{"id":169,"date":"2015-06-02T22:57:38","date_gmt":"2015-06-02T22:57:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/old-saratoga.rcachurches.org\/?p=169"},"modified":"2015-06-03T00:36:30","modified_gmt":"2015-06-03T00:36:30","slug":"general-synod-1-getting-ready","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/old-saratoga.rcachurches.org\/?p=169","title":{"rendered":"General Synod 1 – Getting Ready"},"content":{"rendered":"

I am privileged this year to be selected (I volunteered) to be an Elder delegate for the Schenectady Classis to the RCA’s General Synod. \u00a0The other delegates from Schenectady are the Rev. Janet Vincent (from Bacon Hill and the past President of the Classis), Rev. Ann Reilly (solo pastor at State Street Presbyterian Church and the Regional Synod of Albany Communications Coordinator), and Elder Carol “Kitt” Jackson (from Altamont).<\/p>\n

On June 1 I sat through an hour long webinar on the General Synod, how it operates, and what kind of procedures will be followed. \u00a0At the beginning there was a comment about the organization of the RCA. \u00a0Although some might see the General Synod as the “top” governing body of the church, in actuality, the RCA’s table of organization shows the churches, and their Consistories, as the top.<\/p>\n

\"relationships\"<\/a><\/p>\n

We were also asked to consider 1 Corinthians 12:12-14<\/p>\n

12\u00a0<\/sup>Just as a body, though one, has many parts, but all its many parts form one body, so it is with Christ.<\/span> 13\u00a0<\/sup>For we were all baptized by[c<\/a>]<\/sup> one Spirit so as to form one body\u2014whether Jews or Gentiles, slave or free\u2014and we were all given the one Spirit to drink.<\/span> 14\u00a0<\/sup>Even so the body is not made up of one part but of many.<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Emphasis during the webinar was also placed on the idea that every delegate should contribute. \u00a0Even “new” delegates who have never been to a General Synod before, like me, should fully participate and share their views.<\/p>\n

There is a 269 page workbook that has been provided for the Synod. \u00a0We were all encouraged, multiple times, to read the workbook (“skim through once quickly, and then go back and read it more thoroughly”). \u00a0I have done the skim through part already, spending more time on parts that looked interesting. \u00a0This week I’m going to start reading through the entire workbook more thoroughly, making notes as I go.<\/p>\n

The Synod is a five-day event, with morning, afternoon, and evening work sessions interspersed with worship and workshops. \u00a0Since I’m going to have to report back to the Consistory of Old Saratoga as well as the Schenectady Classis, I thought it would be helpful to “blog” about it. \u00a0This will also serve the purpose of keeping the church and anyone interested up-to-date on what I’m doing and what I think about it. \u00a0Since this is my first effort at blogging, we’ll have to see how well it works.<\/p>\n

Please pray for me and the church.<\/p>\n

Patrick Woomer<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I am privileged this year to be selected (I volunteered) to be an Elder delegate for the Schenectady Classis to the RCA’s General Synod. \u00a0The other delegates from Schenectady are the Rev. Janet Vincent (from Bacon Hill and the past President of the Classis), Rev. Ann Reilly (solo pastor at State Street Presbyterian Church and … [Read more…]<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["entry","post","publish","author-oldsaratoga","post-169","format-standard","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/old-saratoga.rcachurches.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/169","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/old-saratoga.rcachurches.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/old-saratoga.rcachurches.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/old-saratoga.rcachurches.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/old-saratoga.rcachurches.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=169"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"http:\/\/old-saratoga.rcachurches.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/169\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":185,"href":"http:\/\/old-saratoga.rcachurches.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/169\/revisions\/185"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/old-saratoga.rcachurches.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=169"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/old-saratoga.rcachurches.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=169"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/old-saratoga.rcachurches.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=169"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}