In just a couple of hours the 208th Stated Meeting of the General Synod of the Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church will begin. The meeting will be held at Bonclarken, as it usually is, and will continue through Thursday. Resources for the meeting can be found on the Resources page. Specifically, the Standards are there or you can get the Form of Government section as an individual download. There is also the Manual of Authorities and Duties and a jumping off point for the Synod Minutes Archive. The reports for this meeting should be posted tomorrow, June 6, according to the notice on the page.

If you want to follow the meeting on Twitter there are official accounts for ARP Church (@ARPChurch) and the ARP Christian Education Ministries (@ARP_CEM). I don’t see a hashtag yet (#gs208?) but there is a low level of traffic about the meeting. Will update as appropriate. UPDATE: The hashtag is #synod2012 (Thanks Seth) UPDATE 2: It turns out the official Tweeter to follow is @ARPMagazine and they use both the #synod2012 and #arpsynod

As the meeting progresses there is the ARP Church official news feed. There are a couple of unofficial sources that you may want to follow as well, including stories from The Aquila Report and Dr. William Evans’ articles on the Reformation 21 blog as well as the very focused ARP Talk blog.

A couple of ARP bloggers who I regularly read who may be blogging about the meeting include Brian L. Howard (Twitter @BrianLHoward), Seth Stark on his blog The Ruling Elder (Twitter @TheRulingElder) and Tim Philips on his blog Gairney Bridge.

For a good rundown on the business before the Synod I would refer you to Dr. Evans’ Reformation 21 article “2012 ARP General Synod Faces Tough Decisions.” One of these topics is a Memorial (read Overture for those in many other Presbyterian branches) that affirms the Creation account in Genesis 1 and 2 as history and not mythology. This topic is being tackled by some other branches as well and I hope to make some unified comments about it later.  This Synod will also be reviewing a proposed new Form of Government section to the Standards.

But the real potential lightning rod at this meeting is the continued discussion, some might characterize it as a battle, between the ARP Church and its college and seminary – Erskine. The church has for a couple of years now been looking for ways to strengthen its relationship to the school and some interpret the actions of the school as an attempt to not only ward off the church’s interest in strengthening the relationship but weakening what is already in place.

At last year’s Synod meeting the college was asked to consider bylaws revisions which would allow the General Synod more direct control over the membership of the school’s Board of Trustees. Back in February a report was presented to the Trustees and they voted not to change the bylaws but affirmed, in a response to the church, that they appreciated the support of the church and needed to continue the dialogue.

But the decision by the Trustees was not unanimous and eleven trustees have submitted a minority report (published by The Aquila Report) to the Synod. In fact, the trustees signing the minority report include some who voted for the original response and changed their minds after finding that the report on which it was based was factually incorrect. I won’t try to summarize the minority report here but simply note that the minority wants all parties to recognize that Erskine is an agency of the ARP Church and its Board should recognize that it is not authorizing the church’s role but recognizing it. They also discuss the impasse and the reasons for it:

In saying this, we readily acknowledge that responsibility for the
current impasse lies with both the Board (for its resistance and failure
to implement the Synod’s mission for the Erskine institutions), and
with the Synod (for its failure to require ongoing accountability of the
Board to the mission). Furthermore, the Synod’s own structure has
hampered its efforts to respond to a more recent well-organized and
determined opposition by those wanting a more independent Erskine, and
especially to the vigorous public relations campaign mounted by those
opposing Synod’s authority to remove trustees.

The minority report recommends two things – First, that the Synod reaffirm the under the Manual of Authorities and Duties the Erskine Board has direct responsibility for operating the college and seminary. Second, that the Moderator of the General Synod appoint a special committee to study and make recommendations about the relationship between the two bodies.

So, with this and other weighty decisions before this deliberative body we offer our prayers for this meeting of the General Synod and await what decisions you make under the guidance of the Holy Spirit.