TODAY IN MISSION YEARBOOK
Committee on the Office of the General Assembly continues to work on plans for GA227 and GA228
Meeting recently via Zoom, members of the Committee on the Office of the General Assembly continued to discuss details about the next two General Assemblies — GA 227 in 2026 in Milwaukee and GA 228 in 2028 at a site that’s yet to be announced.
But they did agree on some aspects of the upcoming Assembly, one of which is to add a Community Day at the beginning of the Assembly, then ask commissioners and others to worship in Milwaukee-area churches on Sunday, July 5, 2026. Baird Center, Milwaukee’s Convention Center, has capacity to accommodate the Assembly an extra day. A Community Day would be held to schedule work and events designed to benefit the local community.
There was no discussion at the recent Zoom meeting on the possibility of including an exhibit hall at the 227th General Assembly. The 226th General Assembly in Salt Lake City had no exhibit hall.
COGA members did discuss whether to hold training for committee leaders in Louisville or Milwaukee during the days leading up to the 227th General Assembly. Although Louisville is the less expensive option, by about $21,000, COGA members determined they would not ask volunteers to travel to Louisville, engage in what can be difficult training around technology, committee leadership and other needed skills, then ask them to hop on a bus and travel again, this time to Milwaukee.
“I appreciated the proposal, but I felt uneasy about the request of volunteers to have to travel twice in the midst of a pretty stressful thing we’re asking them to do,” said the Rev. Tony Larson, co-moderator of the 226th General Assembly (2024). That would “perhaps limit the pool of people we could ask to serve.”
“There were moments at the last Assembly we just had to stop and breathe,” said the Rev. CeCe Armstrong, co-moderator of the 226th General Assembly. “If we are mindful of the people and are as accommodating as we can be, the work becomes a little easier to muster. I hope we will consider giving them the least amount of challenge being able to serve.”
After Dec. 31, both COGA and the Presbyterian Mission Agency Board will cease to be following an action of the Unification Commission.
The Rev. Jihyun Oh, Executive Director and Stated Clerk of the interim unifying agency, told COGA members she’s “getting used to my new title” after being named by the Unification Commission as the sole top executive in the unifying OGA and PMA. Oh recently met with PMA directors “to hear how they and their staff are doing” following the announcement. She’s also working to “figure out what places I need to be [at] and what are the meetings I can join.” Senior staff are also discussing holding meetings across both PMA and OGA rather than meeting separately, Oh reported.
Oh said she was pleased to recently spend a day and a half with members of Dakota Presbytery, where she watched five commissioned ruling elders being commissioned into various ministries. “I learned a lot about their ministry,” and joined singing hymns in the Lakota language. “I have a lot of hope for what God is doing around the Church,” Oh said.
Davis took a moment to praise the co-moderators “for your moderatorial skills in Salt Lake City. Many folks said it was some of the strongest moderating they’d seen. It was really quite remarkable to watch. Thank you both.”
Mike Ferguson, Editor, Presbyterian News Service
Let us join in prayer for:
Margaret Boone, Project Manager, Special Offerings, Ministry Engagement & Support, Administrative Services Group (A Corp)
Shonita Bossier, Vice President, Operations, Presbyterian Foundation
Let us pray:
Lord God, we know the stories of your wandering people, from Abraham and Sarah to Jesus, our Lord and Savior. Give us open hearts to care for young immigrants throughout the world and brave hearts to fight for justice in Jesus’ name. Amen.