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07617 September 28, 2007
Form of Government Task Force asked to recommend two years of study, feedback on work
GAC fears revisions may fail because of lack of understanding, trust
by Toya Richards Hill Presbyterian News Service
LOUISVILLE - The General Assembly Council (GAC) voted to ask the task force reorganizing the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)'s Form of Government to consider recommending a two-year period of study and feedback of its work before the General Assembly is asked to vote on it.
Proponents of the delay said they feared that mistrust in the church and lack of understanding of the changes may doom the proposed revisions to defeat if the Assembly is asked to vote on it at the 2008 General Assembly next summer as scheduled.
At its Sept. 18-21 meeting here, the GAC - prompted by its Leadership and Vocation Committee - voted to "communicate to the Form of Government Task Force (FOGTF) our strong support of the direction of their work and our desire that it be successful. In this spirit of support, the GAC asks that the task force consider adding to their recommendations a process for discernment, study and feedback within the whole church for a two-year period, beginning with the 2008 General Assembly and ending with 2010 General Assembly."
The GAC heard a status report on the work of the FOGTF early in its meeting. Task force co-moderator Sharon M. Davison outlined the group's work thus far, which was released church-wide earlier this month and is accessible on the task force Web site.
Following its charge by the 217th General Assembly (2006), the FOGTF has proposed a new initial section of The Book of Order entitled "The Foundations of Presbyterian Polity" - which would replace the current first four chapters of the constitution - and changes in six chapters of the book's Form of Government section. The task force must report back to the GA when it meets again in summer 2008.
Davison told the GAC that she has come to understand that "there are a lot of people for whom The Book of Order is a barrier."
There is a growing majority in the denomination who feel the Book of Order "is standing in the way of them doing mission. We need to help them do mission, which is "what we really are called to do," Davison said.
She stressed that the task force is in the process of fine-tuning what it will ultimately submit to the GA, and asked for the GAC's participation in that process.
GAC member the Rev. Steve Benz, who is executive presbyter for East Tennessee Presbytery, in a prepared response to the FOGTF's efforts called the group's work "brilliant."
"I am especially taken with the Foundations of Presbyterian Polity section that precedes the Form of Government section, in the simplicity of language and the depth of its reordering our understanding of Church in a more coherent form," he said. "There should be little substantive discomfort with this section of the book."
Yet at the same time, Benz said he wants "to study it and learn it and absorb it and live into it, before I have to vote on it."
Benz said he fears the task force's work may get discarded because it's too much to digest too soon. "I feel very strongly that this is a document that must be evaluated logically and thoroughly as we discern what we must write down ... about how we are church together," he said. "My fear is that what they (the FOGTF) have done may get lost in some of the mistrust and rhetoric that engulfs us."
In addition to the GAC's decision to ask the FOGTF to recommend a two-year "process for discernment, study and feedback," the council also voted to have GAC chair the Rev. Allison Seed "appoint a task force that will bring to the February 2008 GAC meeting a recommendation to the 2008 General Assembly on how to respond to the Form of Government task force report" should the task force decide to proceed to a vote by the 2008 Assembly.
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