wfn.org | "Direct Election" Overture Receives Negative Votes

[PCUSA.NEWS@pcusa.org]

19-June-1997 
GA97101 
 
         "Direct Election" Overture Receives Negative Votes 
 
                        by Dee Wade 
 
SYRACUSE-- Overture 97-44 calls for direct elections by the presbyteries of 
representative members on the General Assembly Council.  Reorganization of 
the Council, authorized by the 208th General Assembly (1996), reserves 50 
seats on the council to presbyteries, to be filled on a rotating basis. 
The current procedure is for presbyteries to recommend persons to the 
General Assembly Nominating Committee, with election by the General 
Assembly to follow. 
 
    Also called the "fair election" overture, it was discussed by the 
Assembly Committee on Mission Program and Coordination.  Hearings were held 
on Monday, and on Tuesday afternoon, after further debate, the committee 
voted, by a wide margin, to recommend disapproval of the overture to the 
full General Assembly.  Reasons offered for the overture's defeat included 
the perceived inability of presbyteries, voting separately, to elect 
members in ways that would ensure balance between diversity requirements 
and the need for expertise on the Council. 

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