Wider

It may be a bit strange to comment on what I have loved about General Assembly (of the PCUSA) while we are still meeting at 11:04pm on issues that may keep us here well past midnight, but here goes. This was my first General Assembly and (honestly) hopefully not my last. I have been so blessed by the sense of this assembly about focusing on how we widen the circle rather than shrink it, about breaking down walls rather than building them up. The hymn commissioned for this GA reflected this idea...Draw the Welcome Circle Wider, Gather friends and strangers in, Formed of holy breath and stardust, we all are kin...These are the words of the refrain - the verses speak similarly.

I just loved this hymn and the way that the Assembly lived out these words. We weren’t perfect in how we did it throughout but it was our aspirational focus not only for our time together but also for what we are hearing the Spirit speaking to the church as we go forward from the assembly. I am grateful for the ways that Jesus lived this out for us and I am grateful for a denomination that is seeking to do the same.

I took this picture earlier today on a morning walk - I didn’t know there were the ponds around the Arch and was just deeply moved by the way that the reflection made the arch into a circle. It isn’t a perfect circle, but it does make the already big Arch even bigger