wfn.org | Report of The Special Committee For Review

[PCUSA NEWS <pcusa.news@ecunet.org>]

Ga99052 
23-June-1999 
 
 
               Report of The Special Committee For  
             Review of The General Assembly Approved 
 
FORT WORTH-By a vote of 31 to 11, with four abstentions, the complex and 
comprehensive report of the Special Committee for Review of the General 
Assembly was approved as presented, with minor amendments, on Tuesday, June 
22, by the Assembly Committee on General Assembly Procedures.  A motion was 
also passed to dismiss the special committee, chartered by the 208th 
General Assembly (1996) and chaired by Gay Mothershed, with great thanks 
and appreciation.  The report will now be commended to the Assembly for its 
review and vote. 
     Members of the Committee, who assiduously embraced their formidable 
assignment to understand and evaluate the special committee's report, had 
brought before the Committee a number of potential alternative 
recommendations via motions and amendments, which were all eventually 
defeated.   
     The motions with the highest degree of support involved the retention 
of the Committee of the Office of the General Assembly (COGA) alongside the 
newly-proposed Council of the Assembly.  A motion to refer the report of 
the special committee to the next Quadrennial Review was also defeated.  
     The balance of the committee's afternoon work was devoted to the 
consideration of a variety of recommendations, overtures and commissioners' 
resolutions.  Overture 99-49, on placement and funding of the Presbyterian 
Council for Chaplains and Military Personnel (PCCMP) with the Office of the 
General Assembly, was approved to be recommended to the Assembly.  It was 
further recommended that the PCCMP be placed under the GAC for 
administrative and funding purposes, and that GAC be directed to fund the 
PCCMP at the current levels.  To Overture 99-11, on biennial assemblies, 
the committee responded by affirming its earlier action at 36.007, under 
the report of the Special Committee for Review. 
     Other key actions included the approval of the dismissal of 
special/joint committees, the referral of commissioners' resolutions 99-19 
and 99-23 to the OGA, and the approval of CR 99- 20, regarding the election 
of future moderators at the conclusion of each year's assembly.  A motion 
was passed to refer the proposed Anti-Racism Training (20.143) to the OGA, 
expressing the committee's desire that such training be placed within the 
assembly docket rather than during the pre-assembly conference.  Request 
99-2 was also approved, to answer the request with the advice of the 
Advisory Committee on the Constitution(ACC). 
     Preparation for the Committee's Saturday docket time, devoted to the 
per capita budget (Rate for 2000, 33.016; Revised 1999 Budget, 33.025) was 
given at the conclusion of the afternoon.  The committee was fully briefed 
on its responsibility and complete discretion concerning all financial 
implications of the General Assembly.  Its recommendations will play a 
critical role in the last item of business before the Assembly:  the 
approval of the per capita budget. 
 
Emily Enders Odom 

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