wfn.org | Assembly Committee unanimously rejects

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Note #6028 from PCUSA NEWS to PRESBYNEWS:

	‘irreconcilable impasse’ overture with
GA00080
June 27, 2000 

Assembly Committee unanimously rejects 
	‘irreconcilable impasse’ overture with comment

	by Bill Lancaster

LONG BEACH, June 27-- A committee of the 212th General Assembly of the
Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) Monday night unanimously rejected a measure to
declare that an “irreconcilable impasse” exists within the denomination,
then spent over three hours perfecting a comment to go with their
recommendation. The recommendation to reject with comment will now go to the
full Assembly.

	The Committee on Theological Issues voted 0-58-0 to reject overture 00-05,
which begins by asking the Assembly “to declare that there exists in the
denomination an irreconcilable impasse” and names eight specific areas.

	The comment, approved 55-1-1, expresses appreciation to the Presbytery of
Beaver Butler for its “devotion to theological issues” but states that the
committee disagrees with the “conclusion that an irreconcilable impasse
exists.”

	The comment says, “We choose rather to see differences positively and
believe that differences in fact have the potential to make our unity in
Christ even stronger.” It then cites the book of I Corinthians and directs
the Assembly stated clerk to send the action to middle governing bodies.

	The eight areas of concern raised by the overture are: Biblical authority,
Biblical interpretation, the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, the nature of
salvation, ethics, leadership, sanctification, and the church.

Scripture
	The committee rejected Overture 00-21, which would affirm the role of
scripture in the life of the Church, saying it was not needed because it
added nothing to existing language on the centrality of Scripture in the
church’s life.

Abortion
	The committee approved a “Monitoring Report on the Implementation of
General Assembly Policy on Abortion” with one amendment.  They voted on
items in the report separately, with the vote counts ranging from 54-1-1 to
46-7-4.

	The amendment added an item referring two concerns of the Advisory
Committee on Litigation to the Advisory Committee on Social Witness Policy.

	And the committee defeated Overture 00-37 which called for a new study on
abortion from a strictly Biblical viewpoint that would “avoid any attention
to the social policy witness or secular precedence.”  The vote on the
overture was 12-43-2.

Other Matters
	The committee referred to the General Assembly Council a slightly amended
Commissioner’s Resolution 00-20, which calls for various entities in the
denomination to engage in forums and dialogue on “the relationship between
Reformed theology and contemporary theologies of women.”  The vote was
55-3-0.

	After debating but voting 1-57-0 not to remove the May 2 “National Day of
Prayer” from the Special Days and Seasons for 2002, the committee approved
the calendar items unanimously.

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