Neal D. Pressa,

Moderator of the 220th General Assembly

Neal C. Presa, Teaching Elder from the Middlesex Presbyterian Church in Middlesex, NJ was elected Moderator of the 220th General Assembly on the fourth ballot.  

Ushered down the aisle by former Moderator, Bruce Chow, Moderator Presa was installed, led in worship by the 219th General Assembly Moderator, Cindy Bolbach.

If you would like to read more about the new Moderator, go to his website:

http://www.nealpresa.com/

Forrest

Opening Worship - Saturday, June 30

While hearing of power outages and damage from the storms that hit OH, WV and VA, the 220th General Assembly opened with worship as its very first thing to do.  (Prayers were offered for all those impacted by the storms, including First Presbyterian, Cambridge, OH which was destroyed in a tornado.)

With orchestra, mass choir, a jazz quartet and interpretive dancers, a procession was led with our very own Presbytery of West Virginia banner, carried in by our Young Adult Advisory Delegate, Tory Parker (Village Chapel Presbyterian).

Cindy Bolbach, Moderator of the 219th General Assembly was present!  Having endured surgery, recovery and chemotherapy in her battle against cancer, the participants welcomed her with applause.  Moderator Bolbach recognized the many who prayed for her and supported her in her quest for health.  Her sermon was based on the scripture of Jesus healing the paralytic.  For a while, she felt like the church and herself were like the paralytic, in that we were paralyzed -- and then reflected on what she saw and experienced in her travels throughout the denomination, witnessing a church in mission, making a difference in the lives of many.  She called the church to be that faithful witness and to go and serve in this world.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Our presbytery was very evident this day -- with the arrival of the bus, with members singing in the mass choir, with the presence of our banner, with people from the presbytery volunteering to help host this General Assembly..and our commissioners and our YAAD all present and participating in the beginning of this Assembly.

Forrest

Saturday morning - The Presbytery of West Virginia comes to GA!

The bus carrying people from throughout the Presbytery of West Virginia left Beckley early this morning, with stops in Charleston and Bridgeport, bringing participants to the Opening Worship for the 220th General Assembly. 

Opening Worship has always been such a highlight for me at General Assemblies.  I look forward to hearing the mass choir (which includes people from our presbytery!).  I look forward to the sermon, preached by the outgoing Moderator (with prayers for Cindy Bolbach, as she made it a goal to be here to preside at the beginning of this Assembly, following months of surgery, recovery and chemotherapy).  I look forward to communion.  I look forward to the variety of expressions of worship that we will encounter here at this opening worship.  I look forward to seeing friends and colleagues from around the denomination, as we begin -- most appropriately, with worship.

It is only right and proper that we look to God first - the God who created us, the God who led his people throughout history, the God who sent us his son, Jesus Christ, that we might have know of his love for us....  Worship is that act which brings us together.  

May it be so for all of us.  Let us gather together in a spirit of worship, open to what God has in store for us, open to the word for us today, open to God's leading....

Amen.

General Assembly - preparing to go!

I have never written a blog before; so this will be a new adventure for me.  We are called to be life long learners, open to new possibilities -- so I venture into the blog world as a novice!  Yes, I email, text, post on Facebook, and I am a new Tweeter on Twitter....but blogging is something I just have not done.

The reason for trying something new is to connect back to the Presbytery of West Virginia with what I am experiencing at the 220th General Assembly in Pittsburgh.  We are a connectional church, and as West Virginians, we value relationships and connections.  

My first experience with a meeting of the General Assembly was as a collegian, when I served on the staff of Massanetta Springs Conference Center in Virginia.  Massanetta Springs was hosting a meeting of the PCUS General Assembly.  My role was to run the sound board and lights from the back stage, which was no where near the technological operation you now see at General Assembly!  When the General Assembly Moderator (Ben Lacy Rose) came off the stage, he made a beeline to me to begin debriefing what he experienced as a Moderator on stage.  Why he chose me is still a mystery, but I was a good listener, which is exactly what he needed apparently!

Since then, I have attended General Assemblies in various roles - as an observer, as an elected leader of a GA Ministry Unit, as a representative of the Office of the Stated Clerk, serving as a Committee Assistant assigned to assist a standing committee, as a presbytery staff person -- and now as your Interim Exec.  For the past two years, I served on the General Assembly leadership teams as a Committee Assistant, which was abbreviated and known among GA folk as a "CA."  At the last General Assembly, I was the CA for the standing committee dealing with the New Form of Government.  That standing committee began meeting a day before any other standing committee, due to the volume of business it had to deal with.  The end result, as you know, was the adoption of the New Form of Government (nFOG), which surprised many veteran GA folk.  I think the key practice that made for success was that the standing committee commissioners listened, the standing committee moderator listened and the leadership team listened -- to the concerns, to the fears, to the hopes...and the standing committee made changes, based on listening, which ended in the adoption of the New Form of Government. 

My hope is that we will enter into this General Assembly with the same concern for listening as the nFOG Standing Committee exhibited.  Commissioners from every presbytery, including our own, have a lot of work to do during the Assembly.  They will hear concerns, advocates, opponents...and they will be called to listen to all of this input and then will prayerfully decide on how they will vote.  But in the process, they will be called to listen....including listening for the guidance of the Holy Spirit.

In that same spirit, let us pray for the commissioners from this presbytery:

Joyce Armentrout (Ruling Elder, Grace Covenant, Charleston)

Ken Bibbee (Ruling Elder, Beechwood Presbyterian, Parkersburg)

Carl Pattison (Teacher Elder, Salem and McLean Presbyterian, Ronceverte)

Tory Parker (Young Adult Advisory Delegate, Village Chapel Presbyterian, Charleston)

Peter Vial (Teaching Elder, Davis Memorial Presbyterian, Elkins)

Blessings to you all,

Forrest