FORTY YEARS OF YARs
Young adult representatives, celebrating their 40th anniversary at General assembly, received an advisory vote on motions of their choice.
The “green card” vote—which took place before the commissioners voted by raising yellow cards—was intended to tell commissioners where the representatives stood on a given issue. But all final decisions were left in the hands of commissioners, who are accountable to their presbyteries.
Feedback from commissioners will help determine if the advisory vote should be implemented at future assemblies.
Forty years ago they were called “young adult observers,” remembered
Rummelt Hummelen, and they had neither voice nor vote on the floor of assembly, although they were occasionally invited to speak to the court. They also produced daily newsletters for commissioners that outlined the young peoples’ opinions. Hummelen, who had been active in the Presbyterian young People’s society in the late 60s was insrumental in starting the YAOs/YARs at General Assembly.
LAY MISSIONARIES TO OFFER COMMUNION
A report from ministry and Church Vocations explored the church’s theology of the sacraments and concluded that allowing presbyteries to commission lay missionaries to administer communion was “not advisable at this time.” However, after heated debate, assembly approved an amendment to allow lay missionaries to administer communion, and to refer the matter “to the Clerks of assembly and to ministry and Church Vocations for legislation, guidelines, education and requirements.”
The court also passed a recommendation that bars lay missionaries from serving as members of presbytery in remote areas unless they are also appointed as representative elders.
EXECUTIVES STIPENDS RAISED THREE PER CENT
National office executive staff will receive a three per cent increase to their stipends, or just under half of the 6.9 per cent increase recommended by Assembly Council. Commissioners expressed concern about the shaky economy and perceived unfairness between the stipends paid to executive staff and those of congregational ministers, especially as churches across the country tighten their belts to deal with declining membership and revenue.
The recommended 6.9 per cent was just over half of a 13 per cent increase recommended to assembly Council by a Toronto-based human resources firm.
ECUMENICAL SHARED MINISTRIES
An Ecumenical Shared Ministries Handbook was endorsed for use in congregations and presbyteries that seek to share ministry with churches from other denominations. The resource was developed by a taskforce that included representatives from the United, Anglican and Evangelical Lutheran churches.
Rev. Karen Hincke, a member of the taskforce, expressed hope the new handbook would offer alternatives for remote and rural congregations without an ordained Presbyterian minister. The document can be found at www.ecumenism.net/smb/index.htm.
BIENNIAL ASSEMBLIES
A report exploring the possibility of holding General Assemblies every second year will be sent to synods, presbyteries, sessions and standing committees for study and response by January 31, 2010. Each will indicate whether or not the court supports or opposes the concept of biennial assemblies in principle.
Assembly Council will report the feedback at next year’s assembly.
The cost of yearly assemblies is about $350,000 and is drawn from Presbyterians Sharing funds.
RESPONDING TO THE MIDDLE EAST CONFLICT
The Moderator will write letters to Canadian government officials requesting information about steps that have been taken to encourage trade between Canada and territories controlled by the Palestinian authority, and to General Electric asking about the use of apache helicopters—for which GE manufactures a propulsion system—in reported attacks on densely populated areas of Gaza. The church held 10,000 shares in GE at the end of 2008.
The PCC does not support a general boycott or sanctions against Israel.
The International affairs Committee also renewed a recommendation urging congregations and individuals to consider trips to the Holy Land sponsored by the Sabeel Ecumenical Liberation Theology Centre in Jerusalem.
An additional motion from a commissioner asked that the Presbyterian Church in Canada “recognize the state of Israel’s 60th anniversary and its attempts to foster democracy in the Middle East at the same time recognizing with contrition the Church Universal’s long history of anti-Semitism and seeking greater understanding in the future.”
NO TO ‘PERSON’
An overture from the session of St. Andrew’s, Ottawa, asked the assembly to issue a declaratory act that would define marriage in accordance with the wording used in the Westminster Confession, one of the subordinate standards of the church, as “the solomnization before almightly God of the vows of commitment and loyalty of two persons, one for the other, for the duration of their lives and to the exclusion of all others.” Assembly refused to receive the overture.
Forty commissioners registered their dissent at the decision.
OTHER BUSINESS:
• The Committee on Church Doctrine explored whether or not ministers should act as civil representatives by signing marriage licenses. They suggested that religious marriages should be distinct from civil arrangements, but recommended that ministers be given the option of signing marriage licenses if they so desire.
• A draft of a Korean edition of Living Faith will be sent to presbyteries for study and review before December. It may be adopted at a future assembly.
• The assembly approved a response to an open letter from Muslim scholars, clerics and intellectuals at the Royal Aal-Bayt Institute for Islamic Thought. The original letter, entitled A Common Word Between Us and You, and responses from other faith groups are available at www.acommonword.com.
• The church reaffirmed its relationship with the Christian reformed Church in North America. The CRCNA and PCC share a Reformed heritage and are members of the Canadian Council of Churches and the World Alliance of Reformed Churches.
• Rev. Dr. Dorcas Gordon was appointed to another five-year term as principal of Knox College, Toronto.
• A commissioner’s overture urged the moderator to ask the Department of Foreign Affairs to denounce the judicial process that led to the conviction of two U.S. journalists in North Korea in June, and to use their good offices to seek their release. It also asked the government to call on China to safeguard North Korean refugees in their territory, and to express concern to the UN High Commission for Refugees. The International Affairs Committee will also monitor the situation and report back next year.
• Presbyteries and synods are discouraged from entering into third party employment contracts for prison chaplains, as many contracts offer the presbytery or synod minimal control in the relationship, but require it to shoulder much of the risk and financial burden.
• Churches will not be reimbursed for moving expenses if a minister stays at a charge for less than three years. Assembly Council agreed to let an ad hoc committee continue researching a potential clause to be included in call documents that could require ministers to refund some moving costs in such situations, except in cases of illness or death. Another report will follow next year.
• In response to an overture regarding a missionary commissioned by the Presbytery of Western Han-Ca for service in South Africa, International Ministries said there is nothing in the existing policies to prevent presbyteries from setting up their own mission programs and appointing previously ordained ministers or lay persons as missionaries, so long as the presbytery provides the minimum level of stipend and benefits stipulated by the church.
• The Moderator will write to the minister of Citizenship and Immigration to express the church’s continued concern for professionally trained immigrants who struggle to settle in Canada and find employment in their fields. Assembly also approved recommendations to write the federal, provincial and territorial ministers of health enquiring about commitments to homecare and drug coverage established in a 2004 accord. Churches are encouraged to find out more about the challenges faced by immigrants in their communities.
•Ministry and Church Vocations will establish a working group to look at the impact of mental health issues on church leadership and will report back in the future.
• Congregations are encouraged to join the Record’s every Home Plan as an important way to stay informed about the PCC.
• ”In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, the only King and Head of the Church, and by the authority of this assembly, I now dissolve this assembly and appoint another General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in Canada to meet in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, on the first Sunday in June, in the year of our Lord, two thousand and ten, at seven thirty in the evening, local time.”—Moderator Rev. Harvey Self, closing the 135th General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in Canada.
