Beginning next month, meetings of the Unification Commission will be more accessible to the public

LOUISVILLE — Meetings and actions of the Unification Commission could well look significantly different in 2025 than they have in recent months.

Beginning in January, all the commission meetings for 2025 — set for Jan. 23-24, March 20-21, May 22-23, July 24-25, Sept. 25-26 and Dec. 4-5 — will be in-person gatherings in Louisville, Kentucky. During the months when the 12-member commission tasked with unifying the Office of the General Assembly and Presbyterian Mission Agency isn’t meeting, committee work will be the focus.

Reports on Saturday by a member of the UC, the Rev. Debra Avery, who has led the Governance Work Group, and Kelly Beeland, the commission’s consultant, indicated the commission will be spending more time in open session after the new year. In the past few months, commissioners have often met as a committee of the whole, sessions that are not open to those viewing the commission’s livestream.

Agendas for 2025 commission meetings will be structured to conduct more business in open session, Beeland told the commission. Closed sessions will remain limited to business that addresses resources, personnel, security and litigation. Learn more about the work of the Unification Commission here.

Avery took fellow commissioners through a “high-level view” of the proposed Interim Governing Board Operating Manual. Commissioners will be offering their proposed edits to the manual by early January so that they can vote on the document during their Jan. 23-24 meeting.

“We want it to be a robust review process,” Avery said, which will also include input from selected Interim Unified Agency staff. Avery said the document is designed to guide the commission and enable the UC to “govern the IUA and support [the Rev. Jihyun Oh],” whose title was changed by the commission on Saturday to Stated Clerk of the General Assembly and Executive Director of the Interim Unified Agency.

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As for interim governance between Jan. 1, 2025, and the 227th General Assembly in summer 2026, the UC has six roles, Avery said: mission priority and strategic planning, financial and resource oversight, GA planning, leadership support and evaluations, GA committee support, and stakeholder engagement. The proposed Operating Manual also identifies roles for the commission’s newly created committees: Relationships Coordination, Ministry Coordination and Resource Coordination. It also envisions a Planning Committee to plan meeting agendas and oversee the ongoing unification of agency communications.

Beeland, who saw her contract working with the commission extended through 2025 following a closed session on Saturday, took commissioners through a brief primer on the objectives, roles and responsibilities of governance.

The Ministry Coordination Committee will have three interim governance roles: GA planning, mission priority and strategic planning, and leadership support and evaluations. The Resource Coordination Committee is responsible for financial and resource oversight. The Relationships Coordination committee takes on GA committee support and is “consultative and collaborative” in the realm of stakeholder engagement.

Beeland said commissioners will talk more about governance during their January meeting.

A report from the Stated Clerk/Executive Director

Oh said it’s been a “fruitful week” meeting in Europe with officials with the World Communion of Reformed Churches and the World Council of Churches. Among her takeaways is “the important role the PC(USA) has played with partners advancing justice and thinking about how we talk about the good news of Jesus Christ,” Oh told commissioners. “We visited centers PC(USA) folks started because they believe in the ecumenical movement. It’s been good to be reminded of that.”

Over the past month she’s also been involved in more routine chores, including signing 650 Christmas cards. “At one point my hand forgot how to sign my name,” she said with a smile. “I had a full month. We feel like we are working toward some really hopeful things.”

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GA227 and 228

The Rev. Dr. Dave Davis, a commission member and the moderator of the Committee on the Office of the General Assembly, which the UC has sunsetted along with the Presbyterian Mission Agency Board at the end of the year, updated commissioners on plans for the 227th General Assembly, set for Milwaukee, Wisconsin, in 2026, and a bit on the 228th General Assembly in 2028. A site has not been selected for that Assembly.

Davis said that more discernment is needed on the site and format for the 228th GA. During COGA’s final meeting on Thursday, “we will be taking action on a broader mandate” for Interim Unified Agency staff and Oh “to continue making plans.” A request from staff for the Unification Commission to approve a location and format for GA228 is expected during the first six months of 2025, Davis said.

The location “is a priority conversation for staff in the new year,” Davis said.

Honoring the work of the A Corp president

Commissioners took a moment to recognize significant contributions to their work from Kathy Lueckert, president of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), A Corporation, who has announced she is retiring next month.

“I am so grateful for all the work you do in your role,” the Rev. Dr. Felipe Martínez, the commission’s co-moderator, told Lueckert. “I’m grateful that as the work of the commission landed on your plate, you guided and supported the work of the commission as you do for the A Corporation. I don’t know how you spin all those plates.”

“You have been a guide and a friend, and you have made an indelible impact,” Martínez said. “Thank you for your work and your ministry. We wish you the very best.”

Lueckert told commissioners it’s “been an honor and a privilege to accompany you on this journey.”