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[PCUSA NEWS <pcusa.news@ecunet.org>]

GA99002  GAC Urges Restraint in Use of Special Committees 
 
FORT WORTH A letter urging the 211th General Assembly of the Presbyterian 
Church (U.S.A.) to refrain from creating additional special committees and 
from expanding those that already exist was approved June 17 by the General 
Assembly Council (GAC) here. 
 
     A record number of proposals for special committees and task forces 
are coming before the Assembly's 560 commissioners this year. The 
proliferation of such groups has financial and political repercussions 
financing the work of the proposed 18 special committees carries a price 
tag of more than $1 million for the per-capita budget.  Perhaps more to the 
point, the GAC argues, the naming of so many special committees circumvents 
normal Presbyterian governance agencies. 
 
     "We believe it is neither good stewardship nor good governance to have 
such a proliferation of special committees and task forces," the GAC says 
in its letter. 
 
     The executive committee of the Committee on the Office of the General 
Assembly (COGA) is expected to vote to confirm the GAC memorandum so that 
it will go to the commissioners as a joint communication when the Assembly 
convenes June 19. 
 
     "Everything we want to do costs money," GAC Executive Director John 
Detterick told the Presbyterian News Service prior to the GAC's endorsement 
of the memorandum. "We either need to find new sources of revenue to fund 
these actions, or we need to decide not to fund some of the things we're 
doing now. 
 
     "We need to be more holistic in our thought process," Detterick added. 
 
     Nine overtures to the Assembly call for the creation of new special 
committees or task forces, on topics ranging from domestic evangelism and 
church development to violence based on sexual orientation   and more 
resolutions will be received during the first 24 hours of the Assembly. At 
least five policy papers are now being drafted by task forces within the 
Advisory Committee on Social Witness Policy (ACSWP), including advocacy for 
uninsured people and for the mentally ill and an assessment of managed 
health care   and three of the 11 new overtures deal with ACSWP papers. 
 
     The Advisory Committee on the Constitution now has a task force 
studying the form of government. The Advisory Committee on Women's Concerns 
has a task force studying sexual exploitation. Even the GAC has an advisory 
committee at work on the highly specialized subject of compensation. 
 
     "Back in the old years, this work used to get referred [to ongoing 
agencies of the General Assembly]," said the Rev. Joseph Small of the 
PC(USA)'s Theology and Worship Program Area, who has been writing about 
change within the denomination. He said special committees have 
proliferated since the northern and southern churches reunited in the early 
1980s. 
 
     "Special committees are the more expensive way to do it," Small said. 
 
       In fact, the OGA calculates costs for transportation and housing per 
person serving on a special committee or task force at $500 for the first 
day and $135 for each additional day. For a nine-member committee scheduled 
to meet twice for two nights, the estimated cost is $11,430, not counting 
expenses beyond housing and transportation. Administrative costs and fees 
for writers and consultants typically run about $6,000 for such a meeting. 
That pushes the total cost of the hypothetical committee to more than 
$17,000. The cost changes, of course, with the size of the committee, the 
number of meetings and the duration of the work. 
 
     But money isn't the only factor behind the GAC statement. 
 
       Church leaders, such as PC(USA) stated clerk the Rev. Clifton 
Kirkpatrick, worry that governance by special committee is becoming the 
norm, bypassing the system of elected governance that is the hallmark of 
Presbyterian polity. It also worries Kirkpatrick that special- interest 
groups push for special committees to advance agendas that they could not 
get enough votes to support through normal channels. 
 
     "Some of this is because of a lack of trust," said Kirkpatrick, who 
has watched debate over social and moral issues divide mainline churches 
and erode trust in historic systems of governance, both secular and 
religious, for the past 20 years. "The whole Presbyterian form of 
governance is to elect bodies to govern the life of the church through a 
careful selection process," he said, adding that the creation of 
overlapping special committees does not make "good use" of the systems the 
church's polity already provides. 
 
     Last year, the 210th General Assembly attempted to address the 
expanding role of special committees by amending its standing rules to 
allow the Assembly Committee on Bills and Overtures to review proposals for 
special committees to determine whether the matter might be addressed by an 
existing elected body or agency and to advise the Assembly accordingly. 
 
     The GAC memorandum urges commissioners to look at the whole picture in 
their decision-making, saying: "While specific proposals in specific 
General Assembly committees may seem to commissioners like an isolated 
phenomenon, COGA and GAC feel it is important for commissioners to have a 
total view of what is being proposed regarding special committee and task 
forces, and to exercise restraint in using this approach to deal with 
crucial issues before the church.  
      
     "We also encourage the Committee on Bills and Overtures to fully 
exercise its responsibilities in relation to special committees, as 
indicated in [the Assembly's Standing Rules]. 
 
       "It is a matter of whether current bodies do not have the time or 
expertise to do what is needed," Chisholm said, "or whether [people] do not 
trust them to do it." 
 
     Detterick said the reference to lack of trust "challenges those of us 
in the governance process to be more responsive." 
 
     Chisholm, who has served on two special committees herself, including 
the Special Committee to Review the General Assembly, points out that the 
time required to teach the nuances of Presbyterian polity to outside 
experts and consultants   and even to Presbyterians unaccustomed to 
national-level work   slows down any special committee's work and runs up 
the cost. 
 
     "Sometimes a special committee makes sense," she told the Presbyterian 
News Service.  "We need to ask: Is it something we should be doing? ... It 
just comes back to setting priorities. 
 
     "We have to say, 'This is more important than this' ... and what is 
the best stewardship of our time, resources and ... relationships with each 
other?" 
 
Alexa Smith 

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