Page 14 - Presbyterian Connection Fall 2025

14 FALL 2025
ConnectionP R E S B Y T E R I A N
presbyterian.ca
Continued from page 13
Young Adult Observers Sabrina
MacDonald and Laurie McKay
make a presentation to the Rev. Dr.
Wayne Smith, Moderator of the 1982
General Assembly.
as YARs—and they have been a
fixture at every General Assem-
bly of The Presbyterian Church
in Canada for more than half a
century.
What were originally called
Young Adult Observers first ap-
peared at the 1969 General As-
sembly. This was a time of tre-
mendous change in the church
and in society at large; young
people wanted to have a mean-
ingful say in how storied institu-
tions were run. Indeed, the 1967
General Assembly had decided
“...that young adults should be
drawn more fully into the life and
work of the church, and that the
courts of the church should be
asked to appoint capable young
adults to boards and committees
to share in planning and decision
making” (1969 A&P, 389).
To that end, ten YAOs were
identified by the National Young
Adult Steering Committee, in
consultation with the Board of
Christian Education, to represent
various para-church organiza-
tions at General Assembly. Four
represented a group called Action
for Church Transformation (ACT);
three were drawn from the Pres-
byterian Young People’s Society,
and the remaining three hailed
from Christian groups active on
university campuses across the
country. Of that inaugural group
of YAOs, two came from Brit-
ish Columbia, one from Alberta,
four from Ontario, one from Que-
bec and two from Nova Scotia.
Among the pressing topics of
concern for these YAOs were
Indigenous issues, the status of
women, violence, and perhaps
not surprisingly, the challenges of
communication within the PCC.
Dawn Ross, representing Uni-
versity Hill Church in Vancouver,
B.C., was invited to address the
1969 General Assembly during its
thirteenth sederunt—and she did
not mince words in expressing
her and her fellow YAOs’ frustra-
tion with how the PCC conducted
its affairs. “Some of us question
whether or not the structure itself
is worth getting involved with and
worth changing,” Dawn lament-
ed. “Some of us are considering
leaving the institutional church,
joining countless others who
have done the same for similar
reasons. The situation is serious.”
Dawn did, however, acknowledge
that the fact that she and the other
YAOs were at Assembly at all was
in itself “a major step forward”
(1969 A&P, 100–101).
This tension between frustra-
tion with the present and hope
for the future would prove to be
a prevailing theme for YAOs and
YARs at almost every General As-
sembly from then on.
YAOs at the 1970 General As-
sembly, for example, proposed a
range of ambitious possibilities
for how the PCC might revitalize
youth ministry. “Young people cry
out for action to solve the prob-
lems in today’s world,” exclaimed
the YAOs, in their report in that
year’s Acts & Proceedings. Simi-
lar words have been articulated
at Assemblies through to the pre-
sent day.
A significant change occurred
in 1973, when the Board of Chris-
tian Education recommended to
General Assembly that YAOs be
nominated by one half of the pres-
Young Adult Representatives gather for a group photo following the 2012 General Assembly.
byteries on a rotational basis—a
practice that enabled young peo-
ple from across Canada to at-
tend General Assembly. Indeed,
long before the emergence of
biennial national events such as
Canada Youth, the YAO program
functioned as a kind of de facto
forum for Presbyterian youth to
exchange ideas at a national level.
And what was it like to serve
as a YAO during this period?
“Sederunts were long, and often
went overtime,” recalled the Rev.
James T. Hurd, who served as a
YAO at the 1981 General Assem-
bly and who has been a familiar
face at most Assemblies since.
“We had less time to rest, relax,
or work informally. There were a
lot of meetings going on between
sederunts.” James also recalled
that it was more challenging to
follow the business of Assem-
bly—and unlike the experience of
YARs in recent years, the thought
of spontaneously getting up to
speak to a recommendation or
other matter at a microphone was
out of the question. “Young Adult
Observers were only permitted to
speak if a commissioner first got
up and made a motion, duly sec-
onded, for them to do so.”
YAOs did, however, have their
lighter moments. Mealtimes of-
fered YAOs a chance to get to
know one another, particularly
during the free evening granted to
commissioners and other partici-
pants: for example, those attend-
ing the 1982 General Assembly
had supper at Toronto’s famous
Organ Grinder restaurant, while
those in 1985 travelled to Crieff
Hills Retreat & Conference Centre
for an evening of food and fellow-
ship. The daily round of comings
and goings at Assembly also ena-
bled the YAOs to meet and mingle
with a broad cross-section of the
Young Adult Representatives present a skit at the 2012 General Assembly.
YARs at the 2025 General Assembly give their advisory vote.
PCC and its leadership. “Perhaps
in 2009, when the General As-
you came across us in the eleva-
sembly “...adopted a recommen-
tor discussing the sederunt we
dation to grant an advisory vote
had just attended, or perhaps you
to young adult representatives
shared a lunch table with us,”
and student representatives that
noted the YAOs in their report to
permits them to vote on matters
the 1990 General Assembly. “Did
selected by them or suggested to
you notice anything? In a few
them by the Moderator or the As-
short days we have compared
sembly itself” (2017 A&P, 238).
ideas, views, and opinions dis-
While the advisory vote does not
covering that we share common
carry the official weight of a com-
goals and ideals.”
missioner vote, it has become
A notable tradition emerging in
a powerful tool in giving YARs
the latter part of the 1980s was
a voice at General Assembly—
the YAO skit. Many of these have
something that YAOs a generation
been extremely creative, some-
before could only dream of.
times involving parodies of popu-
With the Presbyterian Young
lar songs. These skits have oc-
People’s Society having largely
casionally been used to voice the
faded into history, and with na-
YARs’ concerns or displeasure
tional youth conferences such
with some aspect of Assembly—
as Canada Youth/uplift occurring
or the church in general. In 1994,
biennially, the gathering of Young
Young Adult Representatives (as
Adult Representatives at General
they were now called) sang, to
Assembly has become the only
the tune Camp Granada, a ditty
major, annual occasion at which
that began:
the youth of the PCC make their
Moderator and those before us
voice heard. And make it heard
 We present to you the YAREE
they do. “Despite our dwindling
chorus
numbers, the PCC is still working
 Don’t confuse us, please don’t
with the Spirit to enact change,”
bore us
remarked one YAR at the 2025
 But most of all we ask that
General Assembly. “We care
none of you ignore us.
deeply about the church and
Perhaps the most notable
about what it could be doing to
shift in the YAR story occurred
make a difference.”
150 Years
of The Presbyterian Church in Canada
presbyterian.ca/150