Hi somegalfromcan,

Every one who has been a Commissioner to General Council knows that there is always a remote possibility that the General Council will need to reconvene for a second sitting.

It only happens when there is action that needs to be taken that cannot be dealt with by the General Council Executive.

I have no examples of what such decisions might look like and I am pleasantly relieved to find I'm not such a big nerd to know one.  Never fear, such a big nerd will reveal itself shortly.

Grace and peace to you.

John

My friend posted this link today: http://www.united-in-learning.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&Itemid=486&id=106

I'm still not sure of the details, however it looks like it will be happening online and via conference call on November 16th.

Hi somegalfromcan,

Remits are the only way that The United Church of Canada can make a change to the Basis of Union.  There are three categories of remits.

Category 1 remits deal with wording or editorial changes to the Basis of Union.

Category 2 remits deal with significant changes to the Basis of Union which are not considered denomination shaping

Category 3 remits are for substantive changes to the Basis of Union which are denomination shaping.

Category 1 and Category 2 remits are voted on at the Presbytery level only.  Category 3 remits are voted on by Presbyteries and Pastoral Charges (such as the remit to include additional material to the doctrinal section of the Basis of Union).

GC will reconvene to determine which of the three remits before them belong to which category and when Presbyteries and possibly congregations need to report their results back to GCE.

Grace and peace to you.

John

I am a commissioner and this is the first I've heard of this. Perhaps I need to check my e-mails better.......

Hi, 

Northwind, I will send you a message with contact information where you can check on this. If there are any other GC commissioners out there who haven't been contacted, please let us know and we'll get you what you need.

Thanks,
Aaron for WonderCafe

My e-mail came in the middle of a busy week, and I missed it.  We are going to have a group of commissioners from Calgary and Southern Alberta meet at the church where I am serving.  I believe we will be connected by teleconference so we will have both video and audio.  I suspect this meeting is a test of the system so if something more substantive would be helpfully addressed before GC 42, it can be organized.

I missed it too. I did get another (?) e-mail after this post, so all is good. Thanks for the PM Aaron.

I have offered to set up video conferencing in my church for commissioners.

I will be setting up a camera, laptop, projector and speakerphone for the ten commissioners in reasonable distance of me and my church. What is interesting is that there will be commissioners from two conferences and two presbyteries in the same room. There may well be an interesting theological point made. GC is required to open with communion. It will be an on-line communion.