Three governing bodies of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) made history meeting jointly online and at the Salt Palace Convention Center on Tuesday, unanimously approving a proposed unified budget for the Presbyterian Mission Agency, the Office of the General Assembly and the Administrative Services Group.
On Friday, the second of its two days of meeting online and at the Presbyterian Center in Louisville, Kentucky, the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), A Corporation Board had a discussion on what a number of people in the denomination are talking about: recently announced changes to the Board of Pensions’ Benefits Plan.
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.
Meeting for much of Thursday as a committee of the whole in executive (closed) session, the Unification Commission announced Thursday afternoon it has selected a consultant to help it with the work of unifying the Office of the General Assembly and the Presbyterian Mission Agency.
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.
On Saturday the Unification Commission took its first major step toward unifying the Office of the General Assembly and the Presbyterian Mission Agency, combining communications ministries in the two entities as well as the Administrative Services Group. Their senior leadership has until the commission’s next meeting Nov. 12 to determine who will run the combined efforts and to whom that leader will report.
