wfn.org | [PCUSANEWS] Assembly reaffirms biennial meetings

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Note #7787 from PCUSA NEWS to PRESBYNEWS:

Assembly reaffirms biennial meetings
GA03098

Assembly reaffirms biennial meetings

Effort to increase number of youth delegates is voted down

by Bill Lancaster

DENVER, May 29 - The 215th General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (USA)
re-affirmed the decision of last year's Assembly to have the church's highest
governing body meet only every other year after 2004. 

The year 2005 will be the first without a national Assembly since the
church's founding in 1789.

	The commissioners voted down, by a vote of 285-230, an overture that
would have reversed the decision of last year's Assembly and gone back to
annual meetings.

	The measure had generated a great deal of debate in hearings of the
Assembly's Committee on General Assembly Procedures and on the plenary floor.

	The procedures committee's moderator, Ernest Ettlich, an elder from
the Presbytery of the Cascades, offered four arguments for biennial meetings:

	
	* Every year without an Assembly would represent savings to the
church - including the General Assembly, synods, presbyteries and other
bodies - of an estimated $3 million;

	* Church officers and staff would be less burdened in its efforts to
carry out the will of the most recent Assembly and to prepare for the next;

	* Regional and national conferences scheduled between Assemblies
would preserve the "sacred connectivity within Presbyterian life;"

	* The change to biennial Assemblies was made on a trial basis only,
and could be reversed on the basis of an evaluation to be completed by 2010.

	Those who argued for a return to annual meetings said every-year
meetings foster connectivity and allow more Presbyterians to be involved in
the life of the church.

	The Assembly approved a number of amendments to the Book of Order and
the Manual of the General Assembly to accommodate the change to biennial
meetings.

	The commissioners voted down a measure that would have increased the
number of youth advisory delegates, or YADs, taking part in Assemblies held
only biennially. YAD participation will remain at the current level - one for
each of the PC(USA)'s 173 presbyteries. The vote on that measure was 267-245,
with four abstentions. Passage would have required a two-thirds majority
because a change in the Assembly's standing rules would have been necessary.

	The commissioners also voted to increase the number of commissioners
required to force the calling of a special Assembly. Until now, 25 elder
commissioners and 25 minister commissioners correctly distributed among
synods and presbyteries could demand such a special meeting. After the change
enacted Thursday, doing so will require the assent of 25 percent of elders
and 25 percent of ministers - this year, that would be roughly 70 of each.
The vote was 436-67.

	The Assembly approved San Jose, CA, as the site of the 2008 Assembly
and Minneapolis, MN, as the host city in 2010.

	The commissioners also voted to approve a PC(USA) per-capita budget
for 2004 of $14.7 million, or $5.49 per member - an increase of $.05 from
this year. The budget is subject to adjustments at the end of the Assembly to
account for the financial impact of measures approved by the commissioners.

	In a subtle note of humor, 30 commissioners-an unusually high
number-abstained from a vote on whether to stop counting abstentions in
Assembly and committee votes. A resolution that would have done so was
defeated 357-108.

	The Assembly voted to begin paying the expenses of PC(USA) mission
workers chosen by their presbyteries to be GA commissioners from their
countries of station to the Assembly location. In the past they have paid
only for domestic portions of their travels; and approved a change in the
method of counting "friends of the church" - people who attend churches and
contribute to their support, but have not joined.

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