wfn.org | Proposal to Abolish Synods Will Probably Be Deferred

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6-November-1998 
98365 
 
    Proposal to Abolish Synods Will Probably Be Deferred 
    for Further Study 
 
    by Alexa Smith 
 
PHILADELPHIA - A special committee of the General Assembly that considered 
recommending the elimination of synods will most likely ask that further 
consultations be held on that question when it submits its final report to 
the Committee on the Office of the General Assembly (COGA) and the General 
Assembly Council (GAC) Executive Committee. 
 
    The Special Committee on Middle Governing Body Relationships is 
expected to defer to COGA and the GAC Executive Committee and agree to 
consultations between those entities and synods before asking the 
denomination to vote on switching to a  three-governing-body system. 
 
    Two other committee proposals are likely to meet less resistance when 
the final report is filed Dec. 31 - to establish a permanent Office of 
Middle Governing Body Relations at the Presbyterian Center in Louisville 
and to establish four "guiding principles" that explictly say governing 
bodies of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) exist to strengthen local 
congregations. 
 
    "We had toyed with [further consultation] earlier on," Jim Hartman of 
Cincinnati, vice chair of the committee, told the Presbyterian News Service 
after the annual COGA and GAC Executive Committee joint meeting here Oct. 
15.  "That a consultation process be managed by the COGA/GAC jointly seems 
to us to be a very reasonable thing ... and will almost surely find [its] 
way into the final report." 
 
    Authorized by the 1996 General Assembly, the special committee was 
formed to study how to  "create and nurture partnerships" with middle 
governing bodies as a way of remedying what it called a "disconnect" among 
the denomination's levels of government.  After three years of interviews 
with approximately 700 Presbyterians, the committee will finish its report 
during an early December conference call. 
 
    The report will go to COGA's Jan. 27-29 meeting and the GAC's Feb. 
12-13 meeting, with a joint recommendation from them expected to go to the 
211th General Assembly (1999) in Fort Worth, Texas, June 19-26. 
 
    In its preliminary draft, the committee states that a 
three-governing-body system is how the denomination often already functions 
because congregations and presbyteries find it to be simpler and more 
flexible.   The report says the organizational structure of the church must 
focus on congregations, allowing ministry and mission alliances that are 
not tied to the existing regional boundaries.  It asserts: 
 
   *   Congregations and presbyteries increasingly are directly accessing 
General Assembly agencies for services and resources.  Many synods today 
are nonprogrammatic. 
   *   Presbyteries, not synods, are the entities closest to and most 
familiar with congregations and their needs and possibilities. 
   *   Throughout the country valuable partnerships are already going 
forward across existing boundaries. 
   *   Congregations and presbyteries are showing diminishing interest and 
support for a four-governing-body system. 
 
    "The changes are in our midst," committee chair Ed Albright, executive 
presbyter of Greater Atlanta Presbytery, told the joint meeting. 
 
    Hartman agreed, telling the Presbyterian News Service, "We are trying 
to make the process more responsive to needs and to changing conditions." 
 
    According to the committee, greater responsiveness requires 
understanding the formal and informal assumptions that govern life in the 
church nowadays.  From its interviews, the committee distilled what it 
calls "guiding principles" that determine the nature of governing body 
relationships: 
 
   *   The primary organizational focus of the life and work of the PC(USA) 
is on developing, encouraging, equipping and resourcing its congregations 
and their leaders as the living body of Jesus Christ. 
   *   The primary focus of the life and work of presbyteries is to enhance 
the faithfulness of congregations. 
   *   The primary focus in building relationships among governing bodies 
is the formation of partnerships. 
   *   The primary focus of the partnerships of presbyteries with the 
General Assembly is to enhance the mutual ministry and mission of both. 
 
    "This [emphasizes] a need to move from [governing bodies] being 
regulatory to empowering constituents," Albright told COGA and the GAC 
Executive Committee, laying out a paradigm for what he said is a  more 
flexible structure that would allow the church to form new kinds of 
relationships. 
 
     From the committee's perspective, eliminating synod boundaries would 
create greater opportunities than already exist.  Presbyteries, for 
instance, could link up with presbyteries in other geographic areas.  They 
could keep desired synod-level programming without mandated governing body 
responsibilities and structures or per capita funding. 
 
    "There is enormous diversity among synods today," said the Rev. Harold 
Jackson, who is the current interim associate director in the temporary 
Middle Governing Body Relations office and staff to the committee.  Some 
offer loan programs. At least four are financially dependent on the 
denomination.  Some are programmatic, others are not. 
 
    COGA and GAC Executive Committee members raised questions about the 
complexity of eliminating one level of government.  Some expressed concern 
that presbyteries might form only ideological alliances.  Others expressed 
fear that poorer presbyteries would be abandoned by richer ones.  Then 
there are legal issues surrounding the transfer of assets and the 
establishment of subsidiary agencies, such as regional judicial 
commissions. 
 
    "There are a lot of questions in the whole matter of eliminating 
synods," Hartman told the Presbyterian News Service, adding that a 
transition process would need to address many issues. 
 
    While the transition questions are critical, Synod Executives' Forum 
chair Margaret Thomas of the Synod of Lakes and Praries told the 
Presbyterian News Service that cutting synod-level governance out of the 
denomination poses the bigger problem of institutionalizing already 
dysfunctional behaviors, thereby creating barriers to more coordinated 
mission at precisely the time when new denominational leaders are working 
to form more effective partnerships. 
 
    "With John Detterick and Cliff Kirkpatrick we're hearing about a model 
of partnership that stands a chance of working," Thomas said, insisting 
that presbyteries and synods do not need any more transition and chaos. 
"[It is time] to build on strengths and to strengthen the parts [of our 
system] that are not strong. ... Synod executives are willing to look at 
any and all ways that will make us better partners with one another. 
 
    "Elimination of governance seems to be a strange thing to do in a 
denomination that is increasingly calling for accountability," added 
Thomas, who is also skeptical that some of the conclusions drafted in the 
preliminary report are adequately researched. 
 
     The preliminary report is proposing that the upcoming Assembly vote on 
the "guiding principles" and on the permanent Middle Governing Body 
Relations office in Louisville. 
 
    The proposed office could coordinate further study of whether or not 
to shift to a three-governing-body system and manage the transition should 
the PC(USA) choose that course, according to Hartman. 
 
    "With the `guiding principles,' the special committee is trying to get 
us to look at the reasons for relationships before we make decisions about 
structure," said GAC chair the Rev. Cathy Chisholm of Vidalia, Ind., after 
the October meeting.  "I think the recommendation for a 
three-governing-body system is probably recognition of a fact that exists 
in some synods already ... and it is an idea that the whole church needs to 
look at. 
 
    "But I don't think we're at all ready to make a decision about it until 
we are fully aware of what the consequences would be for all synods," she 
said, summarizing the GAC Executive Committee's desire for at least a year 
of consultation with synods. 

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