At this General Assembly, I saw the struggle of the Presbyterian Church trying to cope with the changing world. I sensed that many recognized the church could not remain as it had been. How can we be faithful to our Lord Jesus Christ while meaningfully engaging in a dialogue with the changing world that surrounds us? That was the big question we were struggling with at this Assembly. The Christian community has been struggling with that question from the very beginning. There was a lengthy debate about the uniqueness of Christ. Behind this debate, I saw that it was not just about the uniqueness of Christ but our own identity. Who are we in the context of this fast changing world? What is our own uniqueness?
General Assembly is a process of our church through which we identify and redefine who we are. We believe that God speaks to us through that process and lets us know His will. Not everyone agrees with decisions we make and not everyone accepts them as God's will for this church but nevertheless we honour the decisions and the process that mould us to be the people of God. No one decision by itself will be perfect and absolute but we trust that in the course of this process, God will make His will clear. This is a very important spiritual process and I saw people participate in it as a spiritual discipline, not merely as a duty. We are constantly reforming ourselves through this process. The Assembly is not a place where I exert my opinions and coerce the court to approve what I want. It is a place where we need to open ourselves, listen to each other and learn from each other. We should humbly take the risk of changing our ideas as we see the revelation of God that is disclosed through this process. I saw the sincerity and openness of the commissioners who debated matters in an orderly manner. One of the Han-Ca Presbytery commissioners shared with me that he was impressed by the tolerance of the people even though they sometimes had very different opinions with each other.
I was personally deeply touched by the testimony of our aboriginal sister and brother. There was a deep sense of the spiritual reality of pain when Cree Elder Irene Lindsay and the Executive Director of the National Residential Schools Survivors' Society, Ted Quewezance spoke so eloquently, sincerely and boldly, of their pain and weaknesses. They chose to be vulnerable. They showed tears in front of a whole crowd but I saw that they were not alone. Many people cried with them. When I looked around, I saw a man crying uncontrollably. When the Moderator gave them a heartfelt hug, my heart was filled with the deep compassion of God who embraced all of us there, especially the ones who shared the pain. Their willingness to be vulnerable brought the Assembly together, deeply mourning our own weaknesses and darkness. At that moment, our differences did not matter. We all felt that we were together. We felt the solidarity that comes not with a decision of a court but from our hearts. There was no more segregation because of race, culture and not even religion. That is the power of the cross.
God of the cross is our uniqueness. Ultimately God brought healing, salvation and justice to the world using the very people who are weak, vulnerable, voiceless and defenseless, not the powerful ones. God on the cross was also weak, vulnerable, voiceless and defenseless. It is a very unique image of God. The Presbyterian Church is going through its own weak and vulnerable time. It is not the time for us to be threatened and become defensive. It is the time to reflect our own weaknesses and vulnerability and hear again Jesus' unique teaching and build on new solidarity with all those who are suffering from pain in this world. It will not only keep us from the temptation of being a "power" religion but it will also renew our spirit to create a spiritual community which constantly redefines and reforms its unique identity. This is the best time to do that. It is not the time to try to revamp our church to be another popular religion or to go back to our glorious days but to rethink the essence of Jesus' teaching and be true disciples. Suffering in this world and our own suffering will be a good teacher. Not only does it teache us the humility to embrace our own weaknesses but also the hope for justice in this world. When Jesus touched those who suffer, it not only healed them from pain but it also renewed them and made them the people of hope. That hope is the power of Christians. That is the uniqueness of our existence in this world, a uniqueness which cannot come by a court's decision but by being in solidarity with those who suffer.
