Meeting via Zoom on Saturday, the Unification Commission voted on a new committee structure as it moves from studying the unification of the Presbyterian Mission Agency and the Office of the General Assembly to implementing unification.
During the first of two days of in-person meetings Thursday, the Unification Commission heard an update from Acting Stated Clerk the Rev. Bronwen Boswell on how a pilot program unifying communications ministries in the Office of the General Assembly and the Presbyterian Mission Agency is proceeding.
The Unification Commission spent the bulk of its Saturday morning together divided into the four teams that will do much of the commission’s work over the coming months.
On Thursday during the first day of what will be a three-day session in the conference center at the Presbyterian Center, the Unification Commission heard from the two people who will be most responsible for what a unified Office of the General Assembly and Presbyterian Mission Agency will be: the Rev. Dr. J. Herbert Nelson, II, and the Rev. Dr. Diane Givens Moffett.
Meeting for second time on Saturday, members of the Commission to Unify the Office of the General Assembly and the Presbyterian Mission Agency — known informally as the Unification Commission — determined the online platform they will use to share their work with each other and with the Church at large.
The Moving Forward Implementation Special Committee continues to discuss ways to help three of the denomination’s entities — the Office of the General Assembly, the Presbyterian Mission Agency and the A Corporation/Administrative Services Group — develop a unified budget to present to the 225th General Assembly next year.
During its third monthly meeting on Thursday, the Coordinating Table divided into three groups to discuss and try to answer four thought-provoking questions designed to clarify what’s important to representatives of the Office of the General Assembly, Presbyterian Mission Agency and the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), A Corporation and the boards or committee overseeing each entity.
Established this summer by what is now the Moving Forward Special Committee, the Coordinating Table hit a snag Wednesday as members debated what changes the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)’s Office of the General Assembly, Presbyterian Mission Agency and Administrative Services Group ought to consider to better serve Presbyterian congregations, their leaders and mid councils.
The Coordinating Table, established just before General Assembly by the then-Moving Forward Implementation Commission (now a special committee), held its initial meeting Monday to learn what’s expected of its work and how that work can best be accomplished.
Wrapping up its work more than three hours earlier than expected, members of the Moving Forward Implementation Commission prayed Friday afternoon for traveling mercies and for the remaining work commissioners must do before sending its report in by Feb. 21.
