wfn.org | Bills and Overtures Committee Gets Underway

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13-June-1998 
GA98010 
 
    Bills and Overtures Committee Gets Underway 
 
    by Julian Shipp 
 
CHARLOTTE, N.C.-While most General Assembly Committees won't get underway 
until today, the Assembly Committee on Bills and Overtures began humming 
along Saturday like electrical signals pulsing through the busses in a 
complex telecommunications system -- and necessarily so. 
    That's because the 32-member committee has the incredible task of 
referring all items of business that will come before the 210th General 
Assembly (1998).  After examining items, the committee refers them to the 
appropriate Assembly committees with few exceptions.  If necessary, open 
hearings are scheduled before deciding on the disposition of  items. 
However, Bills and Overtures  makes the final decision on all referrals. 
    "I'm excited about working with this committee," said the Rev. Clifton 
Kirkpatrick, General Assembly stated clerk.  "The General Assembly is the 
way that we as Presbyterians are convinced is the best way possible for 
human beings to discern the mind of Christ.  It allows elected elders and 
ministers to come together in prayer and study and sharing in order to 
discern the mind of Christ together." 
    Bills and Overtures is responsible for the docket during the entire 
time the General Assembly is in session.  It schedules when Assembly 
committees report to the Assembly, and sets the amount of time allotted for 
reports. The committee also reviews the minutes of the Assembly daily. 
These minutes are posted the following day for examination by the 
commissioners. 
    Committee moderator Art Chew of San Diego Presbytery, said the Bills 
and Overtures Committee will review four categories of business that come 
directly before it:  requests for docket time, requests for distribution of 
materials to the commissioners, protests and review of the moderatorial 
candidates' expenses. 
    In order to maximize efficiency, Chew said, the committee is also 
divided into four sub-committees to review these items individually.  Chew 
is assisted this year by committee vice-moderator  the Rev. William T. 
Bryant, Jr. of Middle Tennessee Presbytery. 
    Chew said due to the committee's nature, it could become necessary to 
call a Bills and Overtures meeting during an Assembly plenary with 
notification being made either from the platform or by special committee 
assistants known as "trackers."  Since it is imperative that committee 
leaders know the whereabouts of committee members at all times, Chew made 
it an essential point of business to get the names, telephone and hotel 
numbers of all committee members. 
    While loaded down by meeting's end with additional materials and 
briefings from Office of the General Assembly staff and others, Elder 
Katharine Carr Esters, a committee member from Mississippi Presbytery, said 
she is prepared to get to work.  Although this marks her first year serving 
on the Bills and Overtures Committee, Esters said she has attended more 
than a dozen Assemblies before and after Reunion and summed up her 
committee's role succinctly:  "We're here to weed out the flow of 
information," she said jokingly.  "I'm from Mississippi and I use plain 
language." 

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