Witherspoon's report on the 217^th General Assembly    [6-30-06]

Doug King and Gene TeSelle offer a summary report and commentary on the recent General Assembly.  It begins:

The 217th General Assembly was a "down the middle" Assembly. It elected a Moderator who seemed moderate and open-minded. It approved the report of the Theological Task Force (TTF) on the Peace, Unity, and Purity of the Church (for short, "PUP Report"), which most regard as offering more leeway for the ordination of gay and lesbian, bisexual and transgender (GLBT) church members. But it resolutely refused to consider amending the Book of Order to delete the prohibition in G-6.0106b.

This may be a typical "approach/avoidance" pattern. The closer you come to doing something new, the more you hesitate. Then it seems more comfortable to make one change at a time, putting other issues on hold for the time being.

The full report >>

Dealing with your computer's security settings may help
[5-31-06]

Thanks to Kathy Keener-Han, who writes:

Somewhere on JustPresby's or Witherspoon's site I read notes about what it takes to log onto to LES to read the GA business. With your warning, I read your hints, the newly posted hints from the LES staff (Dennis), and tried it.

What I found out (and was confirmed today by Dennis [one of Les’s experts]):

If one uses Norton for internet security, he/she must go into the Anti-Spam tab and turn off the Ad Blocking and Pop-up Blocking.

Most of us have multiple programs that provide this type of blocking; the others can be left "on" while the Norton ones are turned off during this GA season.

Kathy Keener-Han

More on security problems –

The on-line tutorial for Les offers further guidance on reconfiguring your security settings so Les is designated as a "trusted site," and he won’t feel uncomfortable.

You can read them for yourself in the tutorial >>

But if you can’t access Les, that may be a problem. So we’ll post here the PDF file from the manual, which includes screen shots to help you see what things should look like. We hope it helps!
 

If you have discovered ways to make Les work for you, why not share you knowledge?

Have you learned to love Les yet?
[by Doug King -- 5-23-06]

We have heard a few mutterings of distress over the past couple weeks, from people who have been frustrated by "Les," the on-line system for accessing all the documents related to the business of the coming General Assembly – overtures, committee reports, and much more.

We don’t pretend to have mastered Les, but we have discovered a few things that might help you in your distress:

1. Can’t find Les at all?

Go to the PC(USA) web site, scroll down the page a bit, and click on the General Assembly logo on the right side of the page. That will take you to the General Assembly page. (Or just click here and save one step.) Click on the logo for Les, near the top of the page – or just click here and see if that does the job. (It works for some, not for others. Why? One of those great Divine Mysteries.) If that works, save it in your browser, so you don’t have to go all through this every time you want to see Les.

Now you can register! The advantages of registering is that you can save links to particular documents you may need to revisit, and make notes to go with them. To register, use the box in the upper right corner of the page. And to come back to your own stuff, just enter your user name and password, and click on "Log in."

Too lazy to register? You can access the documents without registering – just can’t save them and make your own notes.

2. Can’t print documents for yourself?

They’re working on that.

Right now, they’re saying on Les’ home page:

First, those using Les on a PC with Internet Explorer can now print items of business. When viewing an item you wish to print, point your cursor to the white "Item" box, which can be found near the My Note and My Item boxes (immediately above the right-hand pane of the screen). From the drop down menu, you will see the option that reads "Printer Friendly". Click this, and the item will appear in a screen format suitable for printing. To print this view, simply use your browser's print function. You do this by selecting File in the upper left corner, and then Print from the drop down menu. When you have printed the item, click on the Back to Item link to return to Les.  

You use an Apple Macintosh? Too bad!  Maybe they’ll get something worked out for you, too. (You’d think Presbyterians would favor something named Macintosh, but not so far.)

3. Need other help?

If you’re female, you’ve probably done this; if you’re a male, give it a try: Read the directions. Start with what you find on the home page, when you first access Les. If that’s not enough, send a note to AskLes@ctr.pcusa.org We’ve found them (him?) quite helpful on a couple occasions. Whoever is working on this project is working hard, trying to respond to suggestions and questions. It’s a work in progress, so patience and kindness will be helpful.

4. Going crazy trying to print documents for yourself, or to save them on your computer?

Here’s a great chance to practice the virtue of patience, and test the power of prayer. For starters, see the paragraph under point 2 above. Then, if my humble experience is any guide, sometimes you can use your mouse to select some or all of the text in the document. You may have to try a few times to get your cursor in just the right place. (That’s cursor, not curser. Fight that temptation!)

You may be doing far better at working with Les than some of the rest of us. If you have discovered ways to make Les work for you, why not share you knowledge?