wfn.org | COCU proposal forwarded without bishop language

[PCUSA.NEWS@ecunet.org]

03-July-1996 
 
GA96064 
 
 
    COCU proposal forwarded without bishop language 
 
ALBUQUERQUE - Working past midnight Tuesday, the Assembly committee on 
Catholicity passed its own version of the proposal that will continue the 
Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)'s participation in the Consultation on Church 
Union (COCU). 
 
    The Assembly committee's proposal removes references to "representative 
bishops" and "representative ministers" as presbyteries' appointees to 
regional covenanting councils of COCU churches. Instead, the term 
"commissioners" would be used. 
 
    One of the authors of the committee's proposal, the Rev. Paul Hooker of 
Greater Atlanta Presbytery, said the change in terminology was a strategy 
to offset negative feelings among some Presbyterians about the term 
"bishop." 
 
    "We're playing to a Presbyterian strength," he said of the substitution 
of presbytery appointed commissions for representative ministers and 
elders. Presbyteries routinely form commissions for other purposes 
including ordination and the handing of judicial matters. 
 
    The proposal also removes a section on services of reconciliation, 
which opponents of COCU alleged was tantamount to other denominations 
having the power to control ordination of Presbyterian ministers. COCU 
representatives will still be invited to participate in ordination 
services, however. 
 
    The section of the Catholicity committee's report on COCU is 
tentatively scheduled for presentation to the 208th General Assembly, at 
10:45 a.m. Thursday. 
 
    Committee moderator the Rev. Maria R. Price, a pastor from Northeast 
Georgia Presbytery, carefully led the 51-member committee through the 
process of dealing with the proposals coming from the special committee on 
COCU. Starting late Tuesday morning, the committee spent time in what she 
called "spiritual discernment" during which committee members finally had 
an opportunity to express their views on the issue. 
 
    Hooker first outlined the new plan about 2 p.m., but the committee 
chose to first consider three presbytery overtures concerning COCU -- one 
calling for no action on the proposal to go forward with next level of 
involvement and two seeking the PC(USA)'s departure from COCU. All three 
failed by margins of 3-to-1 or greater. 
 
    The special committee's report was then moved for approval and Hooker 
offered the alternative plan as a substitute motion. The committee worked 
slowly but steadily through Tuesday evening ironing out details in the new 
proposal and completing the process of perfecting the motions. 
 
    While several committee members spoke for the special committee's 
original proposal, sentiment for it was most pronounced among the youth 
advisory and ecumenical delegates. Corey Griffin from Los Ranchos 
Presbytery in California said the non-bishop proposal was a "watered-down" 
version of the special committee's report and questioned whether the other 
COCU-participating denominations would accept it. 
 
    The final vote to approve the alternative plan was 38 for, eight 
against and one abstaining. 
 
    If approved by the 208th General Assembly, the proposal will go to the 
presbyteries for approval of the changes in the Book of Order that it 
entails. Thus, the future of the PC(USA)'s participation in COCU would 
still have to be approved by a simple majority of the regional governing 
bodies. 
 
    The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) is one of nine denominations 
participating in COCU. 
 
 
John Sniffen 

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