Commissioner Blog
About this blog
Thoughts on the General Assembly by commissioners.
Recent posts
- “What’s a COLA Volunteer?”
- Yikes, its hard work!
- A positive experience at the 219th General Assembly
- The Liturgy of the Assembly
- Some Notes on Notes
Categories
Archives
The Liturgy of the Assembly
Its Wednesday, we have been meeting in committees from morning until night, gazing at laptop screens and listening to advocates, resource persons, moderators, one another and the Holy Spirit, we hope. My thought is this: what if we imagined our deliberations and debates, our arguments and disagreements, our laughter and our tears, as liturgy?
Our common understanding of this ancient word is ‘work of the people’. Every Sunday morning we participate in liturgy in various ways. We recognize the presence of God through song, prayer and Word doing our part of the heavy lifting toward becoming the people of God, disciples and followers of Jesus Christ, infused with the Holy Spirit. It is grace revealed.
Certainly anyone who has ever participated in GA understands its work! It takes a lot of time, a lot of energy and a lot of fortitude to remain focused, connected to community and disciplined in listening more than speaking. It is in the midst of the process we see Christ revealed--a particular story to emphasize a point; a gesture of compromise to maintain relationship; a dawning recognition that we all bow down to the same Lord and Savior.
This is liturgy. Thanks be to God.
by Tiare Mathison
- Posted at 5:27 p.m.
-
- Tweet