Thursday night ... around 10:30 pm

It is late on Thursday night, and we have been talking about divestment from American companies whose products are used to damage places in the Middle East, and the possibility of investment in those same places to help bring about peace.  We have been at this for more than an hour just on this issue.  Our own commissioner, Blake Brinegar, made a minority report which has now become the main motion.  The vote to make the minority report the main motion passed by only 2 votes with 2 people abstaining.  To say that this is a divided assembly is an understatement.

I understand that many of you are streaming, and may have questions about what is going on.  Unfortunately, while we are in plenary, we are not supposed to be on the internet, and it has been late before we have gotten back to our hotels - partly because we often need to decompress and debrief.  So, if we are tardy with posts, I apologize.

The tone was set in some ways when plenary began yesterday, and the newly elected vice moderator resigned so that she might not be a distraction during the assembly.  She apparently had received some "hate mail" type of correspondence, and perhaps there were some ugly blogposts about her.  The sense of shock and dismay over her resignation was palpable, and dominated Twitter for the most part of the afternoon.

Things have been divisive ... and emotional ... and have taken a long time to get accomplished.  The leadership is doing their best to run efficient meetings under difficult circumstances.  It is a job I would not want to do.  It makes me grateful to be in a presbytery where we can talk to each other and disagree, and still continue to talk to each other after that disagreement.

A commissioner asked at dinner tonight, "Is it always this divisive?"  It seems as though the divide is growing wider, and we had a sense coming into this assembly that it would be contentious.  Please continue to pray for the assembly and the leadership of the PCUSA.  People are tired ... and there is still much to do with not a lot of time left.

Lynn