| nFOG is approved, Belhar fails: an update on amendment voting |
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UPDATED JUNE 7, 2011 – A majority of presbyteries have now approved the proposed new Form of Government for the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), so it will become part of the PC(USA)’s Book of Order – bringing what some contend is a more streamlined and flexible way for the denomination to operate. The Belhar Confession, however, written in South Africa with a theme of reconciliation, did not win enough votes and therefore will not be added at this time to the PC(USA)’s Book of Confessions. Today, Trinity Presbytery in South Carolina voted 56-48 to approve the new Form of Government, casting the 87th vote in favor of the proposal. That means a majority of the denomination’s 173 presbyteries have now voted in favor of substituting that more condensed, missionally focused document in place of the current Form of Government, which was written and adopted in 1983. The current margin of voting is 87 presbyteries in favor of the new Form of Government and 80 against. Just four more presbyteries will vote on the measure, and two presbyteries have not scheduled meetings to cast votes on any of the proposed amendments before the deadline. The Belhar Confession has been approved by a solid majority – 89 presbyteries to 60 so far. However, this proposal to amend the Book of Confessions requires a two-thirds majority for adoption, so it only takes 58 negative votes to defeat it. The Belhar Confession, written to guide the anti-apartheid movement in South Africa, was recently adopted by the Reformed Church in America and will be considered at the 2012 general synod meeting of the Christian Reformed Church in North America. Amendment 10-A, which received the needed 87th affirmative ratification vote on May 10, continues to maintain its solid margin of approval, with the vote count now standing at 96 positive and 71 negative. When that amendment takes effect on July 10, it will delete from the PC(USA)’s Book of Order the requirement that candidates for ordination practice “fidelity in marriage between a man and a woman or chastity in singleness.” The new amendment affirms in more general terms that “[s]tandards for ordained service reflect the church’s desire to submit joyfully to the Lordship of Jesus Christ in all aspects of life” and that “[g]overning bodies shall be guided by Scripture and the confessions in applying standards to individual candidates.” Summary as of June 7, 2011
Do you want to track the voting on these amendments? The official tabulation of votes is managed by the Office of the General Assembly (OGA). Some affiliated advocacy organizations are also tracking the votes on their Web pages. Office of the General Assembly Presbyterian Coalition – which opposes ratification Covenant Network – which supports ratification |
Comments
Dan Williams, Co-Moderator
Form of Government Task Force
There are many ways to read the document. I tend to view it as "power-up" as the GA seeks to impose a methodology on subordinate units and get all on the same page. The core reason for the removal of the former established policy on minimum numbers to conduct business and new policy manuals to be done "now-now-now", is a pure power grap and a means for a higher governing body to negate or nullify the actions of a lower by more or less administrative fiat, anybody remember PUP?
Whatever the former social compact known as the PCUSA (1983-2011) morphs into, the system will be so over-burdoned by remedial cases generated by 10-A applications, and management of churches who just refuse to adopt the New FOG, or play along by non-compliance, that the Presbyteries will become more or less regulatory and disciplinary bodies, Stated Clerks and EPs will be putting out fires until the system just collapses up itself. Max Weber saw this 100 years ago. Someday others will too.
But it does give groups the opportunity to rethink procedures: e.g., perhaps splitting up COM so one group covers churches and another covers pastors. Isn't there a bit of a conflict of interest inherent in the current COM guidelines?
I would remind everyone that nFOG doesn't have any provision for quorum for Sessions and Congregations other than the default quorum of Roberts' Rules. That means that as of July 11, 2011, if a session or congregation doesn't have quorum rules in their bylaws that they cannot have a meeting without 1/2 + 1 of the membership of the body attending. The bylaws of the church I serve set a quorum as 1/10 of the membership. We can always meet that, but we've never had 1/2 of the membership show up for a meeting. I would suggest that we all check our bylaws and call a special meeting to set a quorum in line with the current-until-July-11th BOO if needed.
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