Overture 04-69. On Appointing a Panel to Study the Apportionment of General Assembly Commissioners from Presbyteries—From the Presbytery of San Diego.

The Presbytery of San Diego overtures the 216th General Assembly (2004) of the PC(USA) to direct the Moderator of the 216th General Assembly (2004) to appoint, within sixty days of the ratification of this overture, a five-person panel to study the apportionment of General Assembly commissioners from presbyteries in the PC(USA) and their representation at General Assemblies and make recommendations to correct what appears to be an imbalance in the current representation. In regards to the findings of this panel, the assembly recommends the following:

1. The panel shall present its findings by November 1, 2004, to the General Assembly Council and the Committee on the Office of the General Assembly.

2. Those findings shall also be posted on the Office of General Assembly Web site by November 1, 2004.

3. The availability of the findings shall be made known to Presbyweb as a means of communicating to the membership of the denomination. This will allow the Committee on the Office of the General Assembly or the presbyteries to develop timely business for consideration by the 217th General Assembly (2006) to correct any identified problems.

Rationale

Since the 1983 reunification that formed the PC(USA), the membership of PC(USA) has declined. This decline has been greater in some presbyteries than in others and appears to generally be inversely proportional to the membership within the presbytery. The result is that presbyteries have disproportionate voting representation at the General Assembly. The current formula, pending presbytery voting on Amendment 03-A.3, provides for a roughly 20 percent disparity in members per commissioner. The formula proposed in Amendment 03-A.3 provides for a roughly 50 percent disparity in members per commissioner. While it is practically impossible to provide exactly equal representation across the 173 presbyteries, this overture proposes that a 50 percent disparity is too large.

This overture proposes a review of the formula used for determining the number of voting commissioners for presbyteries (in Amendment 03-A.3 that was passed by the 215th General Assembly and is currently subject to the vote of the presbyteries). The stated intent is to correct the inequality in the number of congregational members per voting commissioner that exists in the current formula. There are currently fewer commissioners per member in larger presbyteries than in smaller presbyteries with the result that larger presbyteries have a disproportionately smaller voice and vote in the issues decided by the General Assembly.

Amendment 03-A.3 is before the presbyteries for approval or rejection. This amendment changes the formula for determining the number of General Assembly commissioners that each presbytery may send to the General Assembly. The new formula gives unfair voting powers to the small presbyteries in the PC(USA). “Fair representation” is a historic principle that permeates every aspect of the governance of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) and is a well-documented principle at every level of governance throughout the Book of Order except for the determination of the number of General Assembly commissioners. The old formula also has this fault, but it was less severe.

Under the new formula, there will be 808 General Assembly commissioners. With the current PC(USA) membership at 2,451,969, the average General Assembly commissioner will represent 3,035 members. Under the new formula there are forty-four presbyteries with less than 8,000 members (the first breakpoint) and each General Assembly commissioner from those small presbyteries will only represent 2,300 members. At the next breakpoint (8,001 to 16,000 members) there are seventy-two presbyteries and each General Assembly commissioner will only represent 2,833 members. Presbyteries that have more than 16,001 members will have General Assembly commissioners representing 3,165 to 3,476 members. This means that smaller presbyteries will have a voting power greater than that of the larger presbyteries—clearly an unfair circumstance, if the discrepancy is too great. In addition, however, there are several instances of presbyteries with very similar memberships with unequal representation. One solution to this lack of fair representation is to modify the formula used for determining General Assembly commissioners from the presbyteries.