Dispatches from GA227: Exhaustion, division, and the search for grace

Former moderator Rev. Dr. Fahed Abu-Akel is a native of Galilee. He addressed commissioners regarding the genocide overture. Photo: Gerald Farinas.

This is not the update I had planned to write regarding our deliberations at the PC(USA) General Assembly, but the hour has grown late. Today, our final plenary session lasted until nearly 11 p.m. We met our duties as commissioners amid flared tempers and deeply hurt feelings, both on and off the plenary floor.

Much of our time was dedicated to a difficult exposition of our stance on the genocide in Palestine and the West Bank at the hands of the Israeli administration. The body wrestled with how to stake our defiance against the Israeli destruction of Palestinian land and its people, and what we can do as a denomination to demonstrate that stance. We debated whether to call for a formal embargo of Israeli-derived goods and services, or to simply issue a personal call for a boycott.

Much of the friction centered on the decision to name the genocide as such, and how or to what extent we should express any solidarity with Israel. The tension even brought U.S. military veterans to the floor to share opposing views.

We also considered and debated overtures resulting from the botched dismantling of the Presbyterian Mission Agency and the laying off of our mission coworkers, the individuals formerly referred to as missionaries. Among the overtures was a call to create a commission to document what actually happened. Proponents argued we must record what was said and unsaid, what actions were taken, and why people were hurt by the decisions of our national leadership.

The debate grew passionate. Some defended our leadership, arguing that the overture to create a commission sounded like a desire for pure, unadulterated vengeance rather than measured justice. Others countered that this is a matter of accountability and gaining trust so that the denomination can finally move forward.

On another front, our Young Adult Advisory Delegates held a gathering meant to reconcile the heated positions of a conservative activist group, Presbyterians for the Kingdom, with those holding more moderating or progressive stances on LGBTQ inclusion, the theology of women in Church leadership, and the intersection of faith and politics.

I sat tonight feeling deeply frustrated. It seems nearly impossible to reconcile these adversarial positions in a Church that teaches us grace. We are called to extend grace even to those in the room who want to expunge my voice, or voices like mine, from Church authority simply because I happen to be LGBTQ or a person of color.

In the end, we are all intensely passionate about who the Church belongs to. Does it belong to everyone, to some people, or only to a specific group of self-declared superior peoples?

We need prayer, desperately, to help us find Christ’s voice in all of this so we can make the right decisions.