While the PC(USA) is trying to sort itself out after its last General Assembly, most of the rest of the world is starting the cycle over again and preparing for their 2009 GA’s. And news is starting to filter out.
The Presbyterian Church in America will hold its 37th General Assembly June 16-19 in Orlando Florida. Registration is now open.
Business is beginning to develop and last week Presbyterians Weekly News reported that Central Carolina Presbytery passed an overture that would:
remove wording that binds obedience to civil law on matters of marriage, and enjoins ministers to perform only marriages that “do not transgress the laws of God”; then begins the process of granting Chapter 59 full constitutional authority.
As civil courts and legislatures begin allowing same-sex marriages the church is looking to protect their religious understanding of the ceremony.
The reference to Chapter 59 of the Book of Church Order (BCO) is interesting: The Directory for the Worship of God begins at Chapter 47 and not all parts have constitutional authority. As a preface says:
Temporary statement adopted by the Third General Assembly to preface the Directory for Worship: The Directory for Worship is an approved guide and should be taken seriously as the mind of the Church agreeable to the Standards. However, it does not have the force of law and is not to be considered obligatory in all its parts. BCO 56, 57 and 58 have been given full constitutional authority by the Eleventh General Assembly after being submitted to the Presbyteries and receiving the necessary two-thirds (2/3) approval of the Presbyteries.
So the overture would begin the process to add Chapter 59 on Marriage to the other three that do have authority. For you information, Chapter 56 deals with baptism, Chapter 57 addresses “The admission of persons to sealing ordnances,” and Chapter 58 is about the Lord’s Supper.
No official list of overtures has appeared yet but I think we can expect that shortly.
Today the Presbyterian Church in Canada issued a press release announcing the four candidates for Moderator of their 135th General Assembly to Convene on June 7 in Hamilton, Ontario. The Moderator is elected ahead of the GA by the presbyteries. Of the four candidates, the lone elder, Ms. Marilyn Clarke, is from St. Catharines right next to Hamilton. The other three candidates are all ministers, the Rev. Karen Hincke from Peterborough, Ontario, the Rev. Richard Sand from New Glasgow, Nova Scotia, and the Rev. Harvey Self from Orangeville, Ontario.
Finally, I mentioned back in November that the Evangelical Presbyterian Church was studying ways to handle the varying viewpoints on ordination of women to church office. Again, no official list of overtures has been posted for the 29th General Assembly to be held June 25-27 in Brighton, Michigan, but there is the earlier news item about a proposal to create non-geographic affinity presbyteries that is expected. I’ve gotten word that individual presbyteries are considering things like this as well and it will be interesting to hear the GA discussion on this. As I’ve speculated before, the PC(USA) migration to the EPC will force some adjustments and this looks like the leading edge.
These are only three of the many upcoming GA’s and I look forward to moderator elections and the posting of business in the next few weeks. I’ll let you know when I see something interesting.