Ordained to the ministry only three weeks earlier, the Rev. Ekram Kachu told those attending General Assembly’s closing worship Saturday that prayer is “about trusting in God while we are living in difficult times.”

Young Adult Advisory Delegates put their money where their hearts were during Saturday’s closing plenary, directing a $1,605 special offering they collected toward causes important to the General Assembly’s co-moderators and stated clerk.

The 113th New Wilmington Mission Conference (NWMC), regarded as the oldest annual mission conference in the U.S., will be held on the campus of Westminster College in New Wilmington, Pennsylvania, July 20–27.

In an unusual move, commissioners of the 223rd General Assembly (2018), waited until the Saturday morning plenary to approve an increase in the per capita rate to $8.95 for the next two years after postponing the vote on Friday night in an attempt to assure the increase covers the financial implications of all actions taken by this assembly.

The 223^rd General Assembly swiftly took up Middle East issues in a late-night session in St. Louis on Friday night. Among the action items was the approval of an overture asking RE/MAX, LLC to end the sale and rental of property in the Israeli settlement colonies in East Jerusalem and the West Bank. The overture also urges members of the company’s networks in the US not to refer clients to agents and brokers who are involved in the sale or rental of settlement properties.