Several YAADs were excited about the overture to change Young Adult Advisory Delegates to Young Adult Commissioners. However, the overture was part of the consent agenda meaning that the overture was voted down with no discussion on the floor of plenary. After a discussion on twitter, I'd like to write a quick blog post about it and the rest of this post will be my opinion on all of this.
With the age discrepancy found among the YAADs, I think that it makes sense to have both YAADs and younger commissioners. Since young adults and youth also have ownership in the church, I think that there should definitely be more voting eligible representation of our generation in General Assembly. I met one person my age in my committee who is a Ruling Elder Commissioner, meaning that he is 21 and can vote in plenary proceedings.
We are all very passionate about our church and I personally would like the opportunity to vote at the next General Assembly or assemblies to come.
I don't think that the overture was written particularly well. It only allotted a small amount of young adults to become commissioners and it also sets a separate label on said commissioners. Furthermore, YAADs like remaining advisory delegates because they like that their opinion influences commissioners. Therefore, my conclusion after all of this is for the church to make an intentional effort to encourage young people to become ordained as elders and then serve as commissioners to future general assemblies.
If we truly believe that young people are the church and not the future of the church, I think we need to have more intentional dialogue about how we can make young adults a more integral part of the voting procedures. That's just me.
For those interested in viewing the overture, click here.
I welcome anyone's thoughts on this in the comment section. I am encouraged by the conversations on twitter about this matter and I think it's a great segway into more dialogue within the church.
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