Wishes and worship prep at GA227

The stage has been set, the plenary hall prepared and the wishing trees decorated with their leaves — all that’s left is getting some practice in. 

While commissioners and advisory delegates set off to nearby congregations Sunday morning for worship, committee moderators and the GA planning team spent a couple hours on stage in the grand ballroom, setting podium heights and walking through a dummy script together. The production team has been hard at work since Thursday, when the ballroom was transformed into a hall fit for plenary — the second session of which kicks off Sunday afternoon. The first in-person plenary session will run from 2 to 5:30 p.m. Central Time on Sunday, with the third plenary set for 7 p.m. Central Time.

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Before the deliberations and discernment can truly start, the production team must set the lights just right, make sure the teleprompters can be read by moderators of varying heights, ensure audio is working — the list goes on. In Saturday’s GA Daily interview with Kate Trigger Duffert, the director of General Assembly planning emphasized the importance of the work going on backstage. “It’s not magic,” she said. “There are human beings that do that.” 

Those human beings are hard at work behind the curtain — and are really enjoying themselves. 

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“We’re all having so much fun back here. We’re not really feeling the pressure,” Nathan Young, General Assembly producer, said as Dolly Parton lamented the 9-to-5 grind over the speakers. From The Supremes and Dolly Parton to Bad Bunny and BTS, the GA227 playlist bumping over the speakers is full of energetic tunes and ballads, as eclectic and varied as the diverse crowd of commissioners that will be welcomed into the plenary hall later this afternoon. “That’s something they’re never lacking,” one production team member shared as she stuck nametags at each seat along the plenary tables. 

With 37 team members, Young and his production crew are a force to be reckoned with — and they don’t seem to mind the long hours. Committee and Commission Support member Hayley Scheir has been working with another team member to create the scripts for plenary, an endeavor they began on Thursday and were still plugging away at on Sunday morning. They take the reports from the committees on the business being presented, the worship materials created by the Rev. Dr. David Gambrell, Associate for Worship in PL&W, and combine everything together into one big script. The process is ongoing, with Scheir and her coworker logging tens of hours staring at their screens. Scheir doesn't mind. She pointed to a notebook open in front of her, her pride over crossing off so many items on her to-do list overshadowing any worry over the work. Young was right when he said their team was having too much fun to be stressed. 

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Behind the curtain are tables lined with monitors and snakes of wires safely taped to the carpet. On stage are a large clear bowl, a beautiful piano and a podium that is set to the average height of the speakers. But what really draws the eye are the trees that stand at the edges of the stage, their branches bedecked with construction-paper leaves. 

Attendees of the GA227 Town Hall who stopped at the table staffed by the Presbytery of Milwaukee and its Committee on Local Arrangements were invited to write their "wishes" for General Assembly on leaf-shaped tags that were then tied to the branches of one of four constructed trees. The “Wish Trees” are a beautiful reflection of the theme of GA227, Persevering Toward Wholeness. Hundreds of people gathered together with a shared purpose, each a leaf on the branches of the same tree.

This week, hundreds of voices will be raised as the delegates and commissioners worship and pray and deliberate together in service of the PC(USA). We hope for "wisdom for decision makers." We pray, "Lord, may your will be done so all have enough and all are safe." And we wish for each commissioner, advisory delegate and attendee of GA227 to be blessed with the "ability to listen and hear each other." After all, we're all branches from the same tree.