Well, you knew this would be big, and not just in a metaphorical sense…

The Office of the General Assembly has made available on their web site the publication with the changes to the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) Constitution that the 219th General Assembly is sending down to the presbyteries.  It comes in three parts so get those reading glasses ready!

Part 1 is the nFOG , or technically the new Foundations of Presbyterian Polity section and the revised Form of Government section.  Fifty eight pages long — All the new Book of Order text plus the “Advisory Handbook for Councils for the Development of Policies and Procedures Required by the Form of Government.”  Then there is a second eight-page booklet to serve as a guide in considering the nFOG with links to the online resources about the revision.

I say that the booklets are mostly ready because the spot for the second amendment booklet is there but no link is provided yet.  By process of elimination this must be the proposed amendments to the Book of Confessions, the addition of the Belhar Confession.  I will revise and link here when posted.

Part 3 is all the other amendments to the Book of Order.  There are 15 amendments in all covering the G, W and D sections with numbering for the current Book of Order.  If you are keeping count, that will be another 32 pages of reading. For each G section amendment there is an editor’s note about how that would translate into the nFOG. 

(It is also interesting to note a typo in the cover letter to Part 3 that says Belhar will be part 3.  No big deal.)

But here is an interesting insight into how Presbyterians do things:  According to those editors notes five of the eight G section changes would add language to the Book of Order if the nFOG version is adopted.  Only one, the change to current section G-6.0106b, would actually change wording in the nFOG, and two amendments would be rendered moot by adopting the nFOG.  So we reduce our polity and make it flexible only to immediately start adding to it. I’ll analyze all that another time.

So start downloading and have at it.