GA Daily host Fred Tangeman interviews Acting Stated Clerk Bronwen Boswell in the show’s first episode on June 29, 2024. Photo by Kristen Gaydos.
Fred Tangeman, who’s hosting GA Daily, a talk show broadcast from the studio of the Salt Lake Convention Center each day of the General Assembly, went straight to the top to locate his first guest on Saturday’s inaugural episode: The Rev. Bronwen Boswell, Acting Stated Clerk of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.).
Watch their 20-minute conversation, which includes recorded advice Boswell has for her successor, by going here. Saturday’s broadcast was sponsored by the Presbyterian Investment & Loan Program.
“It’s been beyond busy for you and a lot of other people,” Tangeman told Boswell.
“I have to say this past week as I was watching all the committees, it felt a little strange. I’m used to being a parliamentarian in the thick of the committee,” she said. “It was interesting to watch in a much bigger way.”
Fortunately, there will be “a great team of folks” present to assist during GA plenaries. Boswell specifically mentioned the Rev. Tricia Dykers Koenig, an associate stated clerk who serves as the assembly’s parliamentarian. “Tricia will be sitting by my side,” Boswell said. “As things come up, the moderators will be able to handle it, and we’ll support them in any way needed.”
The theme of the current assembly, “Live into Hope,” picks up on Jane Parker Huber’s beloved hymn from 1976. “That theme was in place when I came on board” in 2023, Boswell said. “It was already infusing the conversation that was happening putting General Assembly together … The excitement of folks being able to come together in plenary, to be able to worship together in that way, to discuss together in a larger way — I felt that excitement all the way along.”
“People want to be here,” she said. “It’s not the way it was before the pandemic, but I think we hit it out of the park in many ways” with online committee meetings and in-person plenaries. “I think it’s time to go from lament to hope to living into that hope.”
“A number of folks have dealt with grief” throughout the pandemic, she said. “They’ve had to change faster than what we had hoped. We are living through those changes, and we know we can do this.”
It’s “been wonderful to be with Presbyterians here in Utah and share their excitement with our being here,” Boswell said. “They are so excited to share their mission and ministry and invite us to worship on Sunday. We hope our commissioners will take advantage of that.”
Those Presbyterians who have attended a number of assemblies “take it for granted that worship is part of what we do,” Boswell said. “We truly believe the Holy Spirit is at work.” The fact that GA planners had guidance from Huber’s hymn “helps us remember who we are as God’s children. Having that thread pull through the assembly will help keep us grounded. We will know that hymn by the end of the assembly, and I hope others across the denomination will use it in worship over the next few weeks.”
GA Daily is livestreamed from the Salt Palace Convention Center’s studio in Salt Lake City. Photo by Kristen Gaydos.
As part of the hospitality extended by churches in the Presbytery of Utah on Sunday after transporting commissioners and advisory delegates to worship, many churches are offering lunch to their visitors afterward. “There will be a time for community-building and hearing from one another,” Boswell said. “I hope they are excited to have this opportunity to see the wider church and to realize we are all serving Christ where we’re at.”
After Tangeman reminded viewers that the Rev. Jihyun Oh is the nominee to be the next Stated Clerk (the GA election is slated for Monday), Boswell said she hopes “folks will keep staff and the [next] Stated Clerk in their prayers” to “undergird the work all of us are called to do. We are fortunate to have a [nominee] like Jihyun, who has a wealth of knowledge about the Church already, who already understands what the work is calling her to do.”
“I am thrilled and excited with what she’ll bring. She will lead us in a way that will be different and new,” Boswell said. “She is an extremely thoughtful person” and “she knows it’s a position where all sorts of things happen on any given day. You have to be able to pivot in a variety of ways, and I know she has the capability to do that. We need to resource her and hold those who work with her in prayer as she brings statements and makes decisions.” The role could “morph as the work of the Unification Commission becomes more clear,” Boswell said. “That could bring a whole other dimension to the work we already have.”
“We are very excited about our next Stated Clerk,” Tangeman said, “and we’ve been blessed to have you.”
GA Daily will run live each day of the 226th General Assembly here through Thursday. Watch recordings of previous episodes here.