Day 1: Gauging the Tone

The 220th General Assembly formally convened at 1:30 on Saturday with our opening sevice of worship.  This was the first time in many assemblies that worship was the first item of business, and it seems to have helped set the tone of this assembly as one that is civil, if lacking in energy.

There appears to be less stridency on both the right and the left at this Assembly.  The only demonstration I have witnessed today is one outside the convention center by the “Israel Palestine Mission Network” – one of the more extreme pro-Palestinian advocacy groups.  The tone of commissioners asking questions of the four moderatorial candidates was less anxious and less confrontational than has  previously been the case.  Similarly, the moderatorial candidates were uniformly pastoral and conciliatory.

The relatively subdued -- perhaps even somber -- tone of the first day might be due to any number of reasons:  a battle-weariness across the church, the near-daily stories of dismissed congregations, the frail (and rumored failing) health of outgoing moderator Cynthia Bolbach, who moderated from a wheelchair sporting a fedora to cover the loss of her hair due to advancing cancer.

The big item of business, of course was the election of the moderator.  Neil D. Presa, Pastor of Middlesex Presbyterian Church in Middlesex New Jersey was elected on the fourth ballot in what proved to be a somewhat lackluster election.  None of the candidates knocked it out of the park in the speeches or Q & A before the assembly, and none really defined themselves in a way that made them stand out.  Each candidate’s base support was largely stable, resulting in the need for four ballots to reach a majority.  Presa’s candidacy was successful despite the recent controversy surrounding his Vice Moderator, Tara Spuhler McCabe, a teaching elder who recently officiated a same-sex wedding in Washington, D.C.  She won’t be the first controversial Vice Moderator we have elected.

Presa, pastor of Middlesex Presbyterian Church in Middlesex, New Jersey, was the most poised of the candidates in the Q & A round.  He answered a question about handling conflict by a story of (literally) herding cats in the church parking lot that was unique and engaging.  Even so, the response in the hall to his election was warm but not enthusiastic.

The blooper reel today was provided by our often controversial but never dull outgoing Vice Moderator Landon Whitsitt.   While moderating the training of commissioners on the electronic voting system, he misspoke (accidentally, I think), twice.  First, when he asked the commissioners to vote for categories of gender and ordination status, he asked them to declare their “gender and orientation.”  Next, when one missionary advisory delegate obviously had entered a mistaken vote, he commented, “How can we trust missionaries with the gospel (if they can’t handle the voting pad)?”   Before the words were out of his mouth, his brain engaged and he immediately reframed the remark, but the damage was done, and I expect the Layman will run the headline, “Vice Moderator says missionaries can’t be trusted with the gospel.”

Cuteness prize:  Moderator Presa’s prayer of installation was offered by his young sons.  They prayed for their father, the church, the Assembly, and “the people of Colorado and those fighting the fires there.”  Amen, young man, amen.