First day of business!

Today started with some more YAD orientation. This was followed by a little business and some more orientation. I think I’m well oriented now….

I got to go through the exhibit hall today!! Definitely a very fun part of GA. Lots of free stuff, stuff to read and buy, and so many cool people to talk to!

The Moderator election was tonight. It was a long, but intense and interesting process involving Q and A and voting and waiting and re-voting until we had our moderator. Joan Gray was elected after three votes (if I remember correctly).

To partially answer Jill Fandrich’s question, Joan was not the candidate who impressed me most, but I’m sure she will do well in leading the Church in the next two years.

It was very moving and sad for me to see Rick Ufford-Chase be recognized and end his time is moderator. He was an absolutely fantastic moderator and having helped vote him in I felt especially attached to his presence. At least it won’t be the last we’ll see of Rick!

During business tonight, a very pleasant surprise was announced! Stan Anderson, from Denver made it known to all that he is starting the Loaves and Fishes program with an amazing $150 million dollars! The money will go in grants to Presbyteries dedicated to congregational transformation, racial-ethnic congregations, and new church development. This is a fantastic gift and an awesome opportunity for our Presbyteries!

To answer Reverend Joe, I think everyone at the assembly is excited, and many are nervous about the important matters at hand. But at the moment, it is a positive and exciting atmosphere. We’ll see how long that keeps up with how exhausting GA business can be!

A couple notes on Les in case any of you are following along:

There are two new tabs on Les. First is the “Tracker” tab. Under the Tracker tab you can browse by committee and see exactly what that committee is doing on its business. The second is the “Auto-Les” tab. Turning on Auto-Les means that the business currently being considered by the assembly will automatically appear for you. A handy little tab :)

There were some pretty major server problems with Les today, but they should (hopefully be fixing them soon.

Last, I apologize if this doesn’t make sense – I’m not going to read over it at the moment because I am EXHAUSTED. It’s been another looong day. And I am going to go to sleep now because tomorrow is another very early morning, and committees start tomorrow.

Peace be with you,

Susan

One last thing - we don't have wireless internet in the conference center, just the intranet to connect to Les. So I am unable to check your comments often during the day. I will try to stop at the email station at least once during the day in the future to check and answer questions before they're irrelevant to the business. That's all!