Interview with Bruce Reyes-Chow and Shawn’s Final GA Reflections
Bruce (and his people) were kind enough to give me fifteen minutes of his time. Bruce talked about how his election is symbolic and opens the door for conversation, but it is not “a savior moment” for the PC(USA). He also challenged all the people who are excited about his election to be willing to step up and do their part over the next two years.
Download the conversation here.
And here are my final Friday night reflections from General Assembly.
June 26th, 2008 at 8:43 am
Thanks to Bruce for this informative and inspiring interview. I hope people will step up to the plate, as he calls for them to do. I will try to in my (very small) corner. Good luck to the new moderator!
June 26th, 2008 at 3:00 pm
I’ll certainly try!
June 27th, 2008 at 11:11 am
Upon reading of Eugene Peterson’s writings on spiritual direction in which he cautions pastors from the temptation of “the Messiah complex”, I would also agree that this is not a “savior” moment for the PCUSA.
It is, however, emphatically a new beginning — a providential window of opportunity by which I sense the Holy Spirit is continuing by God’s grace upon us to open [up] a/the [new] way for us to move forward in faith together through ongoing dialogue in real conversation.
I appreciate the “no elephants in the room” approach that appears to characterize our new moderator’s discussion(s). Thank you, Bruce, for the way in which you engage(d) the questions [posed to the candidates for moderator] so transparently, authentically dealing with the presenting issue(s) to get at the heart of the matter. I commend you for attempting to do so with referential integrity in a manner that would speak to and be understood by folks of various persuasions across the theological spectrum. In your responses, I, as both a previous ‘liberal progressive’ and now ‘conservative evangelical, charismatic’ heard you addressing each presenter along with the whole of the gathered assembly. (It reminded me of when Abraham Lincoln presided over the government of and for all the people through the Gettysburg Address toward the end of the struggle of the civil war. Embattled men serving from all sides heard those words as if spoken specifically to and for each and every one of them there both individually and collectively, no matter what side they were on.)
I imagine many of us deep down inside in our inner heart of hearts longing for a genuine wrestling with the way, the truth, and the life that would set us free toward becoming a church unbound by the saving gospel of Jesus the Christ. We yearn to see the real Jesus ministering in our midst, our hands and feet embodying His, our hearts reflecting His heart of compassion toward others, our effective missional praxis together as one body refining and even transcending our theology/ies, our spirits enfolded as one in His Spirit among us. Would that God’s name and reknown be realized as our true and ultimate desire — that we would together delight in the Lord Who would give us the desire of our heart for God’s glory and the advancement of the kingdom at hand.
Fellow colleagues in ministry and other presbyters in the PCUSA — we absolutely must seize this God-given moment in our journey in faith together. While this may not be a “savior moment” for the PCUSA, one might think of it as The Savior’s moment for, in, with and through the PCUSA. Come let us reason well with one another, says the Lord, and see if we might experience God gathering us, revealing the great I AM making all things new!
With prayers of intercession, humbled before the throne of grace, for the sake of the beloved community, together with you, I remain
In Christ’s Service,
Rex Espiritu
July 5th, 2008 at 11:46 pm
Rex . . . I too hope to play a part in some kind of movement that is being fueled by the Spirit. Your words are both too kind and also give me some pause at the magnitude of the journey we are all upon. Peace - Bruce