Work begins tomorrow

Today I got to know a lot more Presbyterians--from Long Island, Idaho, North Carolina, Philadelphia, and lots of other places. Most of them I met on our "mission trip" up the Columbia River Gorge. We visited several waterfalls, a 1917 "rest area," and the Timberline Lodge halfway up the 5% active volcano, Mt. Hood. That lodge was the hotel featured in the Jack Nicholson film, The Shining.

Tonight I attended a briefing offered by the Covenant Network at a beautiful UCC church. They are still at work for unity, justice, and reconciliation within our denomination. We met the candidates for co-moderators and stated clerk. We were also treated to Voodoo doughnuts, and I am still in a sugar coma from that!

I want to remind you that General Assembly is US. Commissioners have been elected by presbyteries represented by each church in each presbytery. Surprisingly, the way our polity is set up, smaller churches have a much larger voice in church government, as even the very smallest churches are entitled to one commissioner at Presbytery. Whatever decisions are made at GA, they are made by "us," not "them." It is a great strength of our church, but is often misunderstood. Even though our U.S. government was modeled on the Presbyterian system of representation, it does not work as well, probably because of the huge expense of running for office, often funded by larger corporations expecting payoff for their contributions. Leaders of our church do not run for office, they STAND, and do not campaign. They owe allegiance to no party or donor, but to God.

Please pray for your church tomorrow as we begin our work with worship. You can live stream the service, which will begin at 2:00 pm EDT. Prayer surrounds this Assembly, as the entire Cascades Presbytery (our host) has been praying for all events, and each commissioner by name by prayer partners. At the beginning of each day of work, a team of volunteers will visit each room being used that day, and will "pray into" that space, invoking God's presence and a spirit of reconciliation and hope among the commissioners. Tomorrow evening we elect co-moderators who will serve for the next two years.