Like their siblings on the A Corp Board, the Committee on the Office of the General Assembly and the Presbyterian Mission Agency Board did while meeting jointly Tuesday in Salt Lake City, the Unification Commission voted unanimously Thursday to approve the proposed unifying budget for 2025 and 2026.
The Rev. Mirjam Haas-Melchior gave the governing bodies meeting Tuesday morning at the Salt Palace Convention Center a taste of what’s ahead during the 226th General Assembly next month.
Along with easing any tension over their task as evangelists, on Thursday Dr. Cheni Khonje taught a crowd of nearly 200 ruling elders and deacons some new language around the concepts of “welcome” and “relationship.”
Meeting via Zoom Monday, the Committee on the Office of the General Assembly joined with the boards for the Presbyterian Mission Agency and the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), A Corporation, to approve proposed unified budgets for 2023-24.
The Coordinating Committee of the Presbyterian Mission Agency Board approved comments on two important items of business that will come before commissioners to the 225th General Assembly this summer. With the committee’s approval on Thursday, consideration on the comments will go to the full board for consideration during its meeting April 27-29.
Established by the then-Moving Forward Implementation Commission (now a committee) to ensure that the work of three organizations — the Office of the General Assembly, the Presbyterian Mission Agency and the Administrative Services Group — is coordinated, the Coordinating Table has been working in recent months to define its work and to find its voice.
As the Church continues to adjust to the ever-changing habits and practices of pandemic life — online and hybrid worship, virtual offering plates, Zoom and “drive-by” fellowship — one thing has remained constant.
Presbyterian generosity.
In its final action of 2021, the Presbyterian Mission Agency on Thursday passed what it called enabling motions that will result in some if not most of the ideas generated in a consultant’s report, “Reflecting, Reimagining and Making Space for Rebuilding,” being worked into the PMA’s Mission Work Plan that must be approved by the 225th General Assembly in 2022.
On Thursday the Stated Clerk of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) offered up his thoughts on the proposed renovation of the Presbyterian Center in downtown Louisville, a renovation that the Rev. Dr. J. Herbert Nelson, II also hopes will include the transformation of hearts and minds of employees inside the building and of Presbyterians working at carrying out Christ’s mission across the nation and around the world.
The Board of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), A Corporation heard two main presentations on Wednesday: a vision for what future editions of the General Assembly could look like, and how the Presbyterian Center in downtown Louisville can be modified to accommodate that vision and much more — with an estimated $2.4 million price tag.
