wfn.org | Great Ends Discussion Postponed

[PCUSA.NEWS@pcusa.org]

16-June-1997 
GA97031 
 
                     Great Ends Discussion Postponed 
 
                            by Marj Carpenter 
 
SYRACUSE--The decision on whether to recommend the Great Ends of the Church 
as an emphasis for the next six General Assemblies was postponed until 
Tuesday afternoon by the Assembly Committee on the Office of General 
Assembly. 
 
     A welcoming prayer and speech by Stated Clerk Cliff Kirkpatrick; 
another by Oscar McCloud from the Office of General Assembly Committee and 
a video quoting an assortment of church leadership did not lull 
commissioners into an immediate decision on what they consider a "very 
important matter." 
 
     All of the committees of the Assembly had been given questionnaires on 
which they are requested to comment on the matter and the particular 
committee to make the referral felt it was unfair to do so until they could 
gather the answers from their fellow commissioners. 
 
    The discussion began, however, with a surge of complaints about the 
language of the Great Ends  until the Rev. Jean Holmes of Cincinnati 
Presbytery, stemmed the flood by pointing out that they were not instructed 
to rewrite the Great Ends and, in fact, could not change them without a 
constitutional amendment. 
 
    The discussion then moved to all of the parliamentary procedures around 
how to postpone the discussion to a specific date and time. The video 
itself asks such questions as "What does the church stand for that the 
world does not stand for?" and "What does it mean to be a church?" 
 
     Other questions from the committee centered around the concern of 
there being so many special emphasis designations.  It was clarified that 
mission programmatic emphasis such as the Year of Education already set for 
next year would work in conjunction with emphasis on the First Great End 
(the proclamation of the gospel for the salvation of humankind) when plans 
were made for the next assembly. 

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