Sunday

We began our day as we worshiped God together with members of congregation from all over Minneapolis. As I’m sure many of you experienced 4 years ago in Birmingham, it is an awesome thing to worship with over 8,000 other Presbyterians. Worship began with a processional of banners, songs, music, dancing, and lots of color. The outgoing moderator, the Rev. Bruce Reyes-Chow, brought it as he preached to us about our denomination. He challenged us by saying that, even as our denomination becomes older, we should be getting younger. He said that we need more babies and children and teenagers and young adults to lead us in a new direction—a new direction that is not scary, but exciting and fruitful. He challenged us to be open to the possibilities that come in new ways of worship and service in the world.

Our theme for this year’s General Assembly comes from Jesus’ words in the 7th chapter of John’s Gospel: “Let anyone who is thirsty come to me, and let the one who believes in me drink. As the scripture has said, ‘Out of the believer’s heart shall flow rivers of living water.’” And to celebrate that Jesus gives us the living water, we celebrated the Sacrament of Baptism! A young baby, whose parents are members of the Kwanzaa Community Church here in Minneapolis, was baptized in front of 8,000 folks. As if on cue, she smiled just as she was being filmed on camera. Alexis Renee is a beautiful little girl, and her smile lit up the room. It was a beautiful and very moving moment. Worship ended as we were fed at the table through the Sacrament of Communion. As we sang the words to “Love Divine, All Loves Excelling,” I cried a little as I thought of my grandmother, at whose funeral we sang the same gorgeous hymn. The last verse of the hymn is written this way: “Finish then, they new creation, pure and spotless let us be. Let us see thy great salvation, perfectly restored in thee.” As we sang those words, I thought of my grandmother and how much she would have loved that service. It was a fabulous morning!
We spent the afternoon in our committee meetings—my committee is the Church Orders and Ministry Committee, the committee that will deal with ordination issues. Needless to say, the next few days of committee meetings will be very interesting! Tonight we will celebrate Independence Day at a dinner on Nicollet Island in the Mississippi River. I’m looking forward to it!

In closing, I ask your prayers for the Halechko family of Helena, Alabama. They are friends of my brother and sister-in-law, and their 2-year-old daughter drowned Friday afternoon in Orange Beach as she got caught in a rip tide. To make this tragedy even more awful, a family friend died when she went in to save the little girl and got caught as well. Helena is a small town, and this tragedy is sure to hit everyone very hard. Please pray for this family without ceasing! Peace, Rachel