A letter from COLA

Welcome to San Jose, California!

We are glad you are planning to come to the heart of Silicon Valley for the 218th General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.).  The Committee on Local Arrangements (COLA) of the Presbytery of San Jose is planning many activities for you, including, but not limited to, uplifting worship, interesting mission and cultural tours and a lovely reception for the Moderator in our new City Hall (the rotunda of which looks like R2D2).  Our COLA, its work groups and our over 1,300 volunteers are working hard to offer what we hope will be an exceptional ministry of hospitality in Jesus’ name.
           
We on the COLA have taken the Micah 6:8 theme of the Assembly very seriously, and we invite you to join us in the spiritual exercise of its admonitions as you make your plans. When we consider: “What does the Lord require of you but to do justice, love kindness and walk humbly with your God”(NRSV), these possibilities occur to us.

Do justice:  We recommend that we respond to a justice issue regarding some of the least well-paid workers in this very expensive-to-live-in part of the world: hotel service workers.  We ask that you come prepared to leave $2.00 on your pillow when you leave your hotel rooms each morning as a way of saying “thank you” to the folks who will clean your room.

Love kindness:  The excitement, the travel and the business of the Assembly cannot help but leave you both thrilled and tired. We know from experience that when we are tired we can become impatient and even demanding that our needs, questions, priorities and concerns be addressed right now!  When and if that happens to you, we encourage you to stop, take a breath, remember that someone is praying for you, say a prayer yourself and do your best to – as the Apostle Paul pleads in Ephesians 4:2(RSV) – “forbear one another in love.”  We covenant to do the same.

Walk humbly with your God:  The assembly deals with many different and complex issues, and you will encounter an amazing gamut of opinions – many of which will be significantly different from your own. The more lightly we can receive and hold those expressions with respect, the better.  If we allow ourselves to become possessed (literally) of the notion that some sister or brother in Christ is really the enemy because they have a different perspective than we do on some issue, we can be sure of one thing:  that in Glory, the Lord will make us eternal seatmates with that person at the Marriage Supper of the Lamb.  God really does have a sense of humor.  We honor God when we develop and exercise one, too.

Enough preaching!  We are just so very glad that you will be coming to San Jose and that we will have the privilege of serving you in some small way.

Robert S. Bowles, Moderator
Lynn L. Viale, Vice-Moderator
The Committee on Local Arrangements
The Presbytery of San Jose