Well, the first day of GA 219 has come to a close. The meeting convened at 1:30 with moderator Bruce Reyes-Chow bringing down the gavel. The afternoon session was spent with housekeeping announcements, brief reports from the moderator and vice-moderator, and various reports from the leadership of the General Assembly Mission Council. A significant amount of time was spent in orienting the commissioners and advisory delegates to the ins and outs of the meetings. As it turned out, the training in using the balloting boxes would stand the voters in good stead later in the day.

After dinner the assembly convened for the election of the moderator. There were six moderatorial candidates. There were nomination speeches and speeches from each of the candidates. Following the speeches, there was a ninety minute period for Q&A for each candidate. After that, the voting began. After two ballots, a question was raised about the vote totals being shown on the big screen. It was discovered that there were almost 200 votes not being counted. So, we stopped the voting and went through a time of voting on whether or not folks had dinner to narrow down the technical issues. During this, a motion was presented to amend the standing rules to allow the lowest vote-getter's name to be deleted from receiving further votes. The motion received a 73% positive vote but failed because an amendment to the standing rules requires a 3/4's vote (75%). So, back to the voting for moderator. After two more ballots, Cynthia Bolbach, an elder from Arlington, VA, First Presbyterian was elected.

After installation and an exchange of gifts from the assembly to the outgoing moderator and vice-moderator, the newly elected moderator declared the assembly to be in recess for the evening. Long day.

'til next time.....