The Rev. Jihyun Oh stops by the GA Daily studio

MILWAUKEE — On Sunday, it was the Rev. Jihyun Oh’s turn to share her perspective during GA Daily, hosted each day by Fred Tangeman. Watch their 24-minute conversation here. Oh is introduced at the 3:15 mark.

Oh is Stated Clerk of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) and Executive Director of Presbyterian Life & Witness. Tangeman asked her about the genesis of the theme of GA227, “Persevering Toward Wholeness.”

That theme emerged a few years ago “in conversations around the agency and around the church,” Oh said. When the World Communion of Reformed Churches held its 27th General Council last fall in Chiang Mai, Thailand, the theme was “Persevere in Your Witness.”

“We wanted to have an echo of that as a communion body [of the WCRC],” Oh said. Since then, it’s been an inspiration for written prayers and “a lens to highlight important witness around the world.” It’s been woven into how reports are offered and how worship has come together. “Some [ways] are more subtle than others,” Oh said, “but the thought and the prayer are there.”

As commissioners and advisory delegates entered Plenary Hall for their second plenary session Sunday afternoon, they saw healing leaves on the trees provided by the Presbytery of Milwaukee’s Committee on Local Arrangements. “In conversations with people thinking about the theme and in the work happening in their congregations and presbyteries, we have talked about working toward shalom and justice in that way,” she told Tangeman. “It’s been great to engage in those conversations and hear what’s happening throughout the whole church.”

Part of wholeness includes being “a communion that treats one another with respect and dignity, especially in the process of doing business together,” Oh said when asked about the online committee work that she observed last week. It’s important to persevere with Equity Primes and other tools designed to hear more voices, Oh said. “These things are not one-offs.”

Oh called the work begun four years ago by the Unification Commission “a work in progress” that follows previous efforts put in by a handful of special committees. “The work of unification will continue with Presbyterian Life & Witness,” she said, and will take the form of policy and process work as well as cultural work.

“We commit to keep doing the work of how we think about unity and diversity, allowing the flourishing of individuals and the whole, and how we live into our best aspirations,” Oh said. “We continue to listen and faithfully follow the Spirit.”

Tangeman asked Oh about embracing traditions while at the same time preparing for the wholeness that’s the theme of the Assembly.

One way is the Sankofa bird example offered by Ruling Elder Elona Street-Stewart and the Rev. Gregory Bentley, Moderators of the 224th General Assembly (2020), which Oh described as holding “the past and the future in the present, and letting go of what we need to let go of in order to move forward.”

“Letting go can be hard. It creates pain and grief — even when it’s good change,” Oh said. “How can we be more emotionally intelligent about talking our way through that, the points that pinch and hurt?”

“Let’s acknowledge that along the way, we will make mistakes, or sometimes not do it as well as we had hoped we would,” she said. “How do we have those conversations in a way that really does build toward the future and doesn’t keep us stuck? It’s a question that’s alive for the church all over. God is calling us to new things. How do we faithfully move forward?”

In this country especially, “we tell a lot of hero stories,” Oh said. She and others have shared a TEDx talk offered by David LaMotte called “Why Heroes Don’t Change the World” (spoiler alert: Committees change the world).

“I don’t want to discount the Lois Stairs and others who took the hard step of being the first person in a role,” Oh said. “But after that, the whole church shows up, and it can be so much more impactful than just the one person. How do we make that a movement? It really is consistent with our theology.”

Tangeman managed to work a reference to the FIFA World Cup matches into their conversation.

Oh responded with a mention of GA227 Partner Advisory Delegates (PADs), many of whom represent partners of the PC(USA) from around the world. “They bring us the ways they are hearing the Spirit moving,” Oh said. “They are bringing a critique we need to pay attention to, and bringing wonderings. We need to listen more broadly to what the Spirit is saying.”

Some PADs saw travel restrictions prevent them from arriving in Milwaukee ahead of the Assembly. A few chairs will remain empty in Plenary Hall to help those who are gathered “remember not all the voices we wanted to hear from are present here,” she said. Those who couldn’t arrive in person were able to participate in online committee meetings, Oh noted.

“We’re grateful people are taking the time and energy to be present,” she said, “and offer their faith, practice, discipline and wisdom to us.”

She also pointed out that Global Ecumenical Liaisons and efforts by the PC(USA)’s ecumenical and interfaith relations committee and staff constitute “important work connecting with conciliary bodies. I’m grateful for all the ecumenical and interfaith work being done.”

GA Daily airs here each day at noon Central Time.