Catching Up

Wow!  They have kept us busy.  Monday and Tuesday were spent in committee meetings.  My committee is Ecumenical and Interfaith Relations.  Our work included moving the final approval of the Confession of Belhar for inclusion in the book of order.  We heard from a number of people, including Stated Clerk Grady Parsons.

The coolest thing is that my assigned seat for all meetings was next one of the Ecumenical Advisory Delegates, Motlalentwa Betha, who is the vice moderator of the the Uniting Reformed Church of South Africa.  He is an amazing man and I enjoyed much conversation with him.  He also shared his story of how he was a poor young boy on a farm in South Africa with little hope for anything but a life of poverty on the farm.  Amazingly, he was able to begin an education and ultimately go to seminary and become a pastor.  Now he is one of the top religious leaders in South Africa.  Here are photos of him with me.



In addition to Belhar, our committee was tasked with reviewing the work of the General Assembly  Committee on Ecumenical and Interfaith Relations (GACEIR).  We had to act on several pieces of business, review minutes and evaluate a self-study the committee had done to plan its work for the next several years.  In the course of that, we also heard from a number of other Ecumenical partners who are attending GA as observers or advisory delegates.  That was very enlightening.

I now have a much greater appreciation for the work the PCUSA does in Ecumenical and Interfaith Relations.  I am very proud of our long tradition of leadership and many years we've supported this work - working toward the unity of the church to be a prophetic voice in the world.

We also acted on two related Commissioner Overtures, one on Celebrating the 500th anniversary of the Reformation and the other to encourage prayer for the many Christians in the world who are persecuted for their belief.

Tuesday, after our committee finished, I took a couple of hours to travel to the Rose Garden in Washington Park.  This large garden contains thousands of roses, test gardens, used in developing roses.  Below are some pictures, including one with Mt. Hood visible in the background.  It was a beautiful place and a beautiful day.






The other amazing thing that happened at the Rose Garden was that I met two college age young women who were in Portland for a research project but are international students from Russia and Sudan at Luther College in Decorah, Iowa where my sone Andy is a professor - and they knew him. Is it a small world or what?

Tuesday evening all of the Whitewater Valley people here met for a nice dinner together.  Alan Thames, Kristy Quinn, Cheryl Montgomery, Youngsoo An, Jon Reinking, Judy Trabue and me.  Unfortunately our Young Adult Advisory Delegate (YAAD), Grace German, was not able to join us.  She was assigned to one of the busiest committees and they did not finish their work until 9:30 PM.  We missed you, Grace!