General Assembly 2010

By Jan Orr-Harter

The long-awaited GA plenary session on Peacemaking and International Issues came and went, with excellent results, but not quite as we expected the process to go. We'll take the results.

By Pat Cole, PC(USA) News Service

MINNEAPOLIS

The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)’s 219th General Assembly (2010) has called for the United States to end direct combat operations in Afghanistan, the denomination’s first such statement since the war began in 2001.

The action, approved by the Assembly by a show-of-hands vote Friday, also asks the U.S. government to increase humanitarian and economic development assistance to Afghanistan. In addition, it calls for the United States to work with the Afghan people to facilitate peacemaking through consensus-building, open communication, economic incentives and diplomacy.

“There is no more appropriate time for the church to proclaim the peace of the gospel and pursue its mandates than when the country is at war,” said George Lynch of Pacific Presbytery, moderator of the Assembly’s Peacemaking and International Issues Committee.

By Jan Orr-Harter

Some of the toughest items were up today, Committee 14 on all issues related to the Middle East.

PC(USA) News Service

MINNEAPOLIS

The 219th General Assembly approved the recommendation of the Middle East Peacemaking Issues Committee on Friday regarding the report “Breaking Down the Walls,” which spotlights the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

The full Assembly action followed a unanimous decision by the committee to accept an amended version of the report, which came to it from the GA Middle East Study Committee (MESC).

By Jan Orr-Harter

With resounding support, the Report 11-06, "Gun Violence, Gospel Values," passed in the final Assembly vote by a show of hands. PPF has supported this, and through PPF National Committee member Jim Atwood, played a critical role. The General Assembly News reported that Rev. Catherine Snyder, Presbyterian Campus minister at Virginia Tech, wept openly as the committee passed the report. Snyder counseled and consoled students and families following the horrific handgun murders committed there by a disturbed student, killing 32 persons in 2007.

Peaceseeker Award recipients Bill Galvin and Mel Duncan

by Jan Orr-Harter

Last night, some 15 of us gathered in the hotel for cookies and milk and to collate the packets for our breakfast guests. Each received Tom Driver's sermon, "Accompaniment: The Great Theme of the Bible," as well as several brochures on aspects of our work, a sign-up slip and a bookmark from the Endowment Campaign.

Today we held our PPF Peace Breakfast at the Hilton hotel in a full room with a strong and well-planned experience of our work and concerns—a tour de PPF.

By Jan Orr-Harter

The committees have all finished their deliberations and have forwarded their proposals to the GA plenary for final votes.

Unarmed European Jews to Carry Humanitarian Aid through Gaza Blockade

Minneapolis, MN – The Presbyterian Peace Fellowship announces a new nonviolent initiative, joining with European Jewish groups to send a boatload of humanitarian supplies to Gaza. The Peace Fellowship has raised $10,000 from its members to lend solidarity to the three groups organizing the unarmed civilian action: European Jews for a Just Peace in the Middle East, Jewish Voice for a Just Peace in the Middle East (both in Germany) and Jews for Justice for the Palestinians (UK).