Overture 63

On Amending G-10.0302a(2)(c), “When Active Members Move” to Include Provision for College Students and Military Personnel—From the Presbytery of San Francisco.

The Presbytery of San Francisco overtures the 217th General Assembly (2006) of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) to do the following:

Direct the Stated Clerk to send the following proposed amendment to the presbyteries for their affirmative or negative votes:

Shall G-10.0302a(2)(c) be amended as follows? [Text to be deleted is shown with a strike-through; text to be added or inserted is shown as italic.]

“(c) When a member moves or is temporarily relocated for an extended period of time and can no longer be active in the work and worship of the church of membership, it shall be that person’s duty to become an active member of a church in the community where that person is living. The session of the church of membership shall inform the person of this duty as soon as practicable and shall notify a church in the new community and request it to provide pastoral care with a view to membership. In addition, notice shall be sent to either the presbytery office or to the stated clerk of the presbytery, or both. In the case of an extended temporary residence, such as for military personnel or college students, the member shall be encouraged to affiliate with a congregation, military chapel, or campus ministry, and notification of their arrival shall be sent to the area congregations, military chapels, and/or campus ministries or college chaplains.”

The Worship Leader: “Do you, as members of the church of Jesus Christ, promise to guide and nurture, N. and N., by word and deed, with love and prayer, encouraging this person to know and follow Christ and to be a faithful member of his church.”

The People respond: “We do.” (From The Sacrament of Baptism, Book of Common Worship, Westminster/John Knox Press)

For young adult members of Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) congregations, going away to college or to service in the nation’s military is the first leg of a journey that will, almost certainly, lead them farther and farther away from their “home” church in more directions than just geographic. Unfortunately this departure is the point where the church loses its connection with persons it has guided and nurtured, educated and loved though their childhood and adolescence. It is, for all practical and relational purposes, the end of the illustrative words and good deeds, even loving and prayerful encouragement of the military and college bound young adult members of the congregation.

The means to notify military chaplaincies and Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) collegiate ministries are readily available to congregations. The Presbyterian Council for Chaplains and Military Personnel and the General Assembly Collegiate Ministries Office are both capable of receiving and redirecting this information. Our denomination has related ministries serving on more than 1,150 colleges and universities in all fifty states. For most of these ministries, their staff have no way of knowing that a member of a PC(USA) congregation is on campus. The best way they can know this is if a referral notice arrives in their email box. Our military chaplains, although serving often in more mobile and complex settings than a college campus, welcome the notification of a church member’s presence on their base of operations.

This overture will go a long way to keeping touch with the youth of our church as they make that critical transition into the academic and career world of the young adult.