Now our hosting of the 223rd General Assembly in June 2018 is on the horizon – for a few of us it has been looming larger and larger for more than a year! I want to provide an update on what the Committee on Local Arrangements (COLA) has been doing, and what will be coming in the future, some sooner, some not till next year. Many of us involved in planning have noted an air of enthusiasm and eagerness to “get going,” especially following Big Tent.

            COLA is the volunteer group committed to local support and assistance when GA comes to town June 16-23. For more than a year, we have been recruiting folks to lead various committees, and have begun preliminary planning. COLA has Co-Moderators, Rev. Carol DeVaughan and Rev. Cedric Portis, both of whom have appeared before Presbytery to give updates. GA has employed Jennifer Pitcher, a member of First Presbyterian, Kirkwood, as our Executive Coordinator, serving with us through next summer. We will continue to update the Presbytery at each stated meeting, as well as providing updates in the Presbytery’s eNews.

            We hope to have a web site up and running soon which will be the place to find all things “COLA STL 2018.” All of our congregations have received our request for funding support – hosting GA is expensive – and we are gratified by the response we have received. Within the next month churches will be receiving information about possibly hosting GA Commissioners and guests for Sunday worship June 17 and for lunch. Not every congregation will be able to participate in this, because of travel distance, but we will be offering suggestions for ways those more distant can be involved; for example, requesting a special participant in GA as a guest preacher for your service.

For additional communication support, we expect to recruit a person from each congregation to serve as a contact and to help with volunteer recruitment (LCC – Local Church Coordinators). Our volunteer recruitment for the hundreds of people we will need as ushers, communion servers, members of a mass choir, greeters, populating the various information centers, etc., will begin next spring. In the meantime, both Carol DeVaughan and Jennifer Pitcher are available to visit your congregation on Sunday for a “Minute for Mission.” And feel free to call or email Carol or Jennifer if you have questions.