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Note #6038 from PCUSA NEWS to PRESBYNEWS:

completes full docket
GA00090
June 27, 2000

Committee on Church Orders and Ministry
completes full docket

	by Emily Enders Odom

LONG BEACH, June 27 - Addressing a plethora of overtures apparently designed
to minimize the "creative winking and blinking" undertaken by Presbyterians
in response to various "Book of Order" directives, the Committee on Church
Orders and Ministry completed its considerable docket Tuesday afternoon. 
Many of the overtures and proposed constitutional changes purported to offer
increased flexibility in light of the growing pastor shortage, new and
emerging immigrant congregations and equal opportunity.

	In opposition to the advice from the Advisory Committee on the Constitution
(ACC), the committee moved to approve an amended version of Overture 00-24,
to allow for short-term, specialized ministerial services.  If approved by
the Assembly, the amended overture would allow for the possibility of a
designated associate pastor being elected for a term of not less than two
years nor more than four years by vote of the congregation.  Overture 00-66
from the Presbytery of East Iowa was amended by the committee to substitute
the advice of the ACC, with the effect of allowing the calling of a
temporary supply to the position of pastor or associate pastor.

	A motion to reconsider the referral to General Assembly Council of the
proposal on ordaining church educators barely passed the committee by a vote
of 26 to 25, with two abstentions.  The sole item of business taken up
during the reconsideration, however, was the amendment proposed by Youth
Advisory Delegate Kristen McCachren to append a comment to the previous
referral.  The text of the comment, which was approved, reads: “Our
committee wishes to affirm the effort of the workgroup on the role and
status of Christian educators.  However, the course of discussion caused a
desire for clarification and additional information.”

	The committee voted not to approve Overture 00-20 regarding the eligibility
of an associate or assistant pastor to immediately succeed the pastor in a
church.  Although members of the committee acknowledged that this was an
issue brought consistently to the Assembly through the years, attempts at
giving it a hearing through amendment or referral failed.

	Other overtures that failed to win approval by the committee were 00-32
regarding elder and deacon training taking place prior to ordination and
00-81 concerning the development of standardized examinations for
commissioned lay pastors.

	The committee approved Overture 00-50 to allow greater flexibility in
waiving examination requirements when the inquirer or candidate has a
documented disability.  The language of the overture was amended to give
even greater latitude to the presbytery of care as follows: "The examination
requirements of G-14.0310b(4) shall not be waived until an inquirer or
candidate has a disability documented by a person or persons of the
presbytery's choice that affects the individual's test-taking ability."  The
original text had called for documentation by a physician or other
health-care professional.

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