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Note #8008 from PCUSA NEWS to PRESBYNEWS:

Surprised by change
03491
November 14, 2003

Surprised by change

A message from the moderator

by the Rev. Susan R. Andrews
Moderator, 215th General Assembly

BETHESDA, MD - I anticipated that it would happen, but not this soon. I
assumed that I would change, but only after a year of listening and learning.
But I am already a different person - deeper and richer than I was last May
when I was elected Moderator of the 215th General Assembly. The church of
Jesus Christ has changed me. And I am grateful.

Worship has recreated me with the joy of our faith. Ghanaian dance and
Colombian maracas. Ethereal chants and heart-stopping fugues. Powerful
witnesses and prophetic sermons. Liturgical dancers stirring up the waters of
baptism and painters splashing the Word on canvas. Children rapping and
choirs proclaiming. Large and small, reverent and boisterous, multi-sensory
and multicultural, we Presbyterians worship seriously and beautifully and
differently.

Mission has reconnected me to the muscle of our faith. Farmers' markets
raising funds for hunger. Inner-city churches transforming drug addicts,
prostitutes, and motherless children. Comfortable Christians becoming
uncomfortable in the heat and hope of Malawi. Small church Iowans reaching
out to feed, clothe, and educate the poor. A Korean congregation becoming a
Church of All Nations - welcoming Taiwanese and Japanese, Africans and
African-Americans, Caucasians with adopted Asian children.

Conservative, liberal, or somewhere in between, we Presbyterians agree that
mission is the way we magnify the Almighty.

And then, conflict has re-rooted me in the passion of our faith. Some of us
yearn for the purity of Christ's love to cleanse all the sin and all the
sinners in the world. Others of us yearn for the peace that passes all
understanding - a just, graceful shalom that welcomes all equally in the name
of God.

But none of us quite yearns enough for the unity that somehow can weave the
peace and purity into a reconciled Presbyterian family. Though there is joy
in worship and muscle in mission, our conflict continues to strain the
ligaments of love in our Presbyterian part of the body of Christ.

I am joyful, hopeful, and worried as I travel around our beloved church. Most
of all, I am grateful for the tenacious Spirit who changes me - and us - so
that we might discern what is the will and the way of God.

May it be so.

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