How do Presbyterians start their General Assembly?
It’s a big moment in the annual life of the Presbyterian Church in Canada (PCC) when General Assembly (GA) opens. For one thing, the opening service is held on a Sunday evening in June. For another, the church is full. Now this could quite easily be accomplished by picking a small rural church where a couple hundred people would require extra seating down in the basement. However, GA needs extensive meeting space during the week for the various sessions, committee meetings, eating areas and the like, not to mention rooms to house all the delegates (i.e. commissioners). For quite some time now, the host site has needed to have a college or university in order to supply such facilities.
This year the PCC is meeting in Kingston Ontario at Queen’s University. The Opening Service was held at St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church, a majestic building, located at the corner of Clergy and Princess Streets. This church has semi-circular seating with a centre pulpit backed by a reasonably-sized choir loft and a massive pipe organ. The sanctuary holds probably 500 people — Sunday night it was full. Not just with the 300+ Commissioners (official attendees) but with a choir made up of singers from several choirs in the Presbytery and ordinary folk from throughout the Presbytery and beyond. In fact, it was SRO (standing room only).
Music started long before the official start time. As various organizers prepared the front of the church for Holy Communion (one of two sacrements in the PCC — the other being Baptism) that would occur during the service, the organist assisted by a violinist, played a variety of classical and religious musical pieces. Outside in a massive tent pavilion, the Brodrick Gabriel Drummers and Whispering Wind Singers performed for arriving attendees. It was all very impressive and I thought that maybe we should hold GA more often and in more places — including occasionally smaller cities where the impact could be huge (spiritually as well as economically)!!
As the time of 7:00 p.m. approached, the choir assembled in the loft and we were then led in the singing of two hymns: “what a Friend we have in Jesus” (written by Jospeh Scriven who had emigrated from Ireland and was visiting a friend on Rice Lake in Ontario — it was originally a poem to comfort his mother who was very sick); “Who made the earth and the heaven?” (by Andrew Donaldson who was music director at Beaches Presbyterian in Toronto for a couple of decades). We were then welcomed to the Assembly by an assortment of local and foreign church dignitaries as well as Paul Carl who welcomed us to the traditional lands of the Aboriginal peoples who have dwelt here for many centuries (it was one of the better “welcomings” by an Aboriginal leader, thoughtful, hopeful, and respectful).
The Call to Worship was led by Rev. Dr. Andrew Johnston who is the Senior Minister at St. Andrew’s. This was followed by the hymn “Unto the hills around do I life up…” (by Canada’s 4th Governor General the Marquess of Lorne). It was at this point that the presence of 500+ people really made the service come alive — the music ascended and the collective vocal presence was incredibly moving.
The Scripture Lessons were 2 Kings 23: 1-3, Responsive Psalm 119: 9-16 and the Gospel of John 20: 30-31. These were followed by the sermon “The People’s Book” delivered by the outgoing Moderator (i.e. a type of chair of GA) the Rev. Doug Rollwage of Zion Presbyterian Church. As great as the singing and other music was, this sermon was even more inspirational. I hope it was taped; if it has been, I will be requesting some CD’s to send out as Christmas gifts. In the meantime, you can go to the PCC website and click on the “live streaming” of the Assembly and you will find the complete service. The sermon concluded with the singing of Martin Luther’s great hymn — “A Mighty Fortress is our God”.
After the sermon and the taking up of the offering (which was accompanied by an anthem sung by the choir — “O how amiable” by Eleanor Daley) and the singing of “the Doxology” as well as the hymn “I greet thee, who my sure Redeemer art” (original words by the great reformer, Jean Calvin), we all participated in Holy Communion. This was very well organized so that everyone was served in short order while the choir led us in the reflective singing of four hymns: “All who hunger, gather gladly” (by Sylvia Dunstan a Canadian United Church minister who served for 10 years as a prison chaplain), “My faith looks up to thee” (included because the harmonies used last night were composed by Carman Milligan, organist at St. Andrew’s Ottawa for 47 years), “We lay our broken word” (by Anna Briggs who taught at the Toronto School of Theology), “O breath of life, come sweeping through us” (by Bessie Porter, with a fourth verse added by Rev. Iona MacLean the first woman ordained by the Synod of the Atlantic Provinces of the PCC). The service concluded with “Crown him with many crowns” (written by Matthew Bridges who lived for many years near Sherbrooke Quebec).
It was a most inspirational evening: music was truly uplifting with impressive leadership from the pipe organ and choir, the sermon very powerful, communion almost angelic with the reflective singing while the elements were passed around — the entire moment reminded me of why I’m a Presbyterian. It made me think of what it must have been like before the advent of tv when evening services were major events in the weekly life of communities across Canada. While I can remember going to evening services myself in the fifties when we visited other PCC churches in nearby cities, they were in decline (Ed Sullivan and 4-Star Theatre were seemingly attractive alternatives — especially when Ida Lupino was featured on the latter). As a student minister the only significant evening service I led was when I was assigned to go to the 4-point charge of Creemore, Dunedin, East Nottawasaga and Hornings Mills. On alternate weeks I would preach in the morning at Creemore and the evening at Dunedin and the next time at Dunedin in the morning and Creemore in the evening — and both churches were always quite full in spite of having to put up with student ministers. The other two churches were at standard times in the late morning and afternoon. By the late sixties, only the occasional church anniversary service would be held on Sunday evening.
When the Opening Service was over, and before we began the First Sederunt wherein the new Moderator would be inducted, I pondered whether or not perhaps I’ve been absent too often from this service. In fact, I wondered if maybe we all should make this a pilgrimage every seven years. Possibly this is why my father used to take me when I was young. For until you experience the Opening Service you really can’t imagine the importance of General Assembly itself. And since it may not be possible for everyone, even once in 7 years, to travel to GA, maybe we should try to restore the presence of Synods the same way because they are usually closer to us. Perhaps the church has been too quick to streamline its courts and reduce the number of meetings. Possibly part of the decline of the relevance of the church is due to our unwillingness to put out the effort on an annual basis (in the autumn) to pick a weekend and make going to Synod as significant as going to GA. Even GA is now reduced to 4 days.
The First Sederunt is mainly simply functional. The Election of the new Moderator is done well before GA and is, in fact, announced in April. So while the outgoing Moderator does call for nominations from the floor, none are forthcoming. So while there is no tension caused by rounds of voting, there is solemnity and humour to honour the incoming Moderator. Rev. Peter Bush was duly introduced and have a thoughtful opening chat. Several administrative motions were presented that were all unanimously passed. There may be some interest in items related to dispersal of assets and the pension fund management, but we shall have to await their reappearance in the forthcoming Sederunts.
Now it will be interesting to see how much of the spiritual enthusiasm of last night continues throughout the week. Will the commissioners meet in the spirit of “the people’s book”? Will the bureaucrats of the church actually listen to what the people in the pews are saying, asking, debating? Will the ministers hear what the laity (which should be equal in number to the clergy) feel is the real substance of PCC faith? There no longer is the pre-briefing sessions for the elders and young ministers, to give them a better sense of what the various reports are trying to say and accomplish — so will people be as knowledgeable as they ought to be. There is a sense, upon first examination, that the agenda is a little too packed and therefore too rushed. But we shall see. Stay tuned. I’ll be back!!
g.w.