Members of the Unification Commission discuss their difficult work
The Rev. Dr. Dave Davis pens the first piece, with more to come
Members of the Unification Commission have volunteered to write articles about their significant and difficult work. The first comes from the Rev. Dr. Dave Davis, the senior pastor of Nassau Presbyterian Church in Princeton, New Jersey.
The hard work of unifying the Presbyterian Mission Agency and the Office of the General Assembly began several years before the Unification Commission was established by the 225th General Assembly in 2022. As a member of the commission, my experience and knowledge of the relationship of the two entities also pre-dated the commission’s work. My service to the national agencies began as a member of the board of the Presbyterian Foundation. As chair of that board from June 2012 to June 2014, I met quarterly with the board chairs and executive leaders of the Presbyterian Foundation, the Board of Pensions, the Presbyterian Publishing Corporation, the Presbyterian Investment and Loan Program, the Committee on the Office of the General Assembly, and the Presbyterian Mission Agency Board. The desire and commitment that drove those meetings was one of unifying the overall mission, coordination and communication of the national agencies of the PC(USA). The most overlap of ministry portfolio and purpose was, of course, between the Mission Agency and the Office of the General Assembly.
The General Assembly Organization for Mission has an established schedule for the appointment of special committees of the General Assembly to review the national entities on a regular basis. At least since 2012 those committee reports to the Assembly have called for the Office of the General Assembly and the Presbyterian Mission Agency to pursue unifying efforts in programming, communication and finances. Beginning in 2016, I served on the All-Agency Review Committee which is also established by the Organization for Mission. Our report to the 223rd General Assembly in 2018 strongly reiterated unification themes and was consistent with the report offered by the Way Forward Commission working at the same time.
I am not the only one among my colleagues on the Unification Commission that has been a part of these decade-long conversations. In our own prayer, discernment, and decision- making, we draw encouragement from the prior voices who have served our denomination and yearn for sustainable, healthy, and functional entity that is built for and serves our 21st century church. We hold in tension the General Assembly’s warrant for the commission to carry out its work alongside the difficulty of bringing about change in any organization and the anxiety, fear and resistance that comes with it. I carry the weight of that tension into every meeting that I have been a part of since the commission began in the fall of 2022.
Since that beginning season and under the faithful leadership of our co-moderators, ruling elder Cristi Scott and teaching elder Felipe Martínez, we have met either as a whole or in work groups now committees on a weekly basis. Our homework and preparation can range from holding off-line conversations with staff, working to understand complex budgets and financial procedures, and reading all sorts of governing and historical documents. Decisions made and progress toward unification come with lots of prayer, time and collective discernment. To put it another way, “energy, intelligence, imagination, and love.” All our commission members are giving over and above to this calling but I am always humbled and amazed by ruling elders who take time away from their regular jobs and take personal time off from work to be in service to the church.
As we move closer and closer to the commission reporting to the 227th General Assembly in Milwaukee the summer of 2026, the pace of our work will pick up. That happens for every agency, commission, committee and staff person preparing for a GA. The unifying work that has been done already will help facilitate that preparation in the Interim Unified Agency, the budget work with the Administrative Serves Group for 2027-28, and the General Assembly planning process itself.
Please join me in holding the members of the entire staff of the IUA in prayer as they continue to lead and live through significant transitions. Pray too for General Assembly commissioners as they are elected before the end of 2025 and begin their training and preparation. Lastly, please continue to pray for my colleagues and me on the Unification Commission as we seek to discern and live into the will of God for the church we all love. As with all of my service to councils of the church, I am grateful to have made new friends and work with colleagues I admire. Even more, I am thankful to be able to see and experience the presence of God in one another and the work we have been called to do by the General Assembly.
Yes, it is a lot. But we cling to the grace of Christ received fresh every morning, the breath of our still Creating God, and promised movement of the Holy Spirit in and through Christ Church. I don’t know about you, but saying “Christ is Risen! He is Risen Indeed” sounds louder in my congregation these days. In difficult and challenge seasons, the simplest teaching from the lips of Jesus becomes all the more compelling.
“And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” (Matthew 28:20b)
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