wfn.org | Panels urge every-other-year Assembly

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Note #7039 from PCUSA NEWS to PRESBYNEWS:

01-February-2002
02050

Panels urge every-other-year Assembly

Advocates say the change would improve planning and stewardship

by Jerry L. Van Marter

LOUISVILLE - After 213 consecutive annual meetings of the General Assembly (GA) - and countless unsuccessful attempts to change the pattern - two committees will ask this year's Assembly to vote to hold future Presbyterian Church (USA) national legislative sessions biennially, beginning in 2006.

With little dissent, the Committee on the Office of the General Assembly (COGA) and the General Assembly Council's (GAC) executive committee have reached agreement on a plan that they say would allow for better planning and evaluation of the church's mission program, reduce the church's inclination to get caught up in seemingly endless debates of controversial issues, and make for better stewardship of time and money.

"It's time to consider how to do things differently," said Peter Pizor, an elder from Henderson, NV, who serves on both committees. He pointed out that few other U.S. denominations meet every year. Among those who meet only every other year are the American Baptists, the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and the United Church of Christ. The Episcopal Church meets triennially, and the United Methodist Church meets once every four years.

The lone COGA dissenter, Herb Christ, of San Diego, CA, argued that the  "other denominations don't use their Assemblies the same way we do."

"The Methodists, Lutherans and Episcopals have houses of bishops vested with considerable power, who meet much more often," Christ said. "We need to come together annually as the church."

The plan includes a proposal to increase the number of commissioners when the Assembly does meet. Because of membership losses in the PC(USA), the number of commissioners - who are elected by presbyteries on the basis of membership - has steadily declined in recent years. In 1984, there were 690 commissioners; in 2001, just 558.

The committees did not propose a specific formula for increasing the number of commissioners.

Most previous suggestions to go to every-other-year Assemblies have been prompted by financial considerations. It costs about $5 million to hold a General Assembly. The current proposal is based on an argument that longer timelines would be helpful to those charged with setting goals for the church and developing programs and resources to reach them.

"Biennial Assemblies would allow for better planning and resourcing, with two-year goals and better deliberation and discernment, and better focus," Pizor contended. Biennial considerations of constitutional changes - which tend to be the most contentious debates- would also provide "an open door for more judicious deliberation" in the presbyteries, he said.

The Rev. James Collie, a COGA member and executive for the Presbytery of Santa Fe, agreed, saying, "There will be some losses - some will wonder what to do with their time - but we'd have a lot more time and resources for regional and local mission."

The Rev. Adelia Kelso, of Pearl River, LA, the GAC vice-chair, said the change would be too costly. 
"I oppose this wholeheartedly," she said. "This proposal eliminates the key way for Presbyterians to network and be the body of Christ - and that's a crime."

Christ agreed with Kelso. "The General Assembly generates excitement about the whole church in my presbytery, where it's hard to get folk excited about anything beyond the local level," he said.

The Rev. Jack Rogers, the current GA moderator, said he has opposed previous calls for biennial Assemblies, but supports them this one.

"I love General Assembly," he said. "I've been to 30 of them. But ... we keep our staff in a frantic race to keep up with Assembly-related chores, and we keep the church in a white-hot heat, with not enough time to stop and reflect. ... I believe we need to slow down (and) think about what we're doing more carefully."

The Rev. Dwight White, a GAC member from Ryegate, VT, said he fears that biennial Assemblies would further politicize the church. "With these things building up over two years, I'm afraid everything would become even more political," he said, "and an annual Assembly would allow for more immediate corrective action if we found we'd made a bad decision."

The plan provides that, if this year's GA approves, a study of the potential effects of the proposed change will be prepared for a subsequent GA to consider no later than 2010.
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