1. Divestment of companies doing business with Israel;  2. Don’t Bomb Iran;  3. Two Form of Government changes denied;  4. Presbyteries may allow Lay Pastors to vote;  5. Observations on Marriage Committee – final vote story coming SOON!

Since The Aquila Report has limited staff and budget, we are unable to cover the PCUSA General Assembly.  Our good friends at the Layman are there in force, even adding a new writer just for the occasion.  We will be providing daily ‘teases’ and links to many interesting stories, such as:

Committee on Middle East Peacemaking votes for divestment of companies doing business with Israel

The Jewish Chronicle

The Committee on Middle East and Peacemaking Issues of the Presbyterian Church (USA) approved a resolution Tuesday in favor of divesting from companies doing business in Israel by a 36 to 11 vote. The resolution now goes to the larger church body for a final vote later this week.

Members of the committee deliberated Monday on the issue of divestment at the David L. Lawrence Convention Center, where their 220th General Assembly is being held.

The divestment resolutions are directed against three companies purportedly doing business in Israel: Caterpillar, Hewlett-Packard and Motorola Solutions. Proponents of divestment say that Caterpillar supplies the bulldozers and earth-moving equipment used by the Israel Defense Forces to clear Palestinian homes and orchards; Hewlett-Packard provides biometric monitoring at checkpoints and information technology to the Israeli navy; and Motorola supplies surveillance equipment to “illegal settlements” in the West Bank, and communications equipment to “occupation forces.”

If the PC (USA) passes these resolutions, it will be the only mainstream religious group in the United States to formally adopt divestment policies toward Israel. The United Methodist Church defeated two similar motions to divest by a large margin at its General Conference last month.

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Committee on Middle East Peacemaking rejects force against Iran

Alan F.H. Wisdom, The Layman 

The General Assembly Committee on Middle East Peacemaking approved a proposed statement to “oppose preemptive military action by any nation against Iran, and by Iran against any nation.” By a 47-1 vote, the committee sent to the full assembly Item 15-04, an overture from Greater Atlanta Presbytery to affirm only “peaceful, diplomatic means to resolve the tensions developing as a result of Iran’s nuclear program.”

Atlanta Overture Advocate Ed Martin told the committee of his concern that “our [U.S.] government has repeatedly insisted that all options are on the table concerning Iran’s nuclear program.” Martin warned, “This is meant to threaten Iran with the possibility of the military option.” He was distressed that “the one option that seems not to be on the table is that of serious, sustained diplomatic negotiations without preconditions.”

The Atlanta advocate sought to minimize any perception of danger from Iran’s development of technologies that could be applied to the production of nuclear weapons. He assured the committee that “the U.S., the European Union and the International Atomic Energy Agency agree that: (1) Iran does not have a nuclear weapon; (2) Iran has not made the decision to develop nuclear weapons; and (3) has not diverted material from current programs to military programs.” Martin declared, “Under current conditions, it would be a crime of most serious proportions to launch an attack on Iran.”

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Committee of Church Polity votes to disapprove two overtures

Paula R. Kincaid, The Layman

General Assembly Committee 6 — Church Polity — voted unanimously to disapprove overture 06-14 from Grace Presbytery that sought to change the section on the new Form of Government concerning the mission of the congregation.

The overture sought to change the wording of section G-1.0101 to read: [Text to be deleted is shown with a strike-through; text to be added or inserted is shown as italic.] 

G-1.0101 The Mission of the Congregation

“The congregation is the church engaged in the mission of God in its particular context and within the world at large. The triune God gives to the congregation all the gifts of the gospel necessary to being the Church., making The the congregation is thea basic form of the church, but it is not of itself a and sufficient form of the church in its own right. ThusAs such, congregations are bound called to answer the prayer of Christ Jesus ‘that they may all be one’ by voluntarily binding themselves together in communion with one another, united uniting in relationships of accountability and responsibility, and contributing their strengths to the benefit of the whole, and are called, collectively, the church.

“Through the congregation God’s people carry out the ministries of proclamation, sharing the Sacraments, and living in covenant life with God and each other., and working in concert as a primary agent of mission. In the life of the congregation, individual believers are equipped for the ministry of witness to serve as witnesses to the love and grace of God in and for the world. Guided by the Holy Spirit and grounded in Scripture, The the congregation labors in God’s mission of redemptive reconciliation; reachesreaching out to people, communities, and the world to share the good news of Jesus Christ, to gather for worship, to offer care and nurture to God’s children, to speak for social justice and righteousness, to bear witness to the truth and to the reign of God that now is and is coming into the world.”

Committee on Church Polity acts on ‘voice and vote’ matters for presbytery meetings, allows local option

Paula R. Kincaid, The Layman

Two overtures came before General Assembly Committee 6 — Church Polity — concerning who has voice and vote at presbytery meetings.

Overture 06-04 from St. Andrew Presbytery and 06-16 from North Puget Sound Presbytery would both fix what each presbytery sees as a problem in the new Form of Government (nFOG) — whether commissioned lay pastors have voice and vote at presbytery meetings.

According to the overture advocate from St. Andrew, nFOG leaves the issue in doubt while the former FOG made it explicit. “Adopting [06-04] or 06-16 would fix the immediate problems,” he said.

The overture advocate from North Puget Sound said their overture was very similar to 06-04. “We have always given commission lay pastors voice and vote. We think this was a simple oversight,” he said. “We hope that you will approve one of these measures that give [commissioned lay pastors] voice and vote in presbytery.”

Following approximately two hours of making amendments, making amendments to the amendments and making substitute motions, the committee finally voted 38-5-1 to approve overture 06-04 as it was originally submitted to the committee.

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Observations on Marriage Committee: An upside-down sundae (on Monday)

Carolyn Poteet, The Layman, Posted Tuesday

(Editor’s Note:  Story on committee vote to be posted soon!)

In Committee 13, addressing the questions of Civil Unions and Marriage, Monday was a day full of testimonies, reports and advice. At the end of the day, for about an hour, the commissioners finally had time to sit around their eight tables and hear each other’s thoughts on the day.

Ben Graves, a teaching elder commissioner from Eastminster Presbytery, reported for his group, “This is a very big, big decision.” He shared that while his whole table had widely different opinions on the issues before the committee, “Our entire table is convinced that an authoritative interpretation would be very damaging to the church. It’s about 300 voices making a decision for the entire denomination.”He went on to emphasize, “This is something we need to take our time with. There needs to be consensus, because this is a confessional issue. We’re dealing with a major doctrine of the church if we make a confessional change like the definition of marriage.”

In a vast black box of a committee room the size of an airplane hangar, the 54-member committee spent their morning Monday listening to speakers from all walks of life during the open hearings. The committee staff did everything they could to make sure the speakers were evenly spaced pro and con, but they later apologized for accidentally starting off with four speakers in favor of traditional marriage. By the end, we counted 16 speaking for same-sex marriage, 17 speaking for traditional marriage, and one speaker who was unclear.

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