# For what its worth some news on the PCusa 219th General Assembly



## dudley (Jul 4, 2010)

I received the following news release today from The Presbyterian Outlook newsletter. Just thought I would share this with my fellow PB brothers.

Presbyterian Outlook 7/4/2010 1:40:44 AM Eastern Daylight Time

For moderator, it's Bolbach in four

By Leslie Scanlon, Outlook national reporter

MINNEAPOLIS - After four rounds of voting and some worry about technical difficulties with the electronic voting keypads, the 219th General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) elected as its moderator Cynthia Bolbach, a lawyer and the only elder in a six-person field.

Bolbach - tall, plain-spoken, with a crisp sense of humor - brings to the office decades of experience in church life, from the congregational to the national levels of the denomination.

She has served as a deacon and clerk of session for her congregation, as well as moderator of National Capital Presbytery, chair of the presbytery's Committee on Ministry and its interim general presbyter. She also serves as co-moderator of the Form of Government Task Force, which is bringing to this assembly a proposal - four years in the making - to streamline and make more flexible the denomination's Form of Government section of the Book of Order.

After the fourth-ballot, the candidate with the second-highest number of votes was Julia Leeth, a pastor from California, who earlier in the evening said she guessed she might be the most conservative of the candidates.

In that final ballot, Bolbach received 325 votes (51 percent) and Leeth 148 votes (23 percent), out of a six-person field. But Bolbach led from the start, winning 149 votes (30 percent) in the first ballot - with things splitting neatly from there, with four of the other five candidates drawing from 71 to 76 votes apiece that time around.

Before her election, Bolbach used a biblical analogy - drawn from the New Testament story of the friends who raised up a paralyzed friend, cut a hole in the roof of a building where Jesus was inside, and dropped their friend down into the room with Jesus.

The PC(USA) is paralyzed by uncertainty and fear about how to proclaim the gospel in the 21st century, Bolbach said. "You and I are the friends who can help our paralyzed denomination see Jesus," and be healed.


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## Backwoods Presbyterian (Jul 4, 2010)

For those who want to keep up with it from a conservative source look here.


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## Marrow Man (Jul 4, 2010)

What do you make of this video?

Especially interesting were the comments of the young lady from SF Seminary and the pastor from Detroit who hoped that the Presbyterian church continued to grow. Has he seen the numbers for his denomination?


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## dudley (Jul 4, 2010)

Ben,
I agree with you. Unfortunately there is only one ARP chuch in New Jersey and it is 70 miles away from me.


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## C. M. Sheffield (Jul 4, 2010)

Marrow Man said:


> What do you make of this video?
> 
> Especially interesting were the comments of the young lady from SF Seminary and the pastor from Detroit who hoped that the Presbyterian church continued to grow. Has he seen the numbers for his denomination?


 
That was the mushiest 4 minutes and 42 seconds of my life!


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## Backwoods Presbyterian (Jul 4, 2010)

Just as a word of anecdotal worth I preached at a PC(USA) church this morning that if not for the link their website you would not know it was not a NAPARC church. Frankly I'd say this church is more Reformed than some PCA churches I have been to...


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## goodnews (Jul 4, 2010)

Backwoods Presbyterian said:


> Just as a word of anecdotal worth I preached at a PC(USA) church this morning that if not for the link their website you would not know it was not a NAPARC church. Frankly I'd say this church is more Reformed than some PCA churches I have been to...



That's been my experience as well Benjamin. But, most of the PC-USA churches I've experienced were also small, rural churches, who were all but disconected to the denomination.


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## Backwoods Presbyterian (Jul 4, 2010)

goodnews said:


> Backwoods Presbyterian said:
> 
> 
> > Just as a word of anecdotal worth I preached at a PC(USA) church this morning that if not for the link their website you would not know it was not a NAPARC church. Frankly I'd say this church is more Reformed than some PCA churches I have been to...
> ...


 
Well those are the churches I preach at mostly within that denomination.  I know more than my fair share of apostate PC(USA) churches...

By the way know of any openings in your Presbytery ARP brother???


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## goodnews (Jul 4, 2010)

Backwoods Presbyterian said:


> goodnews said:
> 
> 
> > Backwoods Presbyterian said:
> ...



Benjamin, check your PM.


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## Backwoods Presbyterian (Jul 4, 2010)

Gotcha...


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