wfn.org | General Assembly approves extended role for commissioned lay pastors

[PCUSA.NEWS@ecunet.org]

04-July-1996 
 
GA96100 
 
 
General Assembly approves extended roles for commissioned lay pastors 
 
ALBUQUERQUE--The 208th General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) 
approved Thursday morning a proposal that would give commissioned lay 
pastors the authority to perform baptisms and weddings among other added 
roles. 
 
    If approved by a majority of the denomination's 171 presbyteries, the 
changes to the PCUSA's Book of Order will also make it possible for the 
commissioned lay pastors to have voice and vote in their presbyteries, and 
to serve as moderators of their church sessions. 
 
    The Assembly upheld a committee amendment which specified that 
commissioned lay pastors must be ordained Presbyterian elders. While 
considering the proposal from the PC(USA)'s National Ministries Division, 
the Assembly committee on Church Orders and Ministry added the requirement. 
An attempt on the floor of the Assembly to allow non-ordained persons to 
perform that role was defeated. 
 
    However, the commissioners did narrowly approve giving presbyteries the 
power to authorize non-elders to perform these functions, as well as others 
already assigned to commissioned lay pastors. Such authorization would 
require a 75 percent majority vote of the presbytery. 
 
    Limiting the position to ordained elders brings to it 
education/training standards and accountability (through ordination vows). 
The presbyteries -- which will decide which of these powers each 
commissioned lay pastor may possess -- will be responsible for training and 
monitoring their work. 
 
    As approved the proposal calls for commissioned lay pastors to receive 
training in the Bible, Reformed theology and sacraments, Presbyterian 
polity, preaching, leading worship, pastoral care and teaching. 
 
    The Assembly's vote to approve the amended proposal was 386 to 146. 
 
    Proponents of commissioned lay pastors say they will help the church 
grow in coming years by evangelizing and starting churches among 
fast-growing immigrant communities. They are also promoted as the solution 
to church development and redevelopment among ethnic communities and small 
congregations in rural and urban settings. 
 
    The proposal's opponents have questioned both the need for commissioned 
lay pastors and expressed concern that the church is creating a second 
category of ministers who will compete with ordained ministers of word and 
sacrament for pastorates. 
 
    If the presbyteries approve the Book of Order changes and the proposal 
goes into effect in 1997, lay pastors already commissioned by presbyteries 
will not have to meet the elder requirement for the term of their 
commissions. 
 
    In other business coming from the Church Orders and Ministry committee, 
the Assembly approved an overture from Baltimore Presbytery to allow a 
presbytery to waive ordination requirements for a candidate for ministry 
under certain conditions without obtaining approval from its synod. The 
committee amended the proposal to require that the presbytery have its 
synod first approve a process for examining such candidates. 
 
    An overture from Central Florida Presbytery which would have allowed 
assistant and associate pastors to be called as co-pastors of the churches 
they serve was defeated. 
 
    The committee's report to the General Assembly ran longer than 
scheduled and was arrested before completion. It will probably be completed 
later during the Assembly which runs through noon Saturday. 
 
 
John Sniffen 

------------
For more information contact Presbyterian News Service
  phone 502-569-5504             fax 502-569-8073  
  E-mail PCUSA.NEWS@pcusa.org   Web page: http://www.pcusa.org 

--