Beginning Breakdown of Stated Clerk’s Top 10 List

Kirkpatrick’s top 10 list for the upcoming General Assembly meeting can be broken down into a few categories: the PCUSA (Peace, Unity and Purity; Building bridges in the Presbyterian Family; Women’s ministry; financial and organizational concerns; Executive Director of GA Council; Constitutional Revision; Agency and Permanent Committee Reviews; G-6.0106b) and world concerns (Justice and Peace in the Middle East and Economic Justice Concerns). A significant portion of the GA meeting needs to focus of the present and future of the PCUSA. I will look at this topic on another day. What I find interesting is that there is no mention of rebuilding the Gulf Coast in light of the devastation of hurricane Katrina. The single most destructive event in the history of our country and it doesn’t even rate a mention. Church after church is sending work groups to the affected area, yet, it is not a major priority for our Stated Clerk. The battle between Palestinians, Jews and Arabs has been going on for centuries. It will not end in our lifetime. The PCUSA can make all of the policy declarations it wants—the parties are not going to listen to us. Do we need to ignore the Middle East? No way. Does it need to be one of our General Assembly’s top 10 concerns? No way.

Think for a moment… Campus Crusade for Christ has made rebuilding the Gulf Coast a major focus. They had 7000+ students working in the affected areas over Spring Break. The PCUSA is making a small difference in the area but we could be making a HUGE difference if it was one of the top 10 concerns of the General Assembly.

Example: The Assembly is having a new paper on the Trinity written and studied. Why? Is if more important to have politically correct language concerning the Trinity or to rebuild homes along the Gulf Coast? If we took the $$$ used by the group writing this report to rebuild homes we could get several home rebuilt (maybe even LOTS of homes). No, instead we will try to get more inclusive language regarding the Trinity in use by our denomination.

Example: What would happen if the GA set the goal of having 10,000 Presbyterians working along the Gulf Coast over next Christmas vacation and again over Spring Vacation and again over the following summer? We could rebuild entire neighborhoods and towns! Talk about a denomination that would be making a difference!!

How tragic that the Gulf Coast didn’t even make the top 10 list of our Stated Clerk!