Last month, I spent a week in Detroit attending the Presbyterian Church’s General Assembly. I took a week off from work to go, returning to the usual co-workers’ queries of "How was your vacation?" I had just spent a week in a rustbelt city that has seen better days, attending meetings from morning till late night in windowless rooms in a cavernous conference center, discussing and debating numerous issues related to church business with hundreds of other Presbyterians. So naturally, my answer was "It was wonderful!"
The Presbyterian Church (USA) is organized very much like the U.S. government (in fact, some think the government was patterned after the Presbyterian system). The General Assembly is the highest governing body of the denomination. Every two years, a General Assembly is held to conduct the business of the church at the national level. Presbyteries (mid-governing bodies) elect pastors and elders to attend, in equal numbers. I was the elected ruling elder commissioner from the Cayuga-Syracuse Presbytery. The Rev. Tracie Martin from Robinson Memorial Church in Syracuse was the elected pastor commissioner from our presbytery.
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