wfn.org | COGA looking again at every-other-year GA

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

Note #6900 from PCUSA NEWS to PRESBYNEWS:

12-October-2001
01383

COGA looking again at every-other-year GA

Oft-rejected idea may be resurrected for assembly vote in 2002
 
by Alexa Smith

LOUISVILLE - A team is being formed to consider having meetings of the
General Assembly (GA) every other year starting in 2008.

	The Committee on the Office of the General Assembly (COGA), which is
responsible for the annual legislative gatherings of the Presbyterian Church
(USA), wants a report to consider during its next meeting in January.

	A COGA recommendation could go to next year's GA in Columbus, Ohio.

	Proposals that GAs be held every other year rather than annually have been
resoundingly rejected by several previous assemblies.

	"This is ... (simply to) see if the way be clear," said the denomination's
stated clerk, the Rev. Clifton Kirkpatrick, who supervises the work of the
Office of the General Assembly (OGA), which plans the multi-million dollar
meeting.

	Kirkpatrick, while describing GAs as an event of "great value" in bringing
the 2.5 million-member denomination together, said the PC(USA) could save a
great deal of money by meeting half as often. Moreover, he said presbyteries
could increase the number of commissioners, like most other mainline
churches that have moved to two-year meeting cycles.

	The Rev. William Forbes, of Westfield, NJ, the COGA moderator, expressed
misgivings about the proposal.

	"I think we'll lose something very valuable if we don't meet every year,"
said Forbes, adding that a "connectional" church needs frequent meetings of
its pastors and elders for discussions of policies, priorities and issues of
importance to the whole church.

	"It is expensive," he said, "but it may be a price we ought to pay."

	A six-member COGA sub-committee voted unanimously to order the feasibility
study.

	Some members said the cost savings might not be the only benefit.

	John Detterick, executive director of the General Assembly Council (GAC),
speculated that the move to every-other-year GAs might force presbyteries
and synods to do more and better community-building at the grass-roots
level.

	Donetta Wickstrom, of Duluth, MN, said less focus on assemblies could
elevate other worthwhile church-wide gatherings, such as Youth Triennium and
the Churchwide Gathering of Presbyterian Women.

	The Rev. Gradye Parsons, OGA's director of strategic operations, said he
had doubts about the idea of biennial assemblies until he attended the
Evangelical Lutheran Church in America biennial meeting this summer.

	Parsons suggested changing to biennial assemblies in 2008 and meeting
thereafter in even-numbered years, alternating among the five geographic
regions COGA has already established for Assembly meetings.

	He said the per-capita and mission budgets would both save money because
each year's budget would include only half of the cost of an assembly.

	Parsons also noted that proposed amendments to the church's constitution
would be considered for two years rather than one, giving presbyteries more
time for reflection and deliberation.

	He said there would be drawbacks, however, especially a greater requirement
of time from the moderator, who would serve for two years.

	The current moderator, the Rev. Jack Rogers, of Pasadena, CA, said a
two-year term might actually be advantageous, allowing for a less rigorous
schedule. He said it might even be possible for a moderator to keep his or
her outside job, as is done by Presbyterian moderators in New Zealand.

	Parsons pointed out that such a change also would raise questions about the
role of committees that meet between GAs. Some worry that those groups - and
national staff - could usurp some of the commissioners' authority over
Assembly programs and policies.

	And if the number of commissioners stayed the same, he said, the change
would mean that fewer Presbyterians would participate directly.

	A new member of COGA, Lena Prewitt, a college professor from Tuscaloosa,
AL, said assembly planners would have to find other ways to involve more
Presbyterians in the life of the church beyond their congregations.

	"Let a thousand flowers bloom," was the suggestions of the Rev. Jim Collie,
a COGA member who is the executive presbyter in Santa Fe Presbytery. He said
presbyteries and church conference centers could work creatively to fill the
gap.

	"As much as national folks believe the assembly is the tie that binds the
denomination together, it's not," said Collie, who argued that the annual
meeting serves that purpose for just 800 or 900 Presbyterians. "It is not as
important to the denomination as a whole," he said.

	Deborah Davies, the associate stated clerk, said a two-year cycle would be
a boon to her office, which makes most GA arrangements each year. "We're
literally starting the next one before we finish this one," she said.

	Future assemblies are scheduled for June 15-22, 2002, in Columbus; May
24-31, 2003, Denver, CO; June 26-July 3, Richmond, VA; June 11-18, 2005,
Sacramento, CA; June 17-24, 2006, Birmingham, AL (running concurrently with
the assemblies of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church and the Cumberland
Presbyterian Church of America); and June 30- July 7, 2007, Minneapolis, MN.
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