Pittsburgh.

Like a bad penny, or a well trained pigeon, I have once again returned to Pittsburgh – the city of my birth, and my adolescence; where I received my seminary education, and married Ann; my home. This time, I’m on a mission: to save the Presbyterian Church.

At least that’s what my friend John Leggett told me.

Actually, I find that I am a (relatively) small cog in the biggish machine that is our denomination; on the one hand, the helpful COLA volunteer (that’s “Committee On Local Arrangements,” for those of you who don’t speak GA) nodded and said ‘Oh, yes,’ like he knew just who I was when he heard my name; on the other, he looked through a lot of packets before he found mine.

My handy dandy Program Book tells me there are 687 other Commissioners, 160 Young Adult Advisory Delegates, 24 Theological Studant Advisory Delegates, 8 Missionary Advisory Delegates, known intriguingly by the acronym MADS, and 15 Ecumenical Advisory Delegates. In addition,  100 Corresponding Members, 115 Staff and volunteers from the Office of General Assembly, 500 PCUSA staff,  elected committee members, consultants, straphangers, lookers-on and guests, 60 folks from the Theological Institutions, 265 staff members from Presbyteries, and 22 Ecumenical Representatives. Finally, there are the 565 people other people registered as Observers and as many as 2000 local Presbyterians volunteering or just hanging around.

Fortunately, none of them are staying with me.

Heeding the sage advice of a previous commissioner, I am paying the extra in order to have this lovely room at the Omni William Penn all to myself. The opportunity for quiet reflective time, the avoidance of inevitable awkward small talk while in my underwear, free use of the bathroom and no snoring (but my own) seems well worth it to this introvert. I’m not sure than Ann agrees, though; any donations  to the “Help Patrick Keep His Sanity at GA” fund will be gratefully accepted.

Just kidding.

The fun actually starts tomorrow morning, bright and early, with Riverside Conversations, a sort of new, low-key, non parliamentary thing where we will begin “encountering each other, and listening for God’s Spirit of discernment as a gathering body.” I should get to meet the candidates for Moderator, so look for my impressions tomorrow.

Of course, if you don’t know the candidates, you won’t know if my impressions are any good…

From #ga220

Patrick

The Preacher