wfn.org | Assembly to vote on extending life of Catechism committee

[PCUSA.NEWS@ecunet.org]

03-July-1996 
 
GA96063 
 
 
    Assembly to vote on extending life of Catechism committee 
 
    ALBUQUERQUE - The General Assembly will be asked to approve that the 
Special Committee to Write a New Presbyterian Catechism be given an 
additional year to complete its work after action taken Monday by the 
Assembly committee on Theology and Worship. 
 
    If approved, the committee will report to the 210th General Assembly 
after over three years of work.  It was originally slated to report next 
year. 
 
    Committee chair Richard Osmer of Princeton Seminary said the catechism 
committee wants time to field test its draft of a teaching catechism for 
middle adolescents and adults.  He described its content as based on the 
Lord's Prayer, the Apostle's Creed, the Ten Commandments and the 
sacraments. That draft will soon be complete. 
 
    Osmer said the committee is currently revising a newly field-tested 
catechism for third and fourth graders that provides an overview of the 
biblical narrative. 
 
    "We're resisting the immediate inclusion of this work in the Book of 
Confessions," Osmer told the theology committee, insisting that the group 
prefers a "bottom up" not a "top down" approach.  "After a number a years 
of use, we'll see if it fits." 
 
    Theology committee chair the Rev. Kay Huggins told the General Assembly 
newsroom that last year's Assembly referred three more items of business to 
the catechism committee, extending its workload further. 
 
 
Alexa Smith 

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