wfn.org | GA Committee Examines Creation - Office of Theol Development

[PCUSA.NEWS@pcusa.org]

16-June-1997 
GA97038 
 
                 Assembly Committee Examines Creation of 
                    Office of Theological Development 
 
                            by  Julian Shipp 
 
SYRACUSE--The 209th General Assembly (1997) could authorize the General 
Assembly Council (GAC) to create an Office of Theological Development 
following the work of the Assembly Committee on Christian Faith and Life 
and Theological Institutions as it continues its work here. 
 
    On June 17, the 52-member committee is also expected to discuss 
Commissioners' Resolution  97-32, a controversial decree requiring a 
statement of belief by seminary professor candidates. 
 
    According to Elder Sandra Sweet, committee chair of Foothills 
Presbytery, at least one of the two commissioners who drafted the document, 
Elder Carl Schartner of Pittsburgh Presbytery; and the Rev. Jim Tilley of 
Blackhawk Presbytery; are expected to appear before the committee to speak. 
 
    Essential to the committee's recommendations to the Assembly is input 
from the Committee on Theological Education (COTE), the Office of Theology 
and Worship and the Office of the General Assembly,  which all maintain 
relationships between the denomination and its 11 theological institutions. 
 
    If approved by the Assembly, the Office of Theological Development 
would be lodged in the Congregational Ministries Division (CMD). Discussion 
by church leaders regarding the office stemmed from the Special Committee 
for Review of the General Assembly Council, General Assembly Council 
Divisions, Corporate and Administrative Services and Other General Assembly 
bodies and from the 208th General Assembly (1996). 
 
    In order to give committee members a better feel for what's currently 
happening in the denomination's theological institutions, the committee 
heard a panel comprised of theological education students discuss the call 
to ministry and PC(U.S.A.) theological education from their perspective. 
 
    "We have so many students who get so many degrees and so many people 
who have retired, that we felt it would be beneficial to have this panel," 
said the Rev. John Mahon, committee vice-moderator of Utah Presbytery. 
 
    The committee has the responsibility of considering recommendations of 
and addressing business related to theological institutions, theological 
education; the worship of the church and celebration of the Sacraments; the 
interpretation, statement, or content of the Christian faith or of the 
theology or doctrine of the church; special days and seasons and the 
establishment of a calendar. 
 
    Additionally, the committee reviews portions of the annual 
Congregational Ministries Division (CMD) report; reports of the theological 
institutions that report to the General Assembly; and hears oral reports 
from CMD's Christian Faith and Life Area and the denomination's theological 
institutions.   

------------
For more information contact Presbyterian News Service
  phone 502-569-5504             fax 502-569-8073  
  E-mail PCUSA.NEWS@pcusa.org   Web page: http://www.pcusa.org 
  mailed from World Faith News <wfn-news@wfn.org>  

--