wfn.org | Amendments to the Rules of Discipline Proposed

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

GA99059 
23-June-1999 
 
         Amendments to the Rules of Discipline Proposed  
 
FORT WORTH-The Assembly Committee on Church Polity will recommend that the 
Assembly send to the presbyteries proposed amendments to the Book of Order 
modifying the Rules of Discipline.   
     One proposed change would provide that when a minister involved in 
judicial process renounces the jurisdiction of the church, the clerk or 
stated clerk shall report both the renunciation and the status of the 
matter to the governing body.  This language answers Overture 99-3 which 
proposed that in the event of renunciation, the judicial process would be 
taken to an appropriate conclusion regardless of the nonparticipation of 
the accused. 
     A group of proposed changes would provide for review by an accused of 
procedures of an investigation, as is already the case for a complainant. 
Proposed provisions include designating two permanent judicial commission 
members to review any petition for review while an investigation is in 
progress, modification of the quorum for a permanent judicial commission, 
and a process for review. 
     Finally, the Assembly Committee on Church Polity will recommend that 
the Assembly propose that a minister engaged in work within the bounds of a 
presbytery other than the presbytery of membership submit to the 
jurisdiction of that presbytery for the purposes of discipline.  Should 
disciplinary process be initiated, the presbytery of membership shall be 
notified and every governing body shall enforce and recognize the judgments 
of every other governing body acting under the provisions of the Rules of 
Discipline. 
 
 
Nancy Rodman 

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