By my count, there are now 120 days until the start of the 218th General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (USA).  The day is significant since it marks a couple of deadlines for the meeting, maybe the most important of which is the last day to submit constitutional business for the Assembly.

Related to business, in surfing around I found that the PC(USA) rolled out their new business tracking web interface back in December.  Yes, the previous system from 2006, “Les,” has been retired.  When I now go to Les I get an error message. (Yes, I’ll say it “No Les, no more.”) The new system is called “PC-biz” and can be found at www.pc-biz.org.  It is web based, uses ASP and javascript, and has a generally pleasing web interface and a “printer view” function to get rid of all the frames for viewing and printing.  The specs are generous requiring only Windows 2000 or Mac OS 9.1 but a relatively modern browser.  Some components were missing when I test drove it on Mac OS 9.2 with IE 5.5.  If you are using IE it needs 6 or better.  However, on this Linux machine with Firefox it seems to be doing fine with the extensive surfing I’ve been doing and it even worked well in Konqueror.  And it seems to do just fine in the current Firefox on a Windows 98 machine.  The FAQ says that they are migrating the Les data from 2006 to PC-biz.  And when you register and log in there is a nice filter option to view business related to the governing body you specified in your profile. (I have not tried switching back and forth between my Synod and Presbytery yet.)

One of the other things about this tracking system is that you can see the overtures when they hit the system, not just after they have been “perfected” by the Office of the General Assembly and make their way to the GA Business page.  So now, even though the Business page still lists the 30 I have already discussed, PC-biz lists 65 with only the last still listed as in review before going to the full Assembly.

When I found that there are now 35 overtures that I have not discussed my first reaction was that it would be a really long post to get caught up.  However after looking through them it should be no surprise that two topics swamp all the others in these overtures.  All together now:  “FOG and PUP.”

FOG ( Form of Government Task Force):  If you were to judged based upon the overtures you would think the change is moving too fast.  In this group are overtures: 34 (Northumberland Presbytery) – Send Foundations to the presbyteries, Keep the task force, study the rest for two years; 43 (Huntingdon Presbytery) – Send Foundations to the presbyteries but require 2/3 vote, Study Government for two years and then need 2/3 vote to pass whether you send it in two years or now, Keep the task force; 47 (Sacramento Presbytery, Concurrence St. Andrew Presbytery) – Study for two years, Dismiss the task force; 49 (Donegal Presbytery) – Commend to the presbyteries and study for two years; 57 (Southern New England Presbytery) – Dismiss the task force and make it available for presbyteries to edit if they wish and resubmit to a future GA; 58 (Middle Tennessee Presbytery) – Study for two years, Keep the task force to deal with the feedback; 59 (East Tennessee Presbytery) – Send it back to the task force for a detailed plan in six months for other governing bodies to review and a “strike-and-insert” form of the amendments [Editorial comment: OUCH!  Did you read the side-by-side?  There is so much going on in there that a full strike-and-insert might be useful in places but would be chaos in others.]; 61 (Plains and Peaks Presbytery) – Just refer it to next GA, Not in the Recommendation but in the Rational that now is not the time and we need time to study it.  I think all of that speaks for itself.  However, if we wait two years will the church really study it?  I’m not sure our record is all that good at doing that.  Overture 57 is interesting polity-wise since it wants the new Form of Government to be proposed by a Presbytery, not a task force.  So that is about 1/4 of the new overtures.

Heidelberg Catechism:  Before I move on to PUP specifically, there are two overtures that look to revise the Heidelberg Catechism in the Book of Confessions.  While I mentioned the overture request from Pittsburgh Presbytery in a previous post, it turns out that officially Pittsburgh is a concurring request on Overture 36 from the Northern Kansas Presbytery.  New York City Presbytery also concurred on this overture which calls for initiating the process of study for revising that confessional document.  Boston Presbytery, with Winnebago Presbytery concurring, proposed a slightly different approach in Overture 45, to ask permission to print the Christian Reformed Church in North America’s 1988 translation.

PUP, Ordination Standards, G-6.0106b:  This is a little bit wider of a category, but in the end they are all paths to the same issue.  In this group are overtures: 32 (Scioto Valley Presbytery) –  To have the Stated Clerk find ways to collect and share presbyteries’ theological reflection processes as recommended by the PUP report; 40 (Genesee Valley Presbytery) – Remove G-6.0106b and render ineffective all related Authoritative Interpretations (AI); 44 (Huntingdon Presbytery) – Rescind the PUP AI and pass a new one affirming G-6.0108b {Editorial comment: Don’t see the date of Presbytery action, but surely before the recent GAPJC decisions.]; 46 (Boston Presbytery) – Strike the current G-6.0106b and replace there and elsewhere with language affirming the promises made in the ordination vows; 54 (Pittsburgh Presbytery) – To amend G-6.0108b to clarify that standards specified elsewhere in the Book of Order can not be exempted using the conscience clause [Editorial:  Pre-GAPJC but after their policy was overturned by the Synod PJC]; 60 (Cincinnati Presbytery) – Replace G-6.0106b with language that the examining body determines suitability for ordination and asks to nullify old AI’s about standards; 64 (John Knox Presbytery) – An AI regarding G-6.0108 that would require presbyteries to consider exemptions in “faith and practice” except those related to the office they are called to.  Can’t wait to see the advisories on that last one in light of the GAPJC decisions.

Deep breath.  OK, I’ll keep lumping for a bit here but the categories will become a bit more general in a minute.  That is almost exactly half covered.  Nineteen to go.

Per Capita:  With the other high-profile issues catching the spotlight, this could be the sleeper that comes back to surprise everyone.  There is already Overture 20 that addresses per capita issues ( main page, PC-biz page).  In the latest batch there is also 38 (Grace Presbytery), 48 (Sierra Blanca Presbytery), and 56 (Santa Barbara Presbytery).  All of these call for limitations on what is in the GA per capita budget, Overture 56 by amendment to the Book of Order that would affect middle governing bodies as well.  The concern is to remove “mission” from the per capita and Overtures 20 and 48 specifically single out ecumenical agencies and relations and Overture 56 includes those in the list.  Obviously, passage of any of these would mean that the items shifted to mission would stretch the mission budget even thinner.

Social Witness:  Well, this is a mix but here it goes.  The following overtures address social witness policy, broadly defined, in one way or another:  31 (Susquehanna Valley Presbytery) – To endorse the World Council of Churches “Amman Call” regarding Arab-Israeli peace;  35 (Pacific Presbytery) – Have GAC develop a comprehensive HIV/AIDS policy; 41 (Denver Presbytery) – To support the Presbyterian Church in Zimbabwe in its humanitarian and social work; 51 (Baltimore Presbytery) – To have church governing bodies purchase goods that are from environmentally responsible manufacturing that are not sweatshops; 52 (Baltimore Presbytery) – To support the troops, but call on the government to pull out of Iraq; 53 (Pittsburgh Presbytery) – To annually have the Board of Pensions publish a Relief of Conscience Plan Report with details of BOP money spent on abortions and how members can opt out of paying for them; 55 (Pittsburgh Presbytery) – To direct all PC(USA) entities to present both sides of the abortion issue in balance; 63 (East Iowa Presbytery) – Encourages those visiting Israel and Palestine to visit Christian churches while there and seek balance between Israeli and Palestinian areas and perspectives while there.  Note that Overture 62 (Plains and Peaks Presbytery) on the international trafficking in women is not in the main list and further information is not available on its page to mere mortals.

This leaves six overtures, roughly one sixth, that address other polity areas, other institutional areas, or something else.  These are: 33 (Los Ranchos Presbytery) – To limit, without specifying the limit, the number of multiple filings someone can file in an abuse of the system; 37 (Blackhawk Presbytery) – On celebrating Children’s Day [You know, there is Mother’s Day and Father’s Day, there should be a Children’s Day]; 39 (Eastern Virginia Presbytery) – Adding to GAC a representative from the National Council of Presbyterian Men; 42 (Denver Presbytery) – To modify G-7.0301 to allow for ways that members of a congregation who can not be present at a congregational meeting due to health or work can still vote; 50 (Baltimore Presbytery) – To respond to an invitation from Muslim clerics for interfaith dialog; 65 (San Joaquin Presbytery) – Is a call to seek God through Solemn Assemblies for the renewal of the church.

Well, that wraps it up.  A lot there and I hope my very brief descriptions shed accurate light on these.  It should also be understood that anywhere the overture calls for a Book of Order change the change needs to be sent to the presbyteries for their approval.