The 2006 General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church of Aotearoa New Zealand will convene in a few hours in Auckland and will meet through 1 PM Monday October 2.  The theme is “Christ-centered, community-facing.”  Looking over the docket for the meeting, both the summary version and the detailed PDF version, much of the proceedings have a familiar feel to them.  There are however a few distinctive elements that caught my attention.

The first of these is the election of the moderator.  The denomination uses the moderator designate model so this year the GA will receive the moderator for the next GA in 2008.  However, the nomination and voting procedure is run by the nominating committee throughout the wider church before GA.  This year there were two nominees with the Rev. Dr. Graham Redding receiving slightly more votes than the Rev. Peter Cheyne.  But this is the other interesting part of the process:  The nominating committee report and election of the moderator does not occur until the third day of the GA on Saturday.  Logistically, it makes some sense to give the moderator a chance to prepare for the GA and be part of the planning.

Another interesting element is the structure of the church, and the meeting, with different ethnic constituancies having representation.  These are probably not much different than the PC(USA) non-geographic presbyteries.  The groups include the Pacific Islanders Synod and the Council of Asian Congregations.  There is also the Maori Synod named Te Aka Puaho meaning “The Glowing Vine.”  In the Standing Orders of the GA, Te Aka Puaho has the ability to meet and make decisions in their traditional consultative system and report back to the whole GA.  In addition, if Te Aka Puaho has questions about a GA decision relative to their Maori culture:

(e) Te Aka Puaho may advise the Assembly that, because of a distinctive Maori perspective or value on a matter affecting Maori, it wishes to stand aside from the decision-making process for a time in order to undertake full consultation amongst the Maori people, the results of which will be reported no later than at the next General Assembly.

While the highest profile item on the agenda, that of ordination standards, comes up at the meeting on Friday, Thursday’s docket has its own controversial items.  Specifically, there are three overtures from the Presbytery of Auckland that seemed to be aimed at restraining and weakening the central authority of the denomination.  Overture 1 calls for limitation on the amount of money the national offices can collect from each church.  Overture 2 is about limiting mission assessments.  And Overture 3 proposes a “Federal Model” for the church structure.  As I read the overture it appears that it is recommending a denominational structure that is more congregational than presbyterian changing higher governing bodies into support agencies more than connectional and oversight bodies.  The overture refers to “independent/togetherness.”  The Book of Order and Judicial Reference Group comments:

…without wishing to discourage full consideration of the overture, advises that it raises major constitutional issues which go to the heart of the governance of the Church.

And a final interesting twist, the GA has corporate sponsorship to supply technology for the assembly.

I am still looking for a webcast of the GA but I will post as I am updated by the various channels.