RICHMOND, July 1 - The 216th General Assembly voted Thursday afternoon not to increase the number of Youth Advisory Delegates (YADs) when the Presbyterian Church (USA) moves to biennial meetings of the Assembly after this year.

The number of commissioners will increase from 544 this year to about 820 by 2008, an increase of 44 percent. The Presbytery of Greater Atlanta had proposed, and the Committee on General Assembly Procedures had recommended, that the number of YADs also be increased, from 173 to 189, by adding one additional YAD per synod.

The measure garnered a majority of commissioners' votes - it was 293 for, 213 against - but failed to get the two-thirds required to change the applicable Standing Rule.

Mark Eadie, a YAD from Albany Presbytery, said the YAD experience at the Assembly "captures youth for the church" and halving the number of YADS in the switch to every-other-year Assemblies "is not good for the church or its youth."

YAD Ronald Rahaman, of the Presbytery of John Calvin, countered that retaining the current number of YADs "would lessen the financial burden on the church, and I think the current level reflects a broad enough spectrum."

The Assembly concurred with the committee and overwhelmingly rejected overtures that would have stripped advisory delegates of their vote in committees. It left in place the current practice, in which they have privileges of both voice and vote in committee, but voice only in plenary sessions.

In another item related to the shift to biennial Assemblies, the commissioners changed a standing rule to require candidates for moderator to announce their choice for vice moderator at least 15 days before the start of the Assembly. "Biennial assemblies significantly change the roles of the moderator and vice moderator," said the Rev. James Collie, of the Committee on the Office of the General Assembly (COGA). "Both the church and vice-moderator candidates need to be assured they can fulfill these very different duties."

The Assembly will be asked to confirm, not elect, the winning candidate's choice for vice moderator.

The Assembly thanked PC(USA) presbyteries and congregations "for their faithful financial support for the work of the whole church" in 2002 in paying their per-capita apportionments at the highest level "in the last decade," according to the Office of the General Assembly. Uncollectible per-capita totaled just $188,000 in 2002.