Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Presbyterian Church(U.S.A) has announced Tuesday that its General Assembly this year will be held online only during June19 and June 26-27, for the first time in their history.
The final decision was made as the staff of Office of the General Assembly received information Tuesday that prompted a quick call with the Committee on the Office of the General Assembly(COGA).
"As we have discussed, we knew we would reach a point in time in our contract with the Baltimore Convention Center and hotels where they would not be able to meet the agreed upon services listed in our contracts and that day is today," said Julia Henderson, OGA's interim director of assembly operations.
"This is a force majeure. We need to let them know we are canceling because they cannot meet their obligations," Henderson added.
Force majeure is a clause in contracts that frees both parties from liability or obligation when an extraordinary event or circumstance beyond the control of the contractual parties prevents services from being performed, the website noted.
Some COGA members asked whether the church would be able to recoup all deposits to this point. OGA officials believe they will.
"We will send invitations to mid council leaders to attend one or two sessions next week with OGA staff," said Henderson.
"We will appeal to them to help us to ensure commissioners and advisory delegates are ready to go. We are also urging those commissioners who are no longer available to serve to let the stated clerk know as soon as possible."
COGA will conduct another virtual meeting on Thursday, April 23, to continue work on finalizing the assembly agenda including technical training for commissioners and advisory delegates, participation in a virtual Poor People's Campaign event, Bible study and electronic group gatherings.
On the website, a brief plans were mentioned as Question& Answer session for moderator candidature on Friday, June 19 (followed by the election of a new moderators on Friday, June 19, opening worship, two plenaries on Friday, June 26 and critical business, three plenaries including stated clerk election and budget, on Saturday, June 27.
