Assembly at Cape Breton

[wally]

Back for few days. Still trying to figure things out...

The Assembly is getting more solemn each time I attend. The last one I was at was in Edmonton. Monday evening dinner and party definitely was the best I have been to. They had first nations' drummers, a wonderful Cape Breton fiddlers, comedian, musical singer, and the Men of the Deep. Great beginning I thought. Then discussions began...

Through the Assembly, discussions were serious and courteous. Did not have those who stood at every motion to hear themselves speak. A real treat....

Supersessionism paper was received well. So did the matters on inerrancy and infallibility...lost out to the sufficiency of the Bible.

The matters of Palestinian Christian statement caused some concerns. The rep from Canadian Jewish Congress was present and wanted to have its response to the statement by Christians from Israel included. Curiously, the rep. was gracious toward the supersessionism paper. He did speak in a briefing session and made somewhat a controversial statement, "Jews can be atheists, but cannot be Christian."

The question on  admitting candidates who did not study in our colleges generated some heat.

Parish nursing will be headed in the right direction. The committee, however, did not do its homework and had not fully consulted the colleges. According to college reps, they were told by the committee on Theological Education that the recommendation was coming to the Presbytery.

Presbyteries and sessions are asked to study elders and lay-ministers providing communion with the training and supervision by their presbyteries in remote areas.

The Church Doctrine will study and report next year on the matter of using technological mediums such as realtime telecasts and online video to serve communions. Currently a church in Southwestern Ontario where worship services are telecasted send out elders to homes for seniors and serve communion while watching the worship service realtime. They do not do taped-delayed communions or video-taped service for serving communions. The CDC will look at the use of tech especially for those who do not have access to ministers to administer communion.

Not much laughters but fairly emotional Assembly due to impending Truth and Reconciliation Commission.

Gossips to note:
Monday evening dinner was held at Membertu facility which was built and is being run by the local Mic-Mag first nation's council. The convention center was right next to the casino. Some commissioners were not happy . Church Doctrine Committee members who were present at the Assembly thought that it would be good to get the Assembly's permission to study the theological significance of holding an Assembly Dinner near casinos. Another 100 page paper that will occupy the committee 7 more years...

Ministers, especially those with some statures and responsibilities, were found to be wanting when it came to finding a right bus to be moved from one place to another. One set of ministers even missed the bus. The local hosts were gracious in transporting them to Louisbourg Fortress by car so that they could enjoy the tour.

Some ministers were seen to chomp on lobsters. Some elders thought that these ministers were going to swallow even the shells.

They tried to book the Rankins who wanted way too much money. Then, they tried to get Rita MacNeil and was told that they had to shell out as much for her as to Rankins. So the local arrangement committee stayed with local fiddlers, comedian, a musical singer of note named Gatchell, and the Men of the Deep. The line up was better than an evening with Rita MacNeil for most of us.

One thing I did not like:

One minister from the West could not trust the YARs on drinking that he had to ask them if those who were drinking beers on Monday Evening Dinner if they were of legal age. He did not have enough sense to ask some commissioners why they were drinking fair amount in front of YARs. This kind of behaviours continually displays the church's distrust of the young people whom I found to be far more responsible.

Morning worship services were diverse and showed different faces of our church. One sad thing was that there were not many young faces around---even in the opening worship service. A real concern for me...

[mack]

Our YAR from Montreal, Aaron Tsai (Amos's oldest son), had a wonderful time and came back with a new appreciation of the PCC.  Believe it or not!

[mack]

Re: Habits of anti-Judaism: Critiquing a PCUSA report on Israel/Palestine  by Ted A. Smith and Amy-Jill Levine in the June 29, 2010 issue of Christian Century.
 
"Canadian Presbyterians seem to have done a better job of mapping the theological middle ground to which the reviewers point.   By avoiding both loopy dispensationalism and an un-nuanced liberationism in favour of a re-worked covenantal theology, one hopes that the report of their Church Doctine Committee to this year's Assembly avoids the sins ascribed to their American cousins and will issue in fruitful dialogue between at least some Christians and some Jews on the vexed question of justice in the Middle East.
 
The report, "One Covenant of Grace: A Contemporary Theology of Engagement with the Jewish People", can be found at http://presbyterian.ca/webfm_send/5040.
 
Sincerely,
 
Barry Mack

[mack]

I am feeling a bit church proud at the moment. Here's an endorsement of One Covenant of Grace from Gregory Baum - who counts as a world authority on the subject. He had a big hand in drafting the Vatican II documents on the subject of Israel and the Church. 

"You sent me the text of your Church’s study of the relationship between the older and newer covenant. I read the text with great admiration:  the biblical section, the fathers of the Church,  the thinkers of the Reform and the Canadian mission.  The authors must have spent years writing the report. It seems to me that it deserves to be published in one form or other as a book. Many Christians will find it interesting and helpful.... I was glad, at the end, to find an analysis of Bishop Lesslie Newbigin’s theology."

[Evangeline]

Wally, in following the tweets from GA it sounded like discussion was often called to a halt with several people who wanted to speak still at the mics.  Does that often happen?  Was it 'worse' than usual this year?  Did it cause a lot of discontent?

Maybe those in the lineup were the same ones all the time...

I really hope to get to GA sometime - in person.

[Agatheron]

I'm not sure if it was any worse this year than it was at previous Assemblies. Part of it is a standard practice where the business committee keeps track of the time for discussing certain elements of business in order to get through the agreed agenda by a given time. When discussion is called for time, the people who were standing at the mics give their names, in the order in which they were standing at the mics. This way when the discussion resumed again, the commissioners who had stood to speak originally got the chance to speak first.

I don't think that element caused discontent, because people were allowed to return to the mic when the business returned. However, some discussions were long enough that we had to add an extra sederunt on Thursday night to deal with some of the issues raised.

[Evangeline]

Thank you, Agatheron, for your explanation.  I didn't realize that names were taken down etc. and that those would be called forward when discussion resumed.  That is a good way to do it.

I understand that time is of the essence with people having plane tix  and trying to get back for Sun.   I'm sure there are times when a 'cooling off' period is good in discussion/debate.  I can also see that you could lose 'momentum' in a discussion/debate when time is called.

[al clarkson]

...and as one who went to the microphone often seeking clarification, was then told over a meal break what was the major bone of contention; It seemed in recent years, much of business was complete on Thursday afternoon, so even with extra sederunts on paper.....glad it was an extra Thursday PM Sederunt, rather than stretching out Friday.

I'm not sure if it was any worse this year than it was at previous Assemblies. Part of it is a standard practice where the business committee keeps track of the time for discussing certain elements of business in order to get through the agreed agenda by a given time. When discussion is called for time, the people who were standing at the mics give their names, in the order in which they were standing at the mics. This way when the discussion resumed again, the commissioners who had stood to speak originally got the chance to speak first.

I don't think that element caused discontent, because people were allowed to return to the mic when the business returned. However, some discussions were long enough that we had to add an extra sederunt on Thursday night to deal with some of the issues raised.