the 227^th General Assembly, the Rev. Marta Pumroy-Cordero and the Rev. Dr. Kris Schondelmeyer, also spoke briefly to the board.

“We are equipped, and after coming here, you should feel equipped too,” Pumroy-Cordero said. “But we are not equipped by ourselves. We are to be connected to one another as we do this work.”

“We are empowered,” she said, and “sometimes it’s best to trust others doing the work.”

We are also joyful, she said. “I work [with the Tres Rios Border Foundation] in an area with a lot of heaviness, sadness and grief. I practice joy as my resistance, something people can’t take away from me,” she said. “Your joy may be quieter than mine. My dream is we realize all the dreaminess around us that God is providing.”

“We have been given a great gift. We have the chance to shape a new structure,” Schondelmeyer told board members. “My dream is we will become a body that begins and ends with people — people whom God loves, people who have too often been vulnerable or unheard or harmed.”

“Caring for people is not something we do in addition to the mission,” he said. “Caring for people is the mission.”

Schondelmeyer said it’s his dream that “years from now people will look at the formation of this board and say, ‘something changed there. They chose accountability over fear. They chose people.’”

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The newly elected co-chairs of the PL&W Board, the Rev. Scott Lumsden and Ruling Elder Aleathea Harris-Little, then took their turn and answered a few questions from their colleagues on the board.

“One thing that might be helpful is if we address the ‘how,’” said Lumsden, who was a member of the Unification Commission. “This is where the board work begins.”

“Thank you for letting us facilitate the gifts you bring,” Harris-Little said. “Let’s go about God’s business and do it right, and do it great.”

“This is a large organization with lots of relationships, and that was part of the challenge with unification,” Lumsden said.

In response to a question, Oh said a priority among PL&W’s senior leadership team is to engage with councils and caucuses, including the Racial Equity Advocacy Committee, to learn more about issues and concerns with respect to race and other constituencies. “We hope councils and committees and caucuses will be important partners in that work,” Oh said, adding, “the engagement work has already begun.”