Why do General Assemblies hold evening sederunts?

Evenings at conferences are for socializing, getting to know the other delegates, and winding down. GA makes a mistake when it tries to conserve time and runs the business into the evening. Sederunt 4 was no exception. This evening was simply too packed with reports and briefings. Most of it could have been done in advance, put on a DVD and sent out to the entire church in May so congregations and Presbyteries could review it and then advise their commissioners how to respond, if necessary.

Without boring you with details there were several observations I made during the evening.
#1)
We seem to be developing an “old girls” club — lots of small group gatherings at the back of the hall where the same key women kept meeting with other women in whispers and sharing of notes. Not necessarily a bad thing, but perhaps we need to scrap the “old boys” accusations that have been floating for years — once people get into an organization and get used to it, they start forming cliques and other types of groups, no matter their gender…
#2)
Knox College, where many of my forebears (along with a cousin) attended is on a downhill slide — it is less interested in turning out ministers who can preach and more interested in some return to liberation theology. The last two appointments, both women who are talented but have seemingly little to no experience in the PCC; and yet one of them is to train people in pastoral ministry in Canadian communities… No one seemed to raise the question after an 18 year reign by the retiring principal: “is the school actually is any better?” and “whether the grads are any more effective at leading their congregations?”
#3)
International Affairs with a myriad of recommendations still seems bent on telling other nations what to do (i.e. a touch of political interference) and their attitude towards Israel is only slightly less obnoxious than Germany’s ideas in the 1930’s.
#4)
Ministry & Vocations biggest concern was to enshrine a one-week leave bereavement policy for ministers because someone has experienced difficult with her/his session — why no one thought to have her/his Presbytery straighten out the problem is beyond me…but now we have a rule that some will use to restrict leave to only one week even though there may be circumstances that require more time. My sense is that HQ is becoming too corporate — time to move the Church offices out of Toronto and into a more pastoral setting — maybe Madoc or Stratford or even Saskatoon — so that the workers get a daily sense of being part of a non-centre-of-the-universe world.
#5)
Our Retreat Centre (Crieff Hills) should not be allowed to give a report. Record it (DVD) and send it out. I have now heard the report at least three times in the past ten years, many of the pictures are the same, the speech sounds the same, and none of it is really very exciting. This is something that should be send directly to congregations to hear every couple of years with a written version put in the official GA records.
#6)
The Women’s Missionary Society (WMS) and Atlantic Missions Society (AMS) gave standard reports — see #5 above, with the exception that at least they talked about new stuff.
#7)
After a couple hours of tedium the Moderator of the 2016 GA was invited to give a report on his year in office. It was a travesty to leave him this late in the agenda; but, it was at the very least very fast paced and interesting (he actually knows how to use power point effectively and in interesting ways). He mainly concentrated on his trip to Korea where the Presbyterian Church is thriving (one congregation has about 100,000 members). While I would have enjoyed hearing about his visits to the Arabic churches in Canada (PCC), his experiences with the two Korean Presbyteries in our denomination were enlightening. Recommendation — give the out-going moderator a time slot of 1/2 an hour either just before or just after lunch on the first full day — his year should be of interest to us all, so tape the presentation and send it out to the church for their fall meetings.

By the way, the 4th Sederunt ended with a powerful prayer in his own language by a Presbyterian from Africa. It was a good way to conclude the day — just should have been done at 6:00 p.m. not 9:30 p.m. or so

g.w.