GA08074

Committee to refer FOGTF report to churches and presbyteries

by Toya Richards Hill

SAN JOSE, June 24, 2008 — The committee weighing a revision of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)’s Form of Government voted Tuesday to recommend that the 218th General Assembly refer the proposed revision “for a period of consultation and study with churches and presbyteries.”

The proposed revision was developed by the Form of Government Task Force (FOGTF), having been charged by the 217th General Assembly (2006) with proposing a revision to this part of the PC(USA) constitution. Its work resulted in a report comprised of two documents: “Foundations of Presbyterian Polity” and “Revised Form of Government” with recommendations.

After a day of back-and-forth motions on the issue, the committee’s vote to recommend referral was 45 to 20, with three abstentions.

This period of review would occur “through a system or systems designed and implemented” by a new task force comprised of select members of the current FOGTF and selected members of this Assembly committee, to be chosen by the moderator of the 218th General Assembly. 

Essential to the committee’s recommendation was language incorporating presbyteries in the process, a step that several speakers argued was not fully executed in the FOGTF’s revision process.

“The participation of every presbytery in the period of consultation and study will be strongly urged,” the committee’s report to the Assembly says. The Assembly is scheduled to act on the committee’s recommendation later this week.

If the recommendation is approved, the moderator of the 218th General Assembly the Rev. Bruce Reyes-Chow, with consultation from the leadership of the 218th GA committee on the Form of Government, will select the new members of the expanded task force.

The new task force is expected to “revise” what the FOGTF proposed, “taking into account the concerns and suggestions gleaned from the consultation and study process.”

Additionally, advice from the denomination’s Advisory Committee on the Constitution, the various presbytery overtures and testimonies received during the committee’s deliberations, as well as the GA committee’s comments would also be referred to the new task force “for serious and studied consideration.”

The new revision is to be submitted no later than Oct. 15, 2009, for distribution to the church-at-large no later than Jan. 15, 2010. The new revision is to be considered by the 219th General Assembly (2010).