Hello Presbyland! This is Kristin Williams, CoCo member and certified Parliamentary procedure nerd, having a lovely time following motions, amendments, substitute amendments, minority reports et al. at the Presbyterian General Assembly. I'm guest blogging today and hoping to fill y'all in on what is going on here in scenic Birmingham, Alabama.

So, General Assembly started off yesterday and I'm here with some fellow CoCo members, Kelsey, Brianne, and thousands of other Presbyterians. The Assembly is here to do the work of the church-- issue statements, make decisions, amend our constitution and so on. We started off last night with the election of the new moderator. The election involved speeches and a question-and-answer period, and after three votes, we had a new moderator, the Rev. Joan Gray. The CoCo members sat in the back of the assembly room and had our share of personal "peanut gallery" commentary on each of the candidates :-) I was pleasantly surprised with the candor of the candidates' responses, in general, and I think it was a pretty good way to ease into the week of sometimes overwhelmingly nuanced proceedings.

I wasn't totally new to GA, as I attended the 216th General Assembly in 2004 in Richmond, VA as a Youth Advisory Delegate. Nonetheless, it's interesting and informative to be at this Assembly in a different capacity. Last time, I had voice and vote in committee, and a voice on plenary floor (when the whole assembly meets together). This year, I can't speak in committees or plenary or vote. But, now I have a more flexible agenda, and I, along with the other CoCo members here, are tracking certain issues and committees that are dealing with issues pertinent to Presbyterian women. Also, we're all just trying to learn more about the church and how it works and how we fit into that!

Today we had committee meetings all day long, and saw the work of committees up close and personal, for better or worse! I'm observing Committee 12: Church Growth and Christian Education, and today we had open hearing and discussions and votes on older adult ministries, the ordination of Christian educators, as well as other items. To be honest, parts of it are completely boring and sometimes the parliamentary procedure gets so convoluted that hardly any one can even figure out when to vote for what. But, the church does provide resource people and parliamentarians for every committee, and everybody is working really hard to make sure the commissioners and delegates understand what's going on and keep things running smoothly, so I ought to give them some credit! I enjoyed watching the proceedings of the committee and love it when I catch parliamentary procedures errors (ok, I told you I was a parliamentary procedure nerd!). Mostly, it's really cool to watch policy being made and to feel like a part of the inner mechanisms of the PCUSA. Oh, and I testified in an open hearing today, which was kinda nifty and sounds far more intense than it actually was. Basically, I talked for 2 minutes to a committee that's reviewing the Advocacy Committee on Women's Concerns and told them about the positive work of ACWC and how we at NNPCW have a beneficial working relationship with them and how they support us and our work. I was a little nervous, but it was fun!

The week will be interesting, especially with the hot-button issues coming before the Assembly (homosexual ordination, divestment, educator ordination, the Peace, Unity and Purity report and so on). Regardless of whether or not GA's decisions are aligned with my personal beliefs, I'm excited and invigorated to be here. Not only am I watching PCUSA policy and polity being shaped, but I get to meet tons of interesting people who are doing all sorts of diverse and important things in the life of our church. Plus, I get to hang out with some wonderful Presbyterian women. Oh, and drink some sweet tea!