Meeting online Saturday, the Unification Commission heard from three human resources experts in the Administrative Services Group — Ruth Gardner, Anisha Hackney and Rick Purdy — on how a consultant might be brought on to strengthen the work of the commission as it merges the Office of the General Assembly and the Presbyterian Mission Agency.
As he does frequently, the Rev. Dr. J. Herbert Nelson, II spoke a prophetic word Wednesday during the Chapel Service at the Presbyterian Center and broadcast via Zoom. Wednesday’s service at the Presbyterian Center in Louisville, Kentucky, marked the final time Nelson will preach as Stated Clerk of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.).
On Saturday the Unification Commission, which is working to unify the Office of the General Assembly and the Presbyterian Mission Agency, unanimously approved a 2025-26 Unified Budget Process that features the development of key unified priorities to help lead development, beginning in 2025, of a unified budget among the PMA, OGA and the Administrative Services Group.
“Defining what constitutes mission and how mission is funded and who has fiscal authority are fundamental questions that are beginning to arise for us,” said the Rev. Scott Lumsden, a member of the Finance Work Group within the Unification Commission, which seeks to combine the Office of the General Assembly and the Presbyterian Mission Agency.
The National Black Presbyterian Caucus held a banquet Friday night honoring the retiring Stated Clerk of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), the Rev. Dr. J. Herbert Nelson, II, and Nelson honored caucus members right back with an hour-long valedictory that was clearly heartfelt, sometimes funny and always insightful.
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.
On Saturday, the Presbytery of New York City gathered in the 147-year-old sanctuary of First Presbyterian Church of Brooklyn for its first quarterly stated meeting of 2023.
The Rev. Dr. J. Herbert Nelson, II, the Stated Clerk of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), offered thanks to God and to those present during worship Sunday at Church of the Covenant in New York City “to be in the midst of a powerful gathering of women.” At the invitation of the church’s interim pastor, the Rev. Dr. Cornell Edmonds, Nelson preached Sunday as part of the 67th Commission on the Status of Women, an in-person and online gathering of about 8,000 people that runs from March 6-17.