wfn.org | Panel Drops Recommendation That Church Synods Be Abolished

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22-January-1999 
99030 
 
    Panel Drops Recommendation 
    That Church Synods Be Abolished 
 
    by Alexa Smith 
 
LOUISVILLE, Ky. - A committee formed in 1996 to review church governance 
issues has backed away from its controversial proposal that synods be 
abolished. 
 
    The Special Committee on Middle Governing Body Relations will recommend 
instead that two years of consultations be held on whether it is feasible 
or advisable to change the governance structure of the Presbyterian Church 
(U.S.A.). 
 
    That recommendation will go soon to the two top bodies in church 
administration, the Committee on the Office of the General Assembly (COGA) 
and the General Assembly Council (GAC). 
 
    The COGA - a group of elected representatives that oversees the work of 
the stated clerk's office - will get the recommendation during a meeting 
that starts on Jan. 27. The GAC will receive it during a meeting that 
starts on Feb. 9. 
 
    The special committee's recommendations are part of a proposed joint 
report to be filed by COGA and the council for consideration during the 
211th General Assembly, which will be held in Fort Worth, Texas, in June. 
 
    The special committee was created by the 1996 General Assembly to 
search for ways to "create and nurture partnerships" of the middle 
governing bodies -- to remedy what the General Assembly called a 
"disconnect" among the denomination's levels of government. 
 
    The joint report will recommend that: 
 
      The GAC and COGA proceed with a two-year consultation process "to 
determine the feasibility of the PC(USA) moving to a three-governing body 
system," then report to the 2001 General Assembly on the most effective 
ways of implementing the findings; 
      The five "guiding principles" the special committee recommended for 
the consultative process be affirmed, including statements that the primary 
organizational focus of the church is on "developing, encouraging, 
equipping and resourcing its congregations and their leaders," and that 
simpler, more flexible and more responsive modes of operation must be found 
if the denomination is to do its work in the new millenium; 
      The special committee be thanked for its "diligent work in exploring 
the patterns of relationships among our governing bodies, and for its 
"creative approach to new possibilities in organizing our common life and 
witness for the 21st Century." 
      The text of the report be commended to all governing bodies for 
study. 
      An Office of Governing Body Relations be created in Louisville to 
work jointly with the GAC and the COGA. The office has been set up and 
staffed with an interim coordinator. The permanent position is to be filled 
by June. 
 
    "The question is, What is the best possible way for us to relate to 
each other as a connectional church?" said Rev. Cathy Chisholm, chair of 
the GAC and a pastor in Vadalia, Ill. "How best can we establish an 
interdependent system and structure, and yet maintain the flexibility to 
meet changing needs and circumstances and to support congregations and 
presbyteries? 
 
    "That got framed as: Do we eliminate synods?" Chisholm said, "but I 
don't think that is the right question." 
 
    In an earlier draft of its report, the special committee proposed 
abolishing synods and shifting to a three-governing body system. It dropped 
that recommendation last fall after COGA and GAC executive committee 
members pushed for a slower, more consultative process - and after an 
outcry from synod leaders and others. 
 
    "It was pretty clear (that) more consultation needed to take place," 
Chisholm said. "They (the special committee members) got the discussion 
going, raised the issues of how the governing bodies relate to each other, 
and whether we should continue the current pattern or not . . . but they 
didn't have time then to go back out and test their proposals and 
conclusions." 
 
    In the background text for the joint report, the committee 
representatives wrote, "We anticipate wide and careful conversations with 
synods and presbyteries, and an examination of alternate models, some of 
which the Special Committee has noted are available in other communions." 
 
    In an interview several months ago, Rev. Dr. Edwin Albright, the chair 
of the special committee and the executive of the Presbytery of Greater 
Atlanta, told the Presbyterian News Service that the report envisions "new 
paradigms" for relationships between governing bodies. 
 
    "Some presbyteries have wonderful partnerships formed in what is called 
a synod," Bartholemew said. "Others don't." 
 
    Rev. John Bartholomew of Jacksonville, Fla., the COGA chair, said he is 
hopeful that the proposed joint report will be acceptable to both COGA and 
the GAC, so that a single message can be delivered to the Assembly's voting 
commissioners. 
 
    "The question is real enough that it has to be talked about," 
Bartholemew said, referring to partnership patterns within the 
denomination, "but (the proposed consultation) doesn't commit anybody to 
any particular solution." 

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