Musings from the Pastor

Pastor Mark Goes to Minneapolis

...for the Presbyterian General Assembly in July. Do you know the film "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington" where Jimmy Stewart plays the well-meaning amateur who is elevated to Senate? The film shows how one person and the person's community can make a difference. Well, I'm no Jimmy Stewart. But one church can make a real difference. So I feel something like "Mr. Smith" in being invited to go to the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (USA).

In the Presbyterian Church (USA), national decisions begin in local congregations. A local congregation creates an "overture" for its church council, called a Session, to deliberate. If the Session approves the overture, the overture is sent to the local body of Presbyterians called a presbytery.

A presbytery discusses it, debates, and discerns whether or not to send it to our national meeting, called the General Assembly. General Assembly meets every-other-year to discern God's leading on major issues of the day. General Assembly receives overtures from presbyteries, and presbyteries send a person to be an "overture advocate" for each overture. Our National Capital Presbytery invited me to go to the General Assembly in July to give voice to the "Charter for Compassion."

This all started when a friend sent me the video of the Charter for Compassion. It so moved me. Our Session and sent the Charter, through Presbytery, to the General Assembly for discussion this summer.

The Charter

Urges people to embody compassion;
Urges us to see others, and their traditions, with eyes of compassion;
Builds civil discourse in our often polarized society;
Encourages people to find compassion at the heart of their own spiritual traditions;
Aims to spark people's moral and spiritual imagination for cooperative community compassion projects;
Hopes to have 1 million signatures when it is presented to the United Nations General Assembly this autumn.

If the General Assembly endorses the Charter for Compassion, we will be the first American denomination to do so. A PCUSA endorsement would

Boldly proclaim that we Presbyterians, in the name of Christ, seek to live compassionately;
Encourage each PCUSA congregation and member to live by compassion and to sign on to the Charter;
Would encourage other American Christian denominations and other religious bodies in the U.S. to sign on.

What can you do?

Pray for me and for the Charter at General Assembly! I have to admit being a little scared of speaking at a national event. This is new for me.
Learn more about the General Assembly: http://www.pcusa.org/ga219/
Sign on to, the Charter for Compassion: http://charterforcompassion.org/
Share the Charter with friends and colleagues.
Get imaginative! Talk with me about how we can share the Charter for Compassion with our community. Could Takoma Park have a "Day of Compassion"?
Embody compassion, as Christ does.

One person - you, me, each of us, makes a difference.

"When Jesus saw the crowds, he had compassion for them?." (Matthew 9:36).

Yours in Christ,
Pastor Mark Greiner
Takoma Park Presbyterian Church

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