While most participants, especially commissioners and advisory delegates, may find free time to be in short supply at the 220th General Assembly, those who venture out will find that Pittsburgh has much to offer.
This year, commissioners to the 220th General Assembly will follow Psalm 96 quite literally: they will sing a new song.
“Wait for the Lord,” written especially for this year’s General Assembly by Sheldon Sorge, executive presbyter of Pittsburgh Presbytery, and David Gambrell, associate for worship in the Office of Theology and Worship of the PC(USA), will makes its debut during the opening worship service on Saturday.
On Sunday morning, 32 churches of Pittsburgh Presbytery will welcome General Assembly participants to join them in worship.
“As Presbyterians, we celebrate our unity through our heritage and polity and, ultimately, through our theological underpinnings,” said the Rev. Ted Martin, pastor at Hampton United Presbyterian Church in Gibsonia and a member of the COLA worship committee. “This Sunday represents a dynamic and real expression of our church seeking to follow Christ’s invitation for us to live as one around his table.”
Long before Andrew Carnegie arrived and made Pittsburgh the Steel City, another immigrant, Albert Gallatin, had a hand in making western Pennsylvania the glass center of the United States.
That lesser known bit of Pittsburgh history is the impetus behind the creation of a special Communion set designed specifically for Pittsburgh Presbytery that will be used at opening worship of the 220th General Assembly (2012) of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.).
How to structure the governance and funding of the PC(USA) to best meet the challenges of ministry in the 21st century is likely to be one of the most hotly debated issues when the 220th General Assembly (2012) of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) gathers here.
Other major issues are apt to be the Middle East, immigration, and human sexuality and the church ― same-gender marriage, the ordination of gays and lesbians, and same-gender partner benefits.
It’s been 54 years since the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) met here. Despite the rigors of hosting a gathering of some 3,500 Presbyterians for a week, local officials hope another 54 years won’t pass until the next one.
More than 1,000 volunteers from Pittsburgh Presbytery and several surrounding presbyteries are on duty here for the 220th General Assembly (2012), which runs June 30-July 7.
News and information from the upcoming 220th General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) in Pittsburgh ― June 30-July 7 ― will be available in a variety of formats to suit every visual and aural taste.
Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) General Assembly Stated Clerk Gradye Parsons has issued a statement affirming the U.S. Supreme Court's June 28 decision upholding the Affordable Care Act.
The 220th General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (United States of America) is a mouthful of a title for the week-long meeting about to convene here June 30 in the Golden Triangle where, along its southern tip, the Ohio River is formed by the confluence of the Allegheny River along one shore and the Monongahela River along the other. To help get you ready, a few ABCs for the upcoming 220th GA:
The General Assembly Commission on Mid Councils ― which has been meeting intensively since its creation by the 2010 Assembly ― is calling for a sweeping reorganization of the PC(USA)’s governing structures. Two of its proposals are particularly controversial: the elimination of synods as ecclesiastical units of the church and the creation of non-geographic presbyteries “for particular missional purposes.”