Vision and Mission Statements Referred Back to Assembly Council
The church’s mission and vision statements still need work, the assembly decided.
The two documents, crafted by a team from the Assembly Council, are intended to guide the ministry of the church at its national levels.
“I’m worried this statement will not bring the clarity we’re looking for,” said Rev. Douglas Schonberg of the Presbytery of Niagara. He noted that many decisions, including national restructuring, are meant to be guided by the vision and mission articulated in the statements. The current documents, he said, are too long to be useful. “I believe we’ve created an unwieldy document here.”
The court sent the statements back and suggested the Council, which does the work of the assembly throughout the year, seek assistance from an outside consultant.
Change in Dates of Assembly
Although the assembly approved a recommendation that will shift the days of the 2013 General Assembly to a weekend, commissioners also asked that “the Assembly Council in planning for the assembly be encouraged to respect the Lord’s Day as a day of worship and rest.”
The tentative schedule proposed by the Days and Design committee of Assembly Council suggested the assembly begin on a Friday and end on a Monday.
Communion via Electronic Media
“After careful consideration of both the pitfalls and advantages of celebrating communion with the aid of technologically-mediated presence, the committee finds that the communion elements could be properly set aside and blessed by means of virtual media,” the committee on Church Doctrine concluded. Electronic media can be a “proper way of constitution ‘presence’ for the purposes of communion.”
Without debate, assembly approved a set of guidelines to permit ministers and specially trained ruling elders and diaconal ministers to use technology—such as web-conferencing software or television—to administer communion.
Although specially-trained ruling elders and diaconal ministers can now celebrate communion in rural and remote settings, the committee noted that “it is not necessarily the whole solution, because, in addition to congregations that may not be able to celebrate the sacraments, there are groups of individuals who are cut off from the regular celebration of the sacraments. Residents of nursing homes and other persons with mobility challenges come to mind immediately.”
Among its guidelines, the committee suggested communion conducted via electronic media should ideally be part of a public worship service sanctioned by the session, at least one elder should be on hand to administer communion with those who are receiving it, and where possible a two-way link between the presiding minister or elder and the recipients should be used.
The committee asked for more time to consider the “complexity of issues involved” before deciding whether or not ruling elders and diaconal ministers should be permitted to perform baptisms in rural and remote areas.
Ministers as Agents of Marriage
Last year’s assembly asked the Church Doctrine committee, in consultation with the clerks of assembly and legal counsel, to investigate potential legal implications for ministers officiating at marriages. In particular, the assembly wondered if ministers could be obligated to officiate at same-sex marriages.
The legal counsel said no, according to the report. There are no legal implications for ministers solemnizing marriages and a minister would “not be compelled to solemnize a same-sex marriage or be the subject of legal action for declining to solemnize a same-sex marriage.”
Special Committee on the Life of the HanCa Presbyteries
There has been improvement among Korean congregations since the creation of the non-geographic HanCa presbyteries, a special committee said.
The committee was charged with a two-year review of the Korean presbyteries and was required to conduct a survey to help discover how the HanCa and non-HanCa presbyteries have addressed concerns raised in repots to the 2010 and 2002 General Assemblies. Only five presbyteries, including both HanCa presbyteries, responded to the survey, the committee noted.
It admitted there are many unique challenges that persist in the linguistic and culturally specific presbyteries, but overall it stressed that there have been many changes for the better since the presbyteries were created in 1996.
On the floor of assembly, however, some familiar concerns were expressed including worries that the HanCa presbyteries could become isolated from the rest of the church.
Rev. Gregory Davidson of the Presbytery of Montreal said he had served as an interim moderator at a Korean-speaking church. “I would love us to all have the chance to experience that,” he said. “I only see health in that direction, and I don’t see as much health if we continue in linguistic and ethnic separation.”
Moira Barclay-Fernie, an elder from the same presbytery, expressed the opposite experience. She told the assembly she experienced a great deal of frustration during 15 months as an assessor elder in a non-HanCa Korean congregation. She agreed to allow the Record to post her remarks in the Notes from Assembly section.
Alfred Lee, convener of the special committee, suggested it should be up to HanCa churches to decide when and if they integrate into geographic presbyteries at some point in the future.
The report included a set of guidelines for congregations to follow if they choose to move from a geographic presbytery into one of the HanCa presbyteries or from HanCa to a geographic presbytery.
Former Moderator Reflects on Experiences in Israel-Palestine
As he presented some reflections on the year he spent as moderator of the 137th General Assembly, Rev. Dr. Rick Horst focused on his trip to Lebanon and Israel-Palestine. He noted that, although many international justice issues are of concern to the church, it is important for the church not to shy away from unrest in Israel-Palestine.
“Many want to leave this issue alone and hope it will just go away,” said Horst.
“This issue is not going away anytime soon. In fact it has been with us, in a sense, for centuries and it will continue to be a burning issue for people of faith.”
He encouraged those present to build “a wider breadth of understanding of what is happening in Israel-Palestine,” stressing the importance of studying the issue from a variety of viewpoints.
“If you are considering a tour to the Holy Land, try to ensure the tour provides a broad enough perspective of both Palestinian and Israeli realities,” said Horst.
As peace in the Middle East continues to be a global concern where “most nations line up on one side or the other,” Horst urged the church “to love all people as God loves all people.”—Seth Veenstra
The Clerks of Assembly Report
An overture asking for terms of eldership to be decreased from six years to three years was denied. Although the authors of the overture hoped three-year terms would be more appealing for younger members of the congregation, the clerks noted that, under the current six-year terms of service, elections must be held every two years.
“The process of elections every two years is already proving to be a burden to some congregations since an election to call men and women to this high office can never be routine,” the clerks said in their report. “To reduce term service to three years would in effect mean that an election for the eldership be held in the congregation every year. Furthermore, the clerks believe that for those who are new to the eldership, it can take at least three years to become acquainted with the work of this office if it is to be faithfully and effectively pursued.”
The word “licentiate” has been removed from the Book of Forms, the church’s main governance guide. The term is no longer used to describe a portion of the candidate’s journey toward ordination. Instead, the term “candidate certified for ordination” is used.
The clerks of the General Assembly also referred several items to other courts of the church for study and report back by Jan. 31, 2013. A number of items were also sent down under the Barrier Act, meaning they will come before the 2013 General Assembly and, if passed, will become church law.
