Heartland Presbytery Votes in the Context of Worship

I have to give great kudos to my colleagues and friends on the Church Order and Listening Division for their work in putting together today’s Called Meeting of Presbytery to vote on the 14 Amendments to the Book of Order. The meeting was designed around worship and it was an excellent meeting if any Presbytery meeting can be described as excellent. It is a meeting and it was a really nice day today. 70 degrees and sunny. I would have rather spent the day reading on my porch than cooped up in a church sanctuary voting on BOO changes.

Well what amused me most was the typo/spelling error in the Prayer of Confession. It made me smile. It made me smile because it reminded me of how human we really are and how much we all need God’s love and forgiveness. It is the prayer of confession where we confess our human foibles and sin and receive God’s forgiveness so it was so appropriate that a type/spelling error be found in that very prayer that sets the stage for this part of our service.

The sermon by our Executive Presbyter was a good sermon. Again it reminded us that that the process of voting was not as important as the real work and ministry of the church that happens in our congregations and through the relationships we have with each other. Charles left to attend the funeral of a long time Elder Commissioner and former Moderator of our Presbytery. As a Presbytery we did fine in voting and many prayers were offered for Gurnie’s family. I had worked with Gurnie on a couple of committees over the years I’ve been in the Presbytery and he served the Church well.

After this we voted and we voted and voted. The Church Order and Listening Division engaged the Commissioners to the General Assembly in presenting the various Amendments and broke them up based on topic. I presented on a process motion regarding the proposed changes in the Book of Discipline and providing for an Alternative Form of Resolution. It passed. I was also called to pitch hit for another Commissioner who fell ill, so prayers for Jeff and Madeline that they get well soon! That Amendment on Membership Vows failed to pass.

About fifteen minutes before lunch, which was an Order of the Day at noon, we began the discussion on the ‘BIG” amendment – Amendment B. After our lunch break we continued to discuss Amendment B and the process motion to extend discussion, which needed to pass by a 2/3rd majority, failed so at the end of the 30 minutes of total discussion, we voted. Amendment B passed in Heartland Presbytery. I wasn’t surprised it passed because this Presbytery has always voted in the affirmative for the removal and/or change and modification of G-6.0106b. If you want to follow the outcome of this voting in all the Presbyteries, you can tune into the PCUSA’s official tally site at: http://www.pcusa.org/generalassembly/vote08.htm

The final tally will be posted on the Presbytery’s website on Monday. Here is my unofficial tally of the votes, which was reported after worship closed with the celebration of the Lord’s Supper.

A. failed 81 Yes 132 No 7 Abstained
B. passed 127 Yes 90 No 5 Abstained
C. passed 199 Yes 17 No 2 Abstained
D. passed 203 Yes 9 No 4 Abstained
E. passed 196 Yes 16 No 2 Abstained
F. failed 72 Yes 140 No 6 Abstained
G. passed 228 Yes 6 No 0 Abstained
H. passed 189 Yes 26 No 0 Abstained
I. failed 60 Yes 148 No 9 Abstained
J. passed 149 Yes 55 No 13 Abstained
K. passed 202 Yes 13 No 1 Abstained
L. passed 185 Yes 28 No 2 Abstained
M. passed 215 Yes 3 No 0 Abstained
N. passed 207 Yes 7 No 2 Abstained

The Great Prayer of Thanksgiving incorporated prayer requests that we all had the opportunity to share and were collected during a time of offering. Our offering today was prayer – no money – just prayer.

As a Commissioner to the 218th General Assembly, I am very proud of Heartland Presbytery for how they handled the Voting on the Amendments process. It was much more orderly than the last round of voting and I was chair of Church Order and Listening during that last round of voting. There are more creative people on the Division and that showed in how they placed the meeting in the context of worship. To me it reflected the idea that grew out of the General Assembly of Solemn Assemblies. The way Solemn Assemblies were first presented to the Assembly had me seriously questioning the practice since so many non-Reformed sources were cited. The General Assembly did not pass Solemn Assemblies as presented to the Commissioners but did charge the office of Theology and Worship to develop some resources for the use of Presbyterians. I think our Church Order and Listening Division and the Worship and Fellowship Division captured what the Assembly asked for regarding Solemn Assemblies when formulating today’s Presbytery meeting. As meetings go, this was a good one. Now lets get on with being the Body of Christ.