GA Day 4: Decision and Division

The 220th General Assembly rounded the turn and headed into the home stretch as committees wrapped up their work Tuesday with a number of surprising recommendations for consideration by the full Assembly over the next three and a half days.

The biggest news was a narrow endorsement of an overture from Hudson River Valley Presbytery seeking to amend the Book of Order provisions on marriage by substituting "two people" where it currently says "a man and a a woman."  Most observers expected the committee to "punt" the issue of marriage to the next assembly, given the very volatile conditions in the denomination.  Instead, they headed right into the middle of the fray with colors flying.

Almost as surprising was the near total rejection of the work of the Mid Councils Commission after two years of work and unprecedented input from the whole denomination.  The centerpieces of the report: recommendations to "re-purpose" synods into "multi-presbytery mission partnerships" and to launch a "season of experimentation" with "missional affinity presbyteries" and "porous presbyteries" were apparently too radical for the Assembly committee, which opted for a more traditional process of consolidating synods, and scuttled presbytery changes altogether.

The Mid Council committee saw two moments of unusual candor in its consideration of some of the other overtures assigned to it.  In one, an overture advocate from Mississippi asked the committee to vote against his own presbytery's amendment, saying the work the committee had done was superior.  In another, an overture advocate from Santa Barbara admitted that getting out of the property trust clause was one reason his presbytery was seeking to let congregations decide between conflicting polities in union presbyteries, even though the published rationale made no mention of property, but sought "missional flexibility" and "streamlined process".  His presbytery has just voted to seek to become a union presbytery with the new splinter denomination ECO, which mandates congregational control of property.

In other "hot button" items of business: 

• The Middle East and Peacemaking Issues committee approved the recommendation to divest from three corporations aiding Israel's illegal military occupation and settlement of Palestinian lands.  The committee added a section stating that church holdings would still be invested in companies engaged in non-military pursuits in Israel, and a detailed comment on the rather limited impact of the divestment decision.
• The Mission Coordination Committee narrowly rejected plans from the General Assembly Mission Council to change the funding process of the four annual special offerings. Yesterday, they rejected the GAMCs 19% "administrative fee" on the Theological Education Fund in favor of a two year negotiation process with the seminaries.
• And, in the Biennial Assembly Review Committee, the two most controversial proposals were largely rejected, including creation of a new category of "young adult commissioner" and the requirement that all presbytery overtures obtain at least 18 concurrences representing 10% of all presbyteries to be considered by the Assembly.Instead, the committee is recommending amendments requiring only one concurrence.

Adding to the confusion and frustration of many commissioners were the many problems committees had navigating parliamentary procedure.The issues weren't in the process, but rather in the leadership, most notably the parliamentarians.The commissioners weren't much better, as they often seemed to be oblivious to the theology and polity of the Reformed tradition.In two different committees I heard commissioners dismiss the advice of the Advisory Committee on the Constitution as "just nine people's opinions" as if conformity to the Constitution was optional. Fortunately,the ACC's advice was honored in almost every case anyway.

Tomorrow, plenary gets underway at 2 p.m. and the Assembly starts to finalize its action on the hundreds of items of business before it.