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.
Members of the Commission on the Unification of the Office of the General Assembly and the Presbyterian Mission Agency met in open session for less than half an hour on Thursday morning, with the remainder of their time together Thursday and most of the meeting Friday set to occur as a Committee of the Whole, which is also closed except to commission members and invited staff and its consultant.
On Saturday, the Unification Commission introduced Kelly Beeland, a consultant with nearly three decades of experience helping companies and organizations with, among other tasks, change management and understanding culture. Beeland took commissioners through a half-hour presentation on the work she’s already begun. Her contract ends Dec. 31.
As they did Thursday, members of the Commission on the Unification of Office of the General Assembly and the Presbyterian Mission Agency spent almost all their time Friday meeting in closed session as a committee of the whole. Commissioners emerged Friday afternoon from their gathering at the Presbyterian Center in Louisville, Kentucky, for a 20-minute public session before praying and adjourning.
Ahead of the 120-day deadline for the 226th General Assembly, the Unification Commission on Saturday unanimously approved its interim report, with a final report due to the 227th General Assembly in 2026.
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.
Meeting Saturday via Zoom, the Unification Commission voted to approve the formation a small task force to work with staff to review its charter “and all polity, process and procedural issues” related to the commission’s upcoming report to the 226th General Assembly next year and make recommendations to the Unification Commission at its next meeting, set for Jan. 18-20, 2024 in Louisville, Kentucky.
In a Sunday meeting that was a little hard for non-commissioners to follow because workgroup reports were kept private until the conclusion of the public portion of the Unification Commission’s online gathering, commissioners received a report on initial steps of unifying communications ministries of the Office of the General Assembly and Presbyterian Mission Agency.
Dividing its time almost evenly between closed and open sessions on Sunday, the Unification Commission — which is working to unify the Office of the General Assembly and the Presbyterian Mission Agency — voted to approve a timeline to complete its work by the 227th General Assembly in 2026.
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.
