A milestone in the run-up to the 226th General Assembly was reached on December 28, with the 180-day deadlines passing for commissioner and advisory delegate names to be submitted and applications for Stated Clerk of the General Assembly to be received.
With the calendar showing only six months until this summer’s assembly, years of GA planning are taking final shape. That means keeping faith with the spirit of General Assemblies past at the same time church leaders and staff develop a new format for remote committees and in-person plenaries in Salt Lake City.
“While there is still much to do, the General Assembly Planning Team has embraced the need for creativity in approaching a new assembly format with both enthusiasm and wisdom,” said Ruling Elder Kate Trigger Duffert, Director of GA Planning. “I am especially encouraged by the ways in which the team has thoughtfully approached the support of assembly committees, which will be online for the first time.”
Trigger Duffert said that each committee will be supported by an equity manager, “who will be trained to identify moments for pause and intervention to make sure that the processes of discernment are made more accessible and equitable for all involved.” Additionally, there will be designated coordinators for each committee support staff role “who will walk alongside committee leaders from their first training to the remote committee meetings.”
In another first, members of the wider church have been invited to submit a form expressing interest in serving in support roles. “I am excited to see whose gifts we may have missed in the past,” Trigger Duffert said. “I also look forward to seeing how those who are new to the assembly and those who have participated in the past will work together to create a stronger reflection of the PC(USA).”
Trigger Duffert, who has written about the importance of reflection and rest to the General Assembly, said the GA Planning Team has been working closely with the Committee on the Office of the General Assembly to propose a docket which includes a time that plenary meetings would conclude each evening. “While the assembly may vote to extend their deliberations into the early hours of the morning, we hope that this change to the docket will encourage mindful discernment and improve accessibility,” she said.
Trigger Duffert pointed out other shifts in planning, including the “intentional effort to bring together staff from across the Office of the General Assembly, the Administrative Services Group and the Presbyterian Mission Agency in serving together as a larger planning team.” This increased collaboration, which coincides with the work of the Unification Commission, “has allowed us to form a group that brings extensive wisdom and expertise around the varying areas of the assembly to one table. It is an affirmation that the General Assembly does not belong to one particular office, but is the assembly of the whole of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). “
Trigger Duffert said the planning team is working out “how to make space within this assembly format for community. Historically, many of the opportunities for informal gatherings and events took place during the time when committees would meet.”
She identified community-gathering possibilities including “providing opportunities for events and functions during plenary meal breaks, online town halls prior to the assembly committees that are open to the whole of the church and bringing the lens of worship and community into the plenary sessions themselves” — noting that the team is still developing implementation specifics.
About the overtures that comprise so much of the business the committees and plenaries take up, Trigger Duffert said that the majority submitted to date have related to constitutional issues, in keeping with the earlier deadline for overtures that involve changes to the Book of Order or Book of Confessions. “As the 120-day deadline approaches on Feb. 26, presbyteries should coordinate with one another to seek concurrences to any overtures involving constitutional changes,” she explained. “For all overtures, there must be at least one concurrence received by the deadline attached to that particular item.
“Ken Tolley recently joined the staff of the Office of the General Assembly as manager for General Assembly business and has been hard at work connecting with mid councils as they write and submit their overtures. If anyone has further questions about process, please reach out to Ken.”
Committee moderators and vice moderators will be selected by the Co-Moderators of the 225th General Assembly in early March. “Once those selected have confirmed their willingness to serve, we begin assigning commissioners and advisory delegates to committees and coordinating travel. Right now, the most important thing participants can do is make sure they have responded to e-mails from gameetingservice@pcusa.org to confirm their contact information and subscribe to On the Road to GA, the monthly e-newsletter of the General Assembly.”
Trigger Duffert said the Co-Moderators of the 225th General Assembly, the Revs. Shavon Starling-Louis and Ruth Faith Santana-Grace, have been central to the assembly planning process, as have Acting Stated Clerk of the General Assembly the Rev. Bronwen Boswell, mid council leaders from across the church, and PC(USA) partners and issue advocates. Utah Presbyterians have also been busy.
“The GA Planning Team has had the chance to connect regularly with the many outstanding volunteers in the Presbytery of Utah as they think through how to welcome the church to Salt Lake City and showcase their many important ministries,” Trigger Duffert said.
“We continue to seek ways to live into an assembly that serves as meeting, ecclesiastical council and worshiping community for the whole of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)”