Will Spotts, David Fischler & Ry Cooder

For the weekend I am pointing to two blogs and then pointing to a great video-if you like Ry Cooder and steel guitar.

Will Spotts who often comments on Naming His Grace and who has blogged in the past is once again blogging on issues to do with the PCUSA and Israel and Palestine. His blog is The PC (USA) on Israel and Palestine.  His latest post is Disneyland For Presbyterians: A GA Overview.

Spotts begins:

 “In a little less than a month, Presbyterians from around the country – commissioners from 173 presbyteries, young adult advisory delegates, ecumenical representatives, national staff, denominational officials, observers, interest groups, activists, and seminarians – will descend on an unsuspecting Pittsburgh. A General Assembly is an event. Even in years of controversy and high drama, it has a festive element. I have heard it aptly described as “Disneyland for Presbyterians”.

Alas, in the midst of the festivities, commissioners will face a daunting slate of proposals and business items to consider. For those unfamiliar with the PC(USA)’s version of Presbyterianism, a GA works something like this. Commissioners will spend most of their week focused on a fraction of the total assembly business. That business is divided among several committees with names like, “Mission Coordination”, “Ecumenical and Interfaith Relations”, “Social Justice Issues”, and “Church Polity”. Each commissioner is assigned to serve on one. The committee will have the only in depth opportunity to consider the issues before it, and that committee will recommend a course of action to the whole assembly. Now the whole assembly will have to vote, but in most cases they will follow a committee’s lead.”

You can find that link on the side of my blog.

David Fischler, an EPC pastor, who also comments here, has recently been blogging on the StandFirm site. At one time that was only an Anglican site but now they are branching out. Fischler is covering Reformed issues. Here is a posting that points to some of the same issues I wrote about when writing about the actions of the Advocacy Committee for Women’s Concerns. It is “Shut Up They Explained (PC (U.S.A.) Edition.” Fischler begins:

“Last summer, the Presbyterian Church (USA), upon receiving a majority from its 173 presbyteries, removed a provision in its ordination standards that required celibacy in singleness and fidelity in marriage. This opened the door for the ordination of sexually active homosexuals. This was achieved only after many years, multiple votes in which advocates lost, and endless talk. Now that they have gotten what they wanted, some of the advocates have a new message for this who disagree: sit down, shut up, and bow down to the New Order.

One such collection of advocates resides in the denomination’s Advocacy Committee for Women’s Concerns, which is not an interest or issue caucus, but an official body reporting to the General Assembly Mission Council, the PCUSA’s “mission and ministry” agency, from which it receives its funding and support. It speaks, not simply as a random collections of activists, but as one of the official voices of the denomination. It has taken positions that are suggestive of what the future holds for dissent from the New Order.” I

I will be placing a link to Stand Firm on the side of my blog.

So after reading all of that you will need some good music, and even if you don’t I do.