Now that Kears has walked me through how to post to this blog, I will try to relay a summary of my experience to all of you at home. I arrived on Friday in order to attend the Racial Awareness Training that afternoon and then an overview of the Form of Government proposal (I am on this committee, aptly named the "FOG" committee) that evening. Both of these sessions were great. Saturday was a full day of business meetings which culminated in our election of a new moderator, Bruce Reyes-Chow, as described already by Kears in his post. I am excited by his energy and passion for our church and I am looking forward to the right opportunity to introduce myself and speak with him personally.
Worship yesterday was awesome. My mother-in-law is here with me. She is Roman Catholic and accompanied me to worship Sunday morning. Fortunately we ran into Don Dilley who sat next to Mom and explained all of the details of the service, including that she was welcome to partake in communion as a fellow believer - that was special. Mom commented that this service was even more beautiful that the latin mass we had attended at the Vatican last year when visiting my daughter in Rome. There is nothing like sharing an intimate, spiritual experience like that with literally thousands of fellow Presbyterians (and perhaps a few other believers, like Mom!). I was also amazed that worship was scheduled for 2 hours and by gosh it ended in exactly two hours (that is a jab meant for my pastor!).
The first meeting of our committee - FOG - was last night at 7:30. We didn't adjourn until close to 10:00 (that is 1AM your time!). Then it was back to work this morning at 9:30 for a full day. Clara, one of our youth advisory delegates led us in "prayer" to start our day - she led us in an African song, complete with bongos, Which we sang and then hummed as she read a psalm in English while one of her fellow YADs from Puerto Rico read the same passage simultaneously in Spanish! Wow! It is wonderful to have the young people here with us and I am thankful that Megan Reith is here with the Pittsburgh contingent.
The mixed emotions come in because it warms my heart to experience such love and faith among my fellow Presbyterians, but then it is likewise frustrating and disappointing to see evidence of mistrust among these same wonderful people! Maybe we need a committee to study the source of our mistrust!
All in all, this has been a wonderful experience, although a bit tiring! I am honored to be here representing my fellow Presbyterians in Pittsburgh Presbytery. Thank you for that honor.
More to come now that I have the technology figured out....
Blessings
Carol Hunley
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