The Assembly has separated into a series of committees to consider the issues that have been brought to it. Monday and Tuesday have been heavy work days for most of the committees. Their reports will be taken to the plenary beginning tomorrow.
One of the interesting results is that the committee dealing with the ordination issue voted overwhelmingly to recind previous authoritative interpretations and to essentially follow the original recommendation of the PUP report. This would suggest that, at least in that committee of randomly selected 75 people, the Assembly is growing tired of the scare tactics of the right and is willing to trust that Presbyteries are responsible in their actions. If that same attitude prevails in the Assembly, then we will experience some wailing but may also move on to trying to listen to God rather than fear.
It looks like the recommendation on the new Form of Government will be to allow for some trial runs in some presbyteries and then review the results at the next GA. This would suggest a cautious opptimism and a belief that the church fares better when they try to empower rather than restrict the elements of the body.
While people are woried about the future of the church, this assembly seems to reject the suggestion that we respond out of fear. Maybe we are beginning to turn the corner,
