GA08128

Committee on General Assembly Procedures makes its reports

by Dee H. Wade

Discussion of the Committee on General Assembly Procedure’s report ended a long night on Thursday. Photo by Joseph Williams

SAN JOSE, June 26, 2008 — The 218th General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) meeting on Thursday evening approved the recommendations of the Committee on General Assembly Procedures. Its consent agenda, which also was approved, included an item honoring outgoing Stated Clerk Cliff Kirkpatrick with emeritus status.

In items offered for debate, commissioners voted not to allow churches to form presbyteries based on theological beliefs or mission preferences. Geographical boundaries will continue to be the Presbyterian norm.

Exceptions are non-geographical presbyteries, created to meet needs of immigrant groups, such as Hanmi Presbytery, which exists for Korean-speaking Presbyterians. The General Assembly voted to extend indefinitely the life of this 25-year-old presbytery because Koreans continue to immigrate to America, and Hanmi gives them a period of adjustment until they can assimilate into geographical presbyteries.

The Assembly viewed a video on clergy sexual abuse, which came from a particularly heinous series of assaults over a thirty-year period. An overture from San Francisco Presbytery that would have established a national office on sexual misconduct was answered by a compromise worked out between the overture writers and staff from both the Office of the General Assembly and the General Assembly Council. It calls for the PC(USA), particularly among its presbyteries and synods, to gather, strengthen, develop and publicize a pastoral and preventative response to sexual predation within the church.

The General Assembly established a fund to help presbyteries pay legal fees incurred as churches leave the denomination, in particular the New Wineskins non-geographic presbytery of the Evangelical Presbyterian Church. This fund will not be part of the budget of the church. Rather it will be supplied by voluntary donations to an Extra Commitment Opportunity account created by an amendment to the original commissioner’s resolution.

The system of per capita apportionment to support the administrative functions of church bodies beyond the congregation remains in play, despite four different overtures that would have either changed its use or ended the practice altogether.

In other action, an invitation was accepted from the Presbytery of Detroit to host the 221st General Assembly in 2014.

Two current staff members of the Office of the General Assembly were elected as associate stated clerks. The Rev. Marcia Myers will have responsibilities concerning church vocations, and The Rev. Jill Hudson will work with synods and presbyteries. They were both elected to four-year terms.

The Assembly approved the joint 2009 and 2010 budget proposals of the Committee on the Office of the General Assembly and the General Assembly Council. The 2009 expenditure budget totals $12,308,884, and for 2010, the figure is $15,310,620.  Contingent upon actions still pending before it, the General Assembly’s share of the per capita apportionment for 2009 rises from $5.79 per active member to $6.04, with no change recommended for 2010.