One of the actions of the 217th General Assembly of the PC(USA) was the formation of a task force to rewrite the Form of Government section of the Book of Order.  This was attempted a few years back when Chapter 14, the longest section of the current Form of Government covering Ordination, Certification, and Commissioning, was rewritten, simplified and sent by the General Assembly to the presbyteries for approval.  It was rejected.  (Personal note: one item that bothered me was that the ordination questions for ministers were changed so that the first eight questions were not the same as for the other officers.  This is a feature that I always point out when I ask ordination questions.)

So, with that rejection behind them, the plan is to now completely rewrite and simplify the section.  The Task Force has now met twice and has started to release documents.  Maybe the most interesting change is that their draft proposal includes creating a fourth section of the Book of Order titled “The Foundations of Presbyterian Polity.”  Their draft for this brief section contains a simplified form of the current chapters I to IV.  A quick reading shows that most of the key phrases are there:  “Jesus Christ is the head of the church” (but this is no longer the opening words), The Great Ends of the Church, “God alone is Lord of the conscience”  and “the Church is further called to undertake its mission even at the risk of its own life.”  (Although this last phrase is now buried a bit and tougher to find.)

The Task Force has also released an outline of a new Form of Government as well as a draft of a new Chapter I.  The PCUSA news service has also issued a news item.