The Committee on Mission Responsibility Through Investment (MRTI) met on February 8, 2013, and reviewed shareholder resolutions being submitted to corporations for their 2013 Annual Meetings. These resolutions concern social and ethical issues related to the corporations' business operations and policies. MRTI adopted recommendations on voting of proxies in support or opposition to these resolutions, or whether a formal vote of abstention should be recorded.
In 2008, at the direction of the 219th General Assembly, the Stated Clerk of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) sent a resolution to the presbyteries, synods and sessions, “indicating the will of the assembly that presbyteries and synods develop and make available to lower governing bodies and local congregations a process that exercises the responsibility and power ‘to divide, dismiss, or dissolve churches in consultation with their members’ with consistency, pastoral responsibility, accountability, gracious witness, openness, and transparency.”1 Accordingly, Gracious Dismissal Policies may be used by councils to offer clarity and guide their process when discerning whether and how a particular congregation could be dismissed from the PC(USA).
Contents:
Building a Community of Faith, Hope, Love and Witness
Building a Community of Faith, Hope, Love and Witness
Building a Community of Faith, Hope, Love and Witness
In 2006, the 217th General Assembly created the Form Government Task Force and charged this Task Force to draft a Revised Form of Government. In 2008, this Task Force presented its report to the 218th General Assembly. This Report included: the Foundations of Presbyterian Polity, a revised Form of Government, and the Advisory Handbook for Councils. The 218th General Assembly referred the Task Force’s Report to the Office of General Assembly for a period of church-wide study and response. After taking into account these responses and adding members of the assembly committee that studied the Report to the task force, the expanded Task Force produced a new draft to be considered by the 219th General Assembly. In 2010, the 219th General Assembly voted to approve an amendment to the previous form of government and directed the Stated Clerk to send this amendment to the presbyteries for a vote.In late spring 2011, the majority of Presbyteries approved this amendment. Accordingly, the new Form of Government took effect on July 10, 2011, one year after the 219th General Assembly. As a whole, the new Form of government is the result of the work not only of three General Assemblies and two task forces, but also expresses the input of more than twenty years of expressed need to review and revise PCUSA’s Form of Government.
On Providing Just Access to Reproductive Health Care (Item 21-03)
The 220th General Assembly (2012) approved the following resolution, as amended, with comment and original rationale (not policy).
Comparison of Heidelberg Catechism (current to proposed): the current wording of the Heidelberg catechism compared, side by side, with the proposed new translation of the catechism.