General Assembly Update
Here’s what happened yesterday.
The Assembly passed the modifications to the Heidelberg Catechism. These are intended to render a more faithful translation of the original German to English, removing some changes made by the 1962 translators due to their personal biases. All other Reformed denomination have already made this change. The conservatives are as expected bleating loudly about what they call “revisionism” by removing “homosexual perversions” from the confession.
The process works this way. This vote creates a study committee to recommend changes to the next General Assembly in 2010. That GA must vote affirmatively, and then send the change to the presbyteries. 2/3 of the presbyteries must vote affirmatively, and then the following GA (2012) must vote again in favor of the change. Then it takes effect.
The GA also approved the same process for adding the Belhar Confession to the Book of Confessions. That was surprisingly on a voice vote with no discussion. When a few commissioners asked if people knew what they were voting on, the assembly made it clear that they did.
The Assembly sent the Form of Government revision to a new task force made up of the original task force plus nominees by the GA Moderator. That group is tasked with taking another look at the revision and bringing it back to the next GA. Most people acknowledged that there were some serious flaws that would doom the revision at presbyteries.
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The Assembly also added a Presbyterian Men representative to the GA Mission Council. I support this action – if we’re going to have a Presbyterian Women member we need equal representation.
The Assembly created a special account and increase in per capita of $0.92 per member, or $50,000 per presbytery or $2,000,000 in order to defend against lawsuits filed by congregations seeking to leave the denomination to join the New Wineskins presbytery of the Evangelical Presbyterian Church. This was a commissioner resolution seeking $185,000 in reimbursement for Northern New England to cover HALF of its costs related to ONE church suing them as part of leaving. I support this action, and decry the churches that refuse to follow our polity and graceful settle their affairs with their presbytery when they choose to leave. I also decry presbyteries that do not act with grace when presented with congregations that want to leave. Last, I have to wonder how the EPC views congregations that choose not to follow our polity on the way out – what will they do in the EPC?
The Assembly made it easier to change the Standing Rules of the General Assembly – requiring a majority vote of all present and voting rather than 2/3 of all enrolled members. The Assembly did not make a similar change to Suspending the rules – suspending should be harder than amending.
That’s about it for the big stuff. Today is gonna be a fun one.
So what’s going on at General Assembly?
My loyal readers may be wondering why I haven’t posted much about General Assembly.
The truth is that the kerfluffle about my blog and my local congregation has consumed most of my blogging energy. I am following General Assembly, though this year it’s not with the thought of “I might get there someday” but rather “I’m never gonna get there”.
But I am following it.
So here’s what’s going on.
Sexuality and Ordination
The committees involved (the sexuality question kinda got split between two committees) passed resolutions recommending changes to the Book of Order or Authoritative Interpretations that would essentially allow two things:
- Scruples could be declared by an ordained officer at the time of examination. The examining body (and only that body) would be able to decide whether or not to accept that scruple. The word Scruple was not used. This was passed as an Authoritative Interpretation.
- To reword G-6.0106b, replacing the famous “marriage between a man and a woman or chastity in singleness” with: Those who are called to ordained service in the church, by their assent to the constitutional questions for ordination and installation (W-4.4003), pledge themselves to live lives obedient to Jesus Christ the Head of the Church, striving to follow where he leads through the witness of the Scriptures, and to understand the Scriptures through the instruction of the Confessions. In so doing, they declare their fidelity to the standards of the Church. Each governing body charged with examination for ordination and/or installation (G-14.0240 and G-14.0450) establishes the candidate’s sincere efforts to adhere to these standards. This would essentially allow gay ordination in presbyteries or congregations that allow it. This resolution also nullifies the 1978 and 1979 Authoritative Interpretations and any such later action that homosexuality is a bar to ordination. This resolution also requires the examining body to be sure that the person is willing to assent to the ordination vows before approving them.
The committee also turned down an overture that would redefine marriage as between two persons, rather than between a man and a woman. That committee turned back an attempt to solidify the definition of marriage as between a man and a woman, instead commenting that this issue is still in question in our denomination.
Big stuff, eh? Remember that this is just the committee work – the whole General Assembly votes later.
The General Assembly as a whole passed a resolution to create a sexuality curriculum for youth, choosing NOT to state specifics about what must be included. This was passed after a lively debate that included a minister from KY (speaking against the curriculum) revealing on the floor of GA that his daughter has or had a sexually transmitted disease.
Christian/Jew/Muslim Relations
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Membership Vows
The committee passed a resolution calling for a Book of Order amendment that would require that members being received by a method other than Confirmation will also make a public profession of faith. This replaces the overture that I wrote about previously that would have required specific membership vows.
Form of Government (Book of Order) revision
The committee is recommending that the draft be referred to a new task force consisting of the original task force and members of the Assembly committee considering it. This group would consult with the presbyteries and bring back a revised recommendation to the next General Assembly. It’s not quite a punt or ignore, but rather a “still needs work” decision. This is just the committee decision – we’ll see what GA does but I suspect this will be what happens.
Confessions
The committee recommended that the Heidelberg Confession be amended to return it to a closer translation from the original German, correcting some license taken by the translators in the 1960’s. This has the effect of removing the wording against homosexuality from the confession, though others claim that the original intent of the passage in question was to mirror 1 Corinthians.
The committee also recommended that a team be created to study the inclusion of the Belhar Confession in the Book of Confessions – to report back at the next General Assembly.
Some little but important stuff
The GA passed a statement that the Catholic and Presbyterian baptism should be recognized by the other denomination, subject to each denomination’s rules. This means something to me, a Presbyterian married to a Catholic.
The GA passed full recognition and participation in Eucharist between the Episcopal Church and the Presbyterian Church. We can now take Communion in the other church without question. This also allows for limited use of ministers from the other denomination and allows further talks on allow integration in the future.
The GA passed a Book of Order amendment that changes part of the definition of the office of deacon – substituting “compassion” for “sympathy”.
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