wfn.org | Educators to get presbytery votes under Form of Governance rewrite

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

Note #6634 from PCUSA NEWS to PRESBYNEWS:

12-June-2001
GA01076

Educators to get presbytery votes under Form of Governance rewrite

by Alexa Smith	

LOUISVILLE, June 12 - Although the Committee on Church Orders and Ministry
referred a major report on Christian educators to the 214th General
Assembly, it approved language in another document requiring that
presbyteries establish minimum salary requirements for certified educators
and giving them a vote on the presbytery floor.
In order to be given a vote, the certified educator must be an elder as
well.

	The language was inserted - mistakenly, it seems - into a proposed revision
of the Form of Government, which is an attempt by the Office of the Stated
Clerk  to downsize the contents of the Book of Order and making procedures
for ordination, certification and commissioning of church leaders more
flexible.

  It is also an answer to complaints that the Book of Order is increasingly
becoming a procedural manual rather than a constitution.

	The rewritten Form of Goverment was approved by a 43-6 vote, amended to
include the recommendations of the Advisory Committee on the Constitution.

The Rev. Richard Baldwin, a member of the writing team, said that more than
200 revisions have been proposed to the now-revised Chapter 14 since reunion
of the northern and southern churches.  "It made Chapter 14 a patchwork
quilt of phrases added here and there," he said, adding that the book is
getting more rigid, instead of allowing presbyteries of contextualize some
procedures.  "The church was attempting to express unity by creating
uniformity ... but it is an unwieldy thing."

Baldwin said the rewrite reduced the size of the Book of Order by 36 percent
by shortening sentences, reordering paragraphs and moving some items, such
as the ordination questions ,to the Directory of  Worship.

Other procedures for certifying educators and commissioning lay preachers
are recommended to be put in handbooks that may be adapted by presbyteries. 
The same is true for Committees on Ministry, with the exception of
ordination standards which are contained in another section of the
constitution, Chapter Six.

	The Rev. Charlie Palmer of Mission Presbytery told commissioners that if
the revised draft of the Form of Government is disapproved by either the
Assembly or the presbyteries, then the recommendations about educators will
be disapproved also, since the independent report on educators was referred.
 "If (the Form of Government) is not approved," he said, "the things about
Christian educators will be lost.

	"That's my concern."

	An attempt to reconsider the educators' report was defeated 22-23-2.  It
will go to next year's Assembly, along with another document that is
proposing that educators be ordained.

	The educators' original report pushed for the same salary minimum as
pastors.

	Although none of the changes to the Form of Government was to be
substantive, the rewrite says that a presbytery "shall" grant certified
educators who are also elders, voice and vote; the current Book of Order
grants educators voice only.  Some presbyteries do give voice and vote to
certified educators who are elders.

	The Rev. John Bartholomew, a member of the writing team, said the language
was assumed to be permissive in the Form of Government and that the writers'
apparently overlooked the word 'shall.'

	In other business, the committee referred an overture from the Presbytery
of National Capital back to the Office of the General Assembly for more
work.  The overture seeks permission for presbyteries to commission elders
of Presbyterian churches who are partnered with the PC(USA) as commissioned
lay pastors.

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