Committee Season

Advent? No.
Epiphany? Maybe a few.
Ordinary? Certainly not.

It's committee season at the 218th General Assembly. Some might even call it one of the more penitential seasons of the year...but let's not go down that road just at the moment.

In order to reckon with the volume of work that comes before the General Assembly, the first few days of GA are spent in committee work. The commissioners and advisory delegates are spread out in to 17 committees in order to more fully consider particular items of business. Once the Assembly returns to Plenary mode (on Wednesday) the body will act upon the recommendations of the various committees.

Many of the committees have become familiar fixtures of GA -- Church Orders (reckoning with Ordination issues), Polity (dealing with everything from Synod minutes to the constitutional definition of marriage), Peacemaking and International Issues (considering overtures regarding Iraq and Israel/Palestine among others)... The list goes on.

Two of our HRP delegation find themselves on new committees this year. Elder Bruce Mather (pictured above) is on the Youth Committee. They won't be planning a pizza party, however. This committee is attempting to accomplish its work by means of a discernment process. Operating informally, they will be considering how the GA might support the church in its working with 12 - 18 year olds. They have no overtures to take up, so it remains to be seen what they will produce. YAD Jason Cerillo is on the second 'discernment' committee, considering matters related to Worship.

Committee season is also the time when Overture Advocates are invited to speak to the overtures put forth by their presbyteries. Today, Rev. Peggy Howland (also picutred) addressed Committee 11 with regard to our concurrence with the Greater Atlanta overture to withdraw troops from Iraq. Later in the evening, Stated Clerk Harriet Sandmeier joined a chorus of Overture Advocates in calling for the removal of G-6.0106b, which bars ordination to GLBT persons.

Harriet (pictured below) shared her amazement at just how destructive three sentences could be. Speaking her conviction that now is the time to remove Amendment B, she called the committee to remember that our LGBT candidates for ordination are, "living breathing sisters and brothers in Christ, claimed by God in their Baptism."