Right now my mind is very much occupied with thoughts about the need for peacemaking in a world where so much violence and injustice goes on daily. We heard this morning about a gunman in a Colorado school who yesterday killed a teen age girl, shot a police officer and killed himself.

Too many Americans, too many members of the human race, seem to believe that they can personally do nothing to be effective peacemakers, but opportunities abound for anyone who is willing to take a stand. No one of us can change the world but together the collective impact of our actions for peace can and will make a difference.

Last week I was part of a group of religious leaders who held a press conference in support of the National Campaign Against Torture. I am proud that there were at least four Presbyterian Clergy that were part of this group including the Rev. Bob Evans from Plowshares Institute who spoke, and the Rev. Dana Lindsay, our Presbytery Executive. Also (although she did not proclaim it) Heidi Hadsell, President of Hartford Seminary, who also spoke on behalf of the campaign is also a Presbyterian.

John Humphries, who was also a part of this group, will be speaking on the campaign to our Adult Forum this Sunday October 1, 2006 at 9:15 AM. (First Presbyterian Church, 136 Capitol Ave. Hartford, CT)

This Sunday is World Communion Sunday, and we and many other Presbyterian Churches will receive an offering for Peacemaking this Sunday.

The bill that congress seemed poised to pass authorizing military commissions to try "enemy combatants" is a terrible step backward on human rights and human decency. I just sent a FAX to Senator Lieberman urging the addition of the Specter amendment which would restore for these people the basic American right to habeas Corpus.

Finally I was proud to read that the most recently retired moderator of the Presbyterian Church, was arrested, along with a number of other Presbyterian Clergy, in protests against the war in Iraq earlier this week. You can read the story at http://www.pcusa.org/pcnews/2006/06489.htm.

A key to the theology of Walter Wink seems to be the contrast between the Babylonian creation myth and the Hebrew creation story. The Babylonian story is a world created as a result of family conflict and murder, in other words a world with its very roots in violence, while the Hebrew picture of a world created by the command of a unitary benevolent God. Each myth fosters a different culture and religion with a different attitude toward violence.

Since I have been preaching from the Exodus throughout the summer I have been thinking about the different pictures of God which emerge within our Scriptures. Let me assure any heresy hunters that I affirm that the God of Abraham is the same God as the God of Moses and the same God revealed in Jesus Christ. Still it is hard to deny that there are fundamental differences in the various revelations of God’s nature and personality. I wonder how the culture of the people in these three eras of history has effected human perception of God and how the various perceptions of God have effected culture.

The God of Genesis, especially the God of Abraham is a relatively benevolent God whose primary interaction with people is to reveal his love and his promises to Abraham and his descendants. God reveals God’s self through dreams in the night or through personal encounters with those who appear to be human beings. There are no violent epiphanies nor are there deliverances of laws and commandments. The manifestations of a violent nature to God are limited to God bringing the flood (but afterwards God promises never again to destroy the world by flood), and God destroying the city of Sodom. There are a few references to the patriarchs building altars and even fewer references to sacrifices. The glaring exception to this pastoral picture of God is the near sacrifice of Abraham’s son Isaac. What kind of benevolent God asks parents to sacrifice their children? Many scholars believe this story has been preserved for the very purpose of repudiating child sacrifice, note God’s voice says “do not lay a hand on the child.” This primarily non violent picture of God is matched by a society with little warfare or violence. Abraham seeks to live at peace with the other people, when Abraham and Lot have a disagreement they go their separate ways instead of waging war against one another.

Quite in contrast Moses (a murderer himself) worships a God revealed in storm, earthquake, wind and fire. God’s epiphany at Sinai is much like a cataclysmic volcanic eruption. The Lord travels with the people as a pillar of cloud by day and of fire by night. The God of Moses is a God of stern laws who prescribes capital punishment for a variety of offenses. This God destroys enemies by drowning, plagues, fiery serpents, and by making the earth split open and swallow offenders. Moses repeatedly pleads with the Lord not to totally destroy this people who Moses brought out of Egyptian slavery. The God of Moses sometimes seems violent and dangerous, even irrational. What kind of God is the Lord who calls Moses to go to Pharaoh and free the people and then tries to kill Moses one night on the way (Exodus 4:24)?

The subsequent history of the people who come to occupy the promised land is a history of warfare and violence. From the conquest and occupation of Canaan through the periods of the Judges and Kings the story of God’s people is a story of warfare and violence. Although the violence is often against external enemies it also involves enmity between tribes and families, and even within families. David, the most dominating figure in the period of the kings was a man of warfare and violence, he single-handedly conquered Goliath, killed Bathsheba’s husband, and waged war on his own rebellious children as well as on all the enemies of Israel.

The God revealed in the life of Jesus appears to have more in common with the God of Abraham than the God revealed to Moses and the people at Sinai. Jesus taught about a forgiving and loving God and taught a thoroughgoing ethic of love and non-violence. It seems unclear to what extent Jesus regarded his death as martyrdom or as an end to the sacrificial system by offering himself as the one sufficient sacrifice. What is clear is that there is no record of his participating in the sacrificial cult beyond eating the Passover. It is also evident that any participation of his followers in bloody sacrifice ended with the separation of the Jesus movement from the Jewish religion.

The question obviously arises then: Why has this view of God as a loving father had so little effect on the societies which claim to accept this religious orientation. To the extend that the Western World has been influenced by Jesus one should expect the history of the past two millennia to be quite different from the reality of warfare and violence. Are we finally at a point in history when we must rethink our God and our behavior?

This morning Center City Churches’ Development Committee met; usually a so-so event, but this morning a most exciting report on the first fruits of our affiliation with the Hands On Network. Center City Churches as one of the newest Hands On affiliates will be coordinating two events as part of a national Corporate Month of Service. On Saturday September 16 as many as 50 United Health Care employees will be providing volunteer service for an extreme makeover of Peter’s Retreat. The project will continue on Thursday when Home Depot will be mobilizing as many as 200 volunteers along with major financial backing to finish the Job of transforming Peter’s Retreat from a once elegant but now shabby residence into a beautifully transformed home for the 26 residents who living with HIV/AIDS.

Perhaps you have wondered what happened to my weekly entries this month; I have been away in North Carolina on vacation. We had a wonderful time with our long time friends and were happy that our daughter and family were able to join us for the first week of vacation. Our beautiful 5 month old granddaughter Hanna Marie was a delight. If you want to see some pictures we took of her follow this link http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/revtdavis@sbcglobal.net/album?.dir=/2ff7re2&.src=ph&.tok=phMs2XFBgQE5UxPY

The one sad part of our vacation was finding out that two of the residents of Peter's Retreat died during the time we were gone. One was Willie a man I had been visiting with once a week for about two years, the other was Maggie, a long time resident who everyone seemed to love because of her sweet and outgoing personality. I had visited with both of them the day before we left before vacation and was able to say some things to each of them knowing that it might be my last opportunity.

The latest book I have read was entitled Nimitz class. It is a well written spy novel involving a successful mission to destroy a US aircraft carrier with over 6000 military personnel aboard. The mission was accomplished by a submarine belonging to an unknown nation firing an underwater missile carrying a nuclear weapon. Eventually the US tracks down the sub identifies it and destroys it, but never reveals the cause of the destruction of the aircraft carrier, nor does the US reveal the destruction of the sub. In the process of the book we also destroy three other similar subs belonging to a different nation. All very exciting and I enjoyed it immensely.

This disturbs me that as a person dedicated to non-violence in my personal life and as an instrument of national policy I found myself greatly enjoying this novel which glorifies the use of violence, military force, and covert operations. The novel is really a blatant piece of propaganda for the military, particularly advocating the expansion of the US Navy.

If this was exceptional it would not be so disturbing, but I know that I have enjoyed many other best sellers full of violence and was addicted to the last “24” series on TV. I couldn’t miss a single episode, video taping the shows we could not watch at the time they were broadcast. Jack Bauer’s unhesitant use of extreme violence, often deadly force, and total unwillingness to act within boundaries established to protect basic human rights is outrageous. The show also supports the anti-immigrant, anti-Muslim attitude that continues to plague our country. Within the context of the show it is all justified by need to act outside the rules in order to combat extreme terrorist threats and corruption at the highest levels of government. I recognize that this show also is a piece of propaganda to justify extreme measures (i.e. the Patriot Act and beyond that) that threaten to turn our country into an oppressive totalitarian nation, instead of a democracy in which individual liberties are valued.

I have to ask myself what is in me that so enjoys reading about (and watching) the very violence that I reject on ethical grounds.

I also am very distressed because I am certain that the glorification of force and violence in literature, movies, television, and video games contributes to the growing violence in our society, and the growing willingness to act as a nation in violent and aggressive ways.

I find the news reports of the violence between Israel and Lebanon to be very disturbing. I understand that Israel has a right to defend itself, but the response to the kidnapping of their soldiers has been totally disproportionate, and of course their massive response has brought a heavy response from Hezbollah, and so the escalation continues. There needs to be restraint on both sides, and some reaching out to find reconciliation, or at least an agreement to live peacefully as enemies.

I remember cheering for Israel during the six days war, they were the underdog fighting for their very existence, but today I can see much more clearly the Palestinian's side and how they have been misused by Israel. The separation barrier has caused much suffering for the Palestinians, destroying their homes, separating them from their farmlands or olive groves or other opportunities for employment on the other side of the wall. How can we have cheered for the coming down of the wall between east and west Berlin and not see that this is the same issue.

A wall across the southern boarder of our country will not deal with our problems either. Robert Frost said "Something there is that doesn't like a wall, that sends the frozen ground swell under, scattering boulders in the sun."

I thought that the General Assembly peacemaking and international issues committee did a very good job in improving the resolution about the middle east that was passed by the 2004 Assembly, saying that we should use our investments and the leverage they give us with companies who provide materials to those on both sides of the conflict to work for peace, not to provide war materials. I tried to say this at the interfaith dinner last week to a Muslim who was very much a pro-Palestinian sympathizer, but all he could say was that we were cowards for backing off of our previously more one sided criticism for Israel. He wouldn't concede that there were two sides to the situation, all he could see was that the Palestinians were being done an injustice, and that justified anything they did against Israel.

As long as neither side is willing to consider the other's point of view the conflict will continue to escalate.

I asked yesterday what you have been reading, and would love to hear your answers before I go on vacation since we always make a trip to the bookstore before leaving for the beach.

Here is what I have been reading:
Non Fiction
I read both of Malcolm Gladwell’s new books, The Tipping Point and Blink. I found both fascinating and important books. For anyone trying to make changes in our society The Tipping Point should be required reading, paying close attention to the concepts of Connectors, Mavens and Salesmen.

I also read Jack Rogers’ (former moderator of the PCUSA) recent book Jesus, the Bible and Homosexuality . He subtitles the book, “Explode the Myths, Heal the Church” and tries to speak to the whole of our Church on a very contentious issue. He talks about his own change of heart on the issue of same sex relationships and looks at the whole matter of Biblical interpretation before looking specifically at the dozen passages that seem to deal with same sex relationships.

Downtown by Pete Hamill. You will like it if you are interested in Urban History or New York City in particular. I found some parts more interesting than others.

Fiction: I have read all of these this spring and summer and recommend each one.
The Life of Pi
The Glass Castle, by Jeanette Walls (actually a memoir, not fiction, but it reads like a first person novel)
Me & Emma, by Elizabeth Flock
The Kite Runner, Khaled Hosseini
Right now I am almost done with the latest novel by Fannie Flagg (Author of Fried Green Tomatoes which was made into a major movie). This one is entitled Can’t Wait to Get to Heaven. When Aunt Elmer has a conversation with God one of God’s revelations echoes the thesis of The Tipping Point. I don’t have the book here to give you an accurate quote but he says that the world is on the brink of a new age of peace. When the time is right for an idea, God says, change can come very quickly.

The Life of Pi is a coming of age, survival story rich in detail concerning animal behavior. I have seen it displayed as both Adult and Youth fiction, I enjoyed it.

The Glass Castle and Me & Emma are both stories of young girls suffering through terrible childhoods marked by extreme deprivation and abuse, both emotional and physical. The Glass Castle is a memoir while Me and Emma is fiction. Me and Emma has a surprising twist at the end. While for me it was unexpected when revealed it was not surprising, I had had passing thoughts about the possibility several times during reading it.

The Kite Runner has been out and on best sellers lists for some time. I thought it was set in present day Afghanistan and it seemed that I had read more than I wanted to about our invasion of that nation. Actually it ends before the American invasion, and provides a window into Afghan history. Although this is an important background and side benefit the reasons I became engrossed in the story have to do with excellent character development and complex and ironic relationships among the main characters. I am very glad I grabbed it in an Airport Bookstore waiting to come home from the General Assembly.

Yesterday was the first day of our new Farmer’s market at the Church and what a successful day it was. The state Agricultural department did a great job of publicizing the opening, they had distributed fliers in all of the state buildings near the Church, they had several workers from the department on hand including three in costumes as an ear of corn, a large carrot and a huge cucumber. The commissioner of the department made a purchase and posed with the costumed vegetatles. An astounding number of people came out to buy from the two farmers, and the farmers had a great variety of produce. Both had home made jams (the strawberry rhubarb from the organic farm was great). I bought fresh baby potatoes, sweet corn, tomatoes, pickling size cucumbers and sugar snap peas. The one farmer who had corn sold every ear.

One farm is completely organic, the other is not certified, but claims to use minimum pesticides only on the crops most vulnerable to insect damage. It is all fresh and certified Connecticut grown. I haven’t cooked the peas yet, but tasted everything else and found it delicious

I took a load of pictures and put a number of them on the Church’s web site. http://www.firstpreshartford.org/farmer.htm

What good books have you been reading? You can click on comment below and send me your list (If you don’t have a blogspot account check anonymous to enter a comment, or just send me an email). I have read some very interesting things this summer, I’ll put together a list later in the week.

Every month as part of my report to the session I tell them how many home visits, how many hospital visits, how many one on one contacts I have made in the previous month and then report that I participated in so many (usually over two dozen) meetings, some more interesting than others.

One I went to this weekend was among the more interesting. There were two major Islamic conventions meeting in town over the weekend, the Islamic Circle of North America and the Muslim American Society. Kathleen was invited to attend the Interfaith Dinner and I attended as her guest. Kathleen’s invitation came from Dr. Reza Mansoor, a cardiac surgeon at Hartford Hospital and by Abdul, a summer student in her Clinical Pastoral Training program at the Hospital who is director of the Islamic ministries certificate program at Hartford Seminary. It turned out that the Master of Ceremonies was Dr. Ali Antar, a professor at Central Connecticut State University who I know through the Peace movement.

The main speakers were Heidi Hadsell, the Presbyterian President of Hartford Seminary, and Dr. Ingrid Mattson and Yeheskel Landau, both of whom are professors at the Seminary whom I have met on other occasions. All the speakers were interesting as they talked about Interfaith Understanding and the table conversation was interesting as well. Heidi challenged the group to go beyond talk and do something together to address the problems of our city. A committee will be carrying this idea forward; they seemed to be talking in terms of social service such as soup kitchens. No one mentioned that the Interfaith Coalition on Equity and Justice already embraced Christians, Jews and Muslims and was working on addressing the underlying causes of poverty and oppression in Hartford and the greater Hartford area.

I unilaterally declared Monday July 3 a staff holiday for our Office Manager and myself (the only staff who normally work on Monday) so Ruth could have a long weekend and I could have two days off in a row. We ate lobsters on Monday for a New England Fourth of July meal, and some wonderful smoked pork ribs for a southern Fourth celebration on Tuesday.

Saturday Kathleen and Alice Evans and I went to the Presbyterian Promise Board meeting in Waterford followed by a picnic at the home of Cheryl Molina, former PresPromise board co-Chair who lives on the Niantic River. Beautiful setting and good company!

It has been a time of decompression and of catching up following the intense week at the General Assembly, and I am still not caught up.

Today I visited Peter’s Retreat, Center City Churches’ AIDS residence. I have been visiting W. each Wednesday for about a year and a half through his ups and downs. As I have visited him I have also become acquainted with many of the other residents, all of whom have enriched my life. I missed two visits while at the Assembly and it was good to be back and to find W. doing well. He had another visitor today whom he met about 6 years ago at the Hartford Dispensary where they are both clients. They have become fast friends over this time.

I also found the house full of teenagers who are involved with two different programs that bring them into the inner city on work projects. It was sort of a buzzing confusion at lunch, but much cleaning and repair seems to be taking place. It was also good to see that long awaited work on the electrical system is taking place and that a large through the wall Air conditioner has been installed in the library. All new windows are to be installed during this summer and as the windows and electrical work are completed each room will have an air conditioner. Except for the window units a city grant is paying for most of this work. The window AC units need to be bought with contributions from supporters and Center City Churches is still working on raising this money. You could help, go to http://www.ccchartford.org/ and click on Donate.

After having lunch and visiting with W. I went to Chelsea Place nursing home and visited M. one of the residents who has been quite ill recently. She was in bed and definitely not her usual cheerful self. We visited briefly and I prayed with her and laid hands on her.

After doing an analytical piece yesterday I wanted to share with you a little about the mechanics of the Assembly. The 217th Assembly was touted a month ago as a paperless Assembly with all the reports available ahead of time on the web and the results of the committee work posted on the web before they came to the Assembly for action. We were all asked to bring lap top computers with wireless cards, and the Assembly contracted to provide the laptops for any commissioner who could not bring one (observers could rent computers for the week). All of the hotels had free internet access (those who didn’t normally provide this for guests had to make it available free to commissioners to be on the Assembly hotel list.) In committee meetings and in the Assembly Hall a wireless Intranet was installed to provide the information without allowing access to the Internet.

It became evident before the Assembly started that there were too many people who were unable or uncomfortable with the technology and the emphasis shifted to being a Less Paper Assembly.

The system to access all information was called Les. No one explained what it stood for, some people thought that the es in Les was electronic system, while others assumed it was for paperless or Less Paper. The system continues to be up and running and anyone in the world can read the complete actions of committees and the Assembly at les-pcusa.org, check it out.

Prior to the Assembly all was well, a ton of paper and postage was saved by transmitting papers electronically. Once we got there however and 1000 computers all tried to log onto the system at the same time the Les slowed to a crawl. They increased the number of wireless routers. In the Committee I was advocating before the chair asked observers to shut off their computers so committee members could log onto the system. It got better, they added more wireless routers and everyone was able to log onto the system by the time voting began, but the system ran very slowly. There were many times that we had voted before many of us were able to get the resolution we were voting loaded and on up on the screen before us. There was supposed to be an AUTO-LES system that would bring up the current business on the computer screens without our navigating to it. That never worked for me, or anyone else I talked to. They ended up printing up the controversial business of the Assembly and the committee’s recommendations for every commissioner plus more for observers.

They did have a cadre of Computer Savvy Seminary students who helped those who were having troubles making their computers work. When necessary they would disable firewalls and security settings, replace non functioning wireless cards and help people understand how to log onto a wireless network. In committee or on the floor of the Assembly you would hold up a purple card and soon a Seminarian with a Purple Les Apron was at your side.

I think it was a great effort, and am sure with advances in technology, and more servers for the system that it will work flawlessly at the next General Assembly in 2008.

Other technology worked well, the speakers faces were on the big screens when ever they were speaking, either from the podium or at one of the 8 floor microphones. An electronic system keyed to numbers on our nametags verified that the person was a commissioner before they were recognized to speak. Video clips played flawlessly, and motions from the floor were projected on the screen in a timely fashion.

We voted on electronic Key pads at our places, first the Advisory Delegates and then the commissioners. It took at little as 10 seconds before results were displayed on the screen. Before commissioners voted we knew the vote by the Youth Advisory Delegates, Theological School Advisory delegates, Missionary Advisory delegates, and Ecumenical Advisory delegates. Then the vote was called “You have been advised, Commissioners vote now!” and an 8 second clock appeared on the big screen.

At the beginning of business every speaker had 3 minutes to speak (with the time projected on the screen below their face). As we got behind the docked Bills and Overture committee recommended reducing the time to 90 seconds, and the next day as we got still further behind a motion from the floor prevailed to limit each speaker to 60 seconds.

Reflections on Assembly action on PUP report and on the Heartland Overture with which the Presbytery of Southern New England concurred.

There is obviously much confusion about the meaning and impact of Assembly action in regard to ordination. I have seen a half a dozen different news reports, some of which see the Assembly as a great victory for Gays and Lesbians, while others understand it as a defeat.

The goal of the Heartland Overture was to remove from the Constitution one offensive paragraph which states that the qualifications for Ministers, Elders and Deacons include Chastity in Singleness or Fidelity within a marriage relationship between a man and a woman. It also called for rescinding an Authoritative Interpretation dating back to 1978 which states that homosexuals should not be ordained. This was defeated, so there was no clear victory for GLBT people, and will not be full justice and equality in our church until these two provisions are defeated.

However, the passage of recommendation 5 of the Peace, Unity and Purity (PUP) report earlier in the Assembly does give sessions greater flexibility in examining newly elected elders and deacons, and Presbyteries in examining candidates for the ministry. The text of the recommendation is below. The key paragraph is c. (2) where it says that it is up to the ordaining body to determine whether a person’s departure from the standards for ordination constitutes failure to adhere to the essentials of reformed faith and polity. The mischief is in the following paragraph which originally said that the process of examining was subject to review, after the committee made some changes and then this paragraph was amended on the floor it now states that both the process and results of the examination may be reviewed by higher Church courts. I was the only person who spoke against this change on the floor of the Assembly (my one speech during the whole Assembly). No one else spoke up. The leadership of the progressive organizations were committed to getting this section passed as the best that could be achieved in this particular Assembly. While they do not think the change makes much difference, others agree with me that this may be an invitation to litigation in Church courts, which is exactly what the last paragraph of this recommendation asks governing bodies not to do, but instead to honor the decisions of the ordaining bodies.

Progressive forces will be back demanding justice when the next Assembly convenes in 2008 in San Jose, CA. I expect to be back as the Commissioner from the Presbytery of Southern New England.

Here is the text of the key recommendation as amended and approved:
5. The Task Force on Peace, Unity, and Purity of the Church recommends that the 217th General Assembly (2006) approve the following authoritative interpretation of section G-6.0108 of the Book of Order:
a. The Book of Confessions and the Form of Government of the Book of Order set forth the scriptural and constitutional standards for ordination and installation.
b. These standards are determined by the whole church, after the careful study of Scripture and theology, solely by the constitutional process of approval by the General Assembly with the approval of the presbyteries. These standards may be interpreted by the General Assembly and its Permanent Judicial Commission.

c. Ordaining and installing bodies, acting as corporate expressions of the church, have the responsibility to determine their membership by applying these standards to those elected to office. These determinations include:

(1) Whether a candidate being examined for ordination and/or installation as elder, deacon, or minister of Word and Sacrament has departed from scriptural and constitutional standards for fitness for office,

(2) Whether any departure constitutes a failure to adhere to the essentials of Reformed faith and polity under G-6.0108 of the Book of Order, thus barring the candidate from ordination and/or installation.

d. Whether the examination [assembly amendment: and ordination and installation decision] comply with the constitution of the PCUSA, and whether the ordaining/installing body has conducted its examination reasonably, responsibly, prayerfully, and deliberately in deciding to ordain a candidate for church office is subject to review by higher governing bodies.

e. All parties should endeavor to outdo one another in honoring one another’s decisions, according the presumption of wisdom to ordaining/installing bodies in examining candidates and to the General Assembly, with presbyteries’ approval, in setting standards.

The Assembly finished the last of the committee reports last night (actually this morning) at 12:30 AM. I think what we need to do after worship this morning is to adopt a final budget and per capita based on the actins taken at this Assembly. Every item proposed for action had a report included as to how much the action would cost the Church and where the money would come from.

Check the official news reports for what all we did. By in large we adopted the Social Witness reports unchanged, being against torture and asking for review of Guantanamo Bay and Ali Graib, etc. Some good things also came out of Health Issues. Many thought that the committee's action changed the denominations long standing committment to reproductive freedom when it acted on an overture on late term abortions - late term meaning past the point of viability which with today's advances in the care of premature infants can be considered as early as 20 weeks. Some changes were made to preserve in part our emphasis on supporting women in making difficult choices and not standing in condemnation of the choices that women make in these these choices, I thought we should stand by well thought out and long standing polity rather that change our policy in haste at midnight.

I am nearly packed, they will store our luggage and after the meeting the shuttles will take us to the airport. With a long lay over in Atlanta and the time change I will not be home until 9:41 tonight.

Give me some feed back both to let me know how many of you have been following this blog and would you be interesting in reading a continuing blog (probably with entries once or twice a week.)

One of the joys at this Assembly is the presence of a choir from the Democratic Republic of the Congo. They are here because the local Presbytery is the Sheppards and Lapsley Presbytery honoring two pioneer missionaries to the Congo. (After leaving the Congo William Sheppard became the first installed pastor of the Church I served in Louisville). Because of this connection this Presbytery has developed a partnership relationship with the Presbyterian Church in the Congo. The choir has been part of several services of worship, and is pictured here performing in the convention center entry at the dinner recess.

I have discovered that the Assembly is a very political gathering, and that organizations on each side of various issues gather commissioners for “briefings” which are really strategy sessions on how to achieve desired goals. I attended the Covenant Network briefing at noon and the Witherspoon briefing at dinner. All of the organizations dedicated to justice and inclusiveness agreed that given conversations with commissioners and votes already taken that it would be impossible to get this assembly to change the constitution to eliminate the fidelity (between a married man and woman) or chastity language from the constitution. Instead we were advised to work hard to support the Peace Unity and Purity task force in its entirety, especially preserving a new authoritative interpretation that gives more latitude to sessions and Presbyteries in their decisions on Ordination and Installation. (Recommendation 5) This strategy was successful.

We have miles to go and many more committees to deal with tomorrow, and the Assembly could be in session until midnight or beyond. The adjournment deadline of noon on Thursday is absolute, so all business scheduled except what is docketed for Thursday must be completed before recess on Wednesday.

Issues still to be dealt with include efforts to allow Churches to leave the denomination and take their property with them; issues relating to Israel and Palestine and using our vast stock holdings as leverage to negotiate with transnational corporations that are contributing to the conflict (and making millions); and preserving our traditional Presbyterian position in favor of reproductive freedom.

Here are a few images of the Witness our Welcome Worship outside of the Arena on Sunday evening.

It was interesting to note that the Monday night worship was led by the Cumberland Presbyterian Church. They and the Cumberland Presbyterian Church in America are also meeting in Birmingham and we are worshipping together during the time the three Assemblies are together. In introducing their moderator who preached for the service they noted that they first ordained women to the ministry in 1888. That's right, they have been ordaining women ministers for 118 years. Following worship we Celebrated the fiftieth year of women's ordination to the ministry in our part of the Presbyterian Church.

I did note that their music seemed more upbeat and lively than ours, although with a certain Hillbilly flavor that comes from their stronghold being in Tennessee.

Today we are scheduled to vote on the Peace Unity and Purity report and on the Church orders Committee report, both of which deal with opening the doors to ordination to GLBT people.

Last night before the formal Ecumenical Worship a joyful group of Gays, Lesbians, Bisexual, Transgender and straight folks gathered with signs and voices to celebrate the welcoming Church which we claim as God's will for the Church. For me, and I am sure the other participants it was more fun and God honoring than the wonderful service in the Sports Arena. Many of the people on their way into the service took a little time to join us.

Today our minister commissioner needed to leave the Assembly and I took his place. For the most part the business was routine, except for a commissioner's resolution on Columbia that called for study, prayer, and continuation of the accompaniment program, plus a fifth action item recommending that individual members and Churches advocate with congressional representatives and senators to take specific actions to cease US support for the oppressive Columbian Government. By a fairly small margin the Assembly referred the action item for study and report at the Assembly. This despite pleas by many familiar with the Columbian Situation that the action is needed NOW. The pleas for action included one by the ecumenical delegates representing the Presbyterian Church in Columbia. Disappointing!

Tonight was the celebration of the Ordination of Women, report on Katrina Recovery, Joining Hearts and Hands capital campaign, and a few other similar reports. Lucimarion Roberts was there for the Joining.... presentation and honored for her three years of service as co chair of the campaign.

I went to multicultural breakfast, That All may Freely Serve lunch, and Peacemaking dinner. 7 AM until 10:30 PM. It is now 11:30 PM, I would like to post some photos from the Witness our Welcome service, but it is too late tonight.

Here is the web site for photos and news from the Assembly
http://www.pcusa.org/ga217/news.htm

One email asked how to post comments. To make a comment on the blog click on the place where it gives the number of comments (at the end of each entry) and up will come a screen on which you can type your comments. I have set it up so anyone can post comments

Pilgrim Congregational Church (UCC) opened their doors to host a Welcoming Churches Worship planned (and carried out) by leadership from TAMFS and MLP. It was a marvelous service, full of enthusiastic singing, wildly inclusive welcome and message, communion, and an opportunity for individual prayer and anointing by the chaplains of the two organizations. One of these, Beth Wheeler was one of the overture advocates and a wonderful human being. Actually all of the group were quite extraordinary individuals.

Our presentation will be available in the future. Stephen is still working on a final text that reflects all the changes that individual speakers made between the final written draft and what was actually spoken before the committee. Several people ended up making substantial changes on their copies which they marked up. It may be impossible to capture all the spontaneous changes that were made as people spoke as they departed the text.

A few of the pieces by Beth and Jay were changed so substantially that we were worried about the time limit, but we finished long before our 57 minutes had expired, we were about 50 minutes.

I was up at the crack of dawn this morning to get to the Peace Breakfast. It was a great event, and an opportunity to meet with people I know and have known of for years. The former moderator of the Genera Assembly announced that he had agreed to work with the Presbyterian Peace Fellowship for the next year. He had been elected as Co-Moderator of Presbyterian Peace Fellowship just before being elected moderator of the Assembly and admitted to not being able to fulfill many of the duties of the Peace Fellowship in the past two years. Chris Caton from our Presbytery was commissioned to participate in the Colombian Accompaniment program, along with another woman from the PPF. It was very good to see a friend, Alexa Smith who lost her job with the Presbyterian News Service in the last round of staff cuts. When we had been in touch before she said she would not be going to the assembly, but she had a temporary assignment from Presbyterian Outlook to be a reporter at the Assembly.

Much of the rest of the day was spent as an observer at the Church Orders Committee.

After listening to the debate in the Church Orders committee I was moved to tears. There were many negative and narrow minded things said, but people on the committee also gave testimony to their own experience with friends and relatives who were gay or lesbian. Others spoke about the indadequacy of the understanding of scripture that is used to justify the exclusion of GLBT people. Many of the things that we said in our presentation last night were repeated again by commissioners. One man talked about our presentation and the testimony in the public hearing from Gays and Lesbians and how it had changed this thinking on the matter. When at last the vote was taken in the committee the motion to recommend to the General Assembly that this overture be disapproved passed by the narrowest of votes, 30 to 28. I was thinking that we lost by two votes and someone pointed out that a motion fails on a tie vote, so it one more person voted no on disapproval. So this recomendation goes to the assembly, but the vote totals are reported to the Assembly as well as the recommendation, so the matter has about as much of a chance in the Assembly as it ever has. At least that is my thinking right now. Earlier this afternoon I was feeling pretty low, alternately being tearful and on the verge of tears, and most of the Advocates were feeling the same. Many of us went to the evening worship sponsored jointly by More Light Presbyterians and That All May Freely Serve, the two national organizations to which Presbyterian Promise is related. There among friends I was able to cry openly and found release, encouragement and affirmation.

Eight of us went from that service to pile into an SUV and go eat Ribs at Dreamland Barbecue. The ribs were great, the sauce had quite a bite to it, and the beer was cold. I came home feeling much better.

A final up note was riding back on the Shuttle to the Hotel and realizing when we got off at our hotel that I knew an African man who got off with us. a Rev. Warren LaSane. Warren and I both attended a number of events for Black Pastors at Pasquals Hotel in Atlanta years ago when I was pastor of an African American Church. I was invited because of my position and welcomed for years as the only white speck in an otherwise all Black Event. It was good to see Warren, and to find that we were both at the Multicultural Event in Orlando a few weeks ago, although we never connected there. He is working on a Presbytery staff to work with multicultural issues and we exchanged cards.

This one will come up as a Saturday post because it is past midnight on the east coast, but I am writing on Friday night at 11 PM.

The group of us presenting spent the day between working with one another, rehearsing and perfecting our presentation, and observing what was going on in the committee. Almost all of us listened during the public hearing time as friendly and unfriendly speeches were made alternatively about the ordination of Gays and Lesbians. The committee spent much of the earlier part of the day considering three overtures with the intention of defining even more clearly that marriage is only between a man and a woman. After open hearings, hearing from the advocates for the overtures, debating each in the committe, and in one case working on a substitute motion that would have affirmed Gays and Lesbians the committee voted to recommend that the Assembly answer both of these overtures in the negative.

Then after an all Assembly worship which was very well done with the former moderator preaching and the commissioning of mission personnel as part of worship they began to hear the advocates for our overture. One person wrote out their testimony, then took ill and another person from her presbytery presented her testimony. Then two stood together so one could make a six minute speech. (each person was allocated 3 minutes). The two of them were subject to some rather hostile questioning by the committee, at one point the moderator reminded the committee admonished committee members to have more respect for the advocates.

Then 8 or us presented on behalf of 19 Presbyteries, we presented a mixture of rationality, scripture, theology, and moving stories. I told a little about Keith and asked if we should have approved his ordination. (my text below-I may have taken a wee liberty with detail, but think the story gets his call and gifts across.)

We believe it was an awesome and stirring presentation. We took only 50 or our 57 minutes and no one asked us any questions. I think because we answered them all, but it was pushing toward 10 PM and that may have made questions less likely also. The committee got up and stretched, had silent prayer and the chair requested that we all hold hands and we sang Be thou My Vision, then dismissed with prayer.

Tomorrow the advocates for other ordination standards overtures will be heard, then the committee will deliberate on each of them. One is friendly to our cause and the others are to reaffirm the standards and call for a moritorium (one 8 and one 10 years) on other overtures.

I do keep running into people I know. I was sitting next to and chatting during breaks with a woman who was obviously of a similar mind on what was going on. During a longer break suddenly we realized we knew each other, it was Charlotte Lorehnz. We have both changed over the 8 years since we saw each other last, she has lost as much weight as I have gained.
I also ran into Ginny, the Hager's daughter tonight, there for a few days advocating in less formal ways the same action I was there to advocate. I also taked to a seminary classmate tonight.

Here is my small part in our joint presentation:
Reflecting the love of God in Jesus Christ is the fundamental ethic out of which Jesus calls us to live. For a gay man named Keith, that ethic was real. He grew up in our denomination and loved it, but the Church did not fully welcome him, so he eventually dropped out of organized religion for years. When at last he reached out for spiritual help, he found a welcome at First Presbyterian Church. Each Sunday he sat in the same part of the sanctuary and met the people around him, including several elderly ladies. When one of those women fell and was in the hospital, Keith went to visit her and discovered her greater problem – she was dying of cancer. For the next year he visited Olga almost every day, in the hospital, back at home, in a nursing home. He was with her when she died. They were as unalike as they could be, an elderly white widow and an African-American gay man, but he ministered to her on behalf of the Church, on behalf of Christ. When the nominating committee was looking for people whom God had called and gifted for the ministry of deacon it was little wonder that they asked Keith. The congregation elected him unanimously. The question before you is should the session have approved his ordination.

Continue to pray for me and our cause, but for the whole Assembly that God's will for the Presbyterian Church will be done this week.

I would love to hear your comments by email or comments below.

I do apprecaite the responses I have received and hope to hear from more readers. You may send email to revtdavis@sbcyahoo.net or leave comments that all can read by hitting the comments link at the end of each post.

I do ask your prayers for the whole assembly, but particularly for our group as we make our presentation. The latest word on comittee schedule has us presenting at 8 PM (9 PM Hartford time) tonight.)

The General Assembly has a new moderator. On the third ballot with four candidates running, after 10 PM Thursday evening the Assembly elected Joan Gray as moderator. The good news is that the two very conservative candidates lost support on the second and third ballots. The bad news is that most of us favoring action to open up ordination at this assembly supported Deborah Block who openly supports our position. Joan will be a fine moderator, but believes we need to continue to wait before changing the constitution.

It has been a long day, as all of them promise to be.

We did get started this morning at 7:45 AM revising the 16 page joint presentation. At 10 AM we went to a briefing for overture advocates, followed by a meeting between the OAs and the Church Order Committee leadership. Besides our overture there is one overture friendly to our cause and there are 8 overtures with the opposite intention and three dealing with marriage, all before the Church Orders Committee, each with their own advocates.

With breaks for orientation for advocates and a luncheon sponsored by the Covenant network we continued to work together until we had a draft we were pretty satisfied with about 4 PM. After a half an hour break we came back together to read it through. It is a wonderful and moving presentation, by the time we read it over with each person speaking the part they will speak before the committee many of us were in tears. It deals with both head and heart, the Bible and Theology and personal stories of the pain of exclusion and threatened exclusion.

We do not want to publish any of our presentation until we give it, probably at 8 PM tomorrow evening, but when it has been presented I will share what my part in the presentation has been.

I missed the reception by the More Light Presbyterians because the OAs were still reading out presentation through, but many of us got there for the dinner they sponsored and the great program they put on affirming Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Presbyterians. We ran from their program to get to the Assembly plenary at which the moderation was elected.

I did take some pictures, but 11:45 PM is a late hour to think about downloading them from camera to computer and then uploading them to this blog. Sunday is a Sabbath rest when little business is scheduled, I may then have the leisure to post some pictures.