Tracking "Ordinary Time"General Assembly is the highest governing body in a Presbyterian denomination. Commissioners (delegates) are selected from constituent presbyteries, regional governing bodies. The General Assemblies of our two denominations met in June. The following are actions from those meetings.
Presbyterian Church (USA), meeting in Columbus, OH:
- Elected the Reverend Fahed Abu-Akel, a Palestinian-American pastor from Atlanta as Moderator for the coming year.
- Approved "Hope in the Lord Jesus Christ," a theological statement on Jesus and salvation written by the assembly's Office of Worship and Theology. It states in part: "Jesus Christ is the only Savior and Lord, and all people everywhere are called to place their faith, hope and love in him..." and that "No one is saved apart from God's gracious redemption in Jesus Christ." The statement continues: "... We do not presume to limit the sovereign freedom of 'God our Savior, who desires everyone to be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth,'" (quoted from I Timothy). "...We neither restrict the grace of God to those who profess explicit faith in Christ nor assume that all people are saved regardless of faith. Grace, love and communion belong to God and are not ours to determine." (NOTE: The Cumberland Presbyterian Confession of Faith contains similar affirmations.)
- Approved a $40 million campaign to raise funds for new churches and mission personnel.
- Approved the General Assembly's meeting once every two years after 2004.
- Elected the Reverend Bert Owen of Paducah as Moderator and the Reverend Roosevelt Baugh of Ft. Worth as Vice Moderator. (Some of you will remember Roosevelt from services he has led for us during Black History Month.)
- Noted progress toward achieving the goal of establishing 75 new congregations within the current decade; 70 projects are in some state of development.
- Reaffirmed the decision of the 1976 General Assembly to oppose the death penalty and asked Cumberland Presbyterians to join in expressing opposition.
- Chose Japan as the General Assembly's meeting place in 2008.