Saturday

My assembly experience actually began on Friday night as I visited Macalaster College in St. Paul to join my fellow campus ministers at the campus ministry summit. It was great to see several old, dear friends—and to meet new ones who share my passion for campus ministry. As always, we had a great time together!

Today began as the assembly commissioners and advisory delegates participated in the Riverside Conversations, which were seminars to update us about General Assembly and help us learn more about some of the “hot-button” issues which we will be discussing and voting on over the next few days. We chose 2 90-minute seminars. I first went to the discussion led by the Middle East study group, a group commissioned by the 218th General Assembly to study issues of religion, politics, violence, and the way to peace throughout the Middle East. The group met together, traveled to New York, Washington, DC, and then took a 2 week trip to the Middle East to meet with ministers, rabbis, and government representatives. This group was commissioned to look at and study all sides of the Israeli-Palestinian crisis, as well as to learn about other countries in the region. All of this study and travel resulted in the Middle East Study Peacemaking report, a report that is, in many ways, controversial. In our second session, I attended a seminar led by the group that was commissioned to study the issue of marriage and civil unions. I was struck when committee members told us that, while they disagreed passionately on marriage issues, the one thing that they could agree on is that they belong to Jesus Christ and each other. Wouldn’t our world be much different if we all agreed to disagree on the smaller issues, but agreed to agree—and to celebrate—the fact that we all belong to our Lord, and that we all belong to each other!

We ended the evening with the election of the Moderator for the 219th General Assembly. There were six candidates—2or 3 more than usual! Needless to say, it was a long evening. It was great to see so much diversity—there were two female ministers, 1 female elder, an African-American minister, a Korean minister, and a white male minister. After nominating speeches, all six gave a speech to introduce themselves; this was followed by a 90-minute question period from the floor. The most interesting question came from a Theological Student Advisory Delegate—“What do we stand to lose if you are not elected Moderator?” After 4 ballots (and some voting problems), Elder Cynthia Bolbach was elected as Moderator of the 219th General Assembly. Elders rejoice—she was the only elder candidate! Each candidate had great and interesting things to say about the present and future of the church, and each would have done a fine job in leading our denomination for the next two years. A great moment happened just before the first vote—all of the candidate laid hands on each other as the moderator of the 218th General Assembly prayed for them. Imagine what would happen if our political candidates took time to lay hands on each other and pray for each other after a hard debate. Our harsh political climate might look much different if that happened! Moderator Bolbach was then given the cross that has been passed down from moderator to moderator, as well as a beautiful stole. What a great way to celebrate the Spirit! It was a late night, but a great one. Peace, Rachel