THE BIGGEST STORY at the 137th General Assembly is what didn’t happen. While considering several different seemingly unrelated recommendations, assembly proposed numerous new motions and amendments, and engaged in spirited, passionate debate that was, essentially, all asking for one thing: a new vision for a struggling church.
“I feel like the restructuring we’ve been doing over the years has been done out of necessity,” said Rev. Paul Kang, who proposed a motion asking that the church consider the big picture. “We need a vision, and then we can do restructuring according to that vision … This is the time to do something.”
With that in mind, Rev. Jim Patterson called for the striking of a committee to “aid the denomination to reform itself with the goal of being even more faithful to God in Christ.”
The new motions came when discussing several restructuring changes within the church, including re examining the regional staffing model, and relocation of the national office. Commissioners felt that instead of making changes here and there, an overall, guided approach was needed that would help see the church safely into the future.
Rev. Dr. Rick Fee, general secretary of the Life and Mission Agency, assured commissioners that their wants were consistent with the national church’s desires, noting that Assembly Council is already tasked with the very things the new motions were asking for.
“We recognize exactly where our denomination is and the lengths to which we should be going to ensure our denomination grows and becomes stronger,” said Fee. “I urge that people recognize that within the structures we have, and within Assembly Council, this assignment can be completed and completed with glory to God.”
Fee’s words must have allayed some fears, as the new motions were defeated. However, stemming from his comments about the Assembly Council, a motion asking the Council to “discern, define and articulate the vision of the PCC in consultation with a broad cross section of the diversity of the larger body of the church” was moved and adopted.
The following is a summary of General Assembly business.
Money Matters
Assembly Council presented a motion to consider the relocation of the national office out of the Toronto area for perceived economic, social and theological reasons. The motion was amended and adopted, creating a committee that includes a broad geographical representation to: 1) frame the economic, social and theological criteria for a potential move; 2) receive input and comment from the church on these criteria; and 3) recommend whether or not relocation is appropriate.
Council also proposed a new way in which congregations’ dollar base amount is determined with a view to making it more equitable for all congregations. The dollar base reflects the total funds raised by a congregation in a given year, minus the amounts remitted for mission purposes, and minus money used for the principal and interest of debt repayments.
Council felt a change was needed to exclude monies raised by congregations for major repairs. It could spell significant relief for congregations already struggling to maintain old, large facilities. The report suggested funds raised and used for new buildings and additions would remain part of the calculation used to determine a dollar base.
However, General Assembly didn’t feel the same, amending and passing a motion that also excludes funds raised for renovations and building projects.
As the dollar base of a congregation also determines its contribution to the church’s pension fund, assembly amended a motion to suggest congregations’ pension contributions be raised by “a percentage sufficient to offset the change in dollar base calculation.”
Other business from the Assembly Council:
Beginning in 2014, stipend review of staff (professors, executive and support staff) will move from every three years to every five years, and all positions will be considered at once, rather than looking at each group separately on a rotating basis every year. Cutting costs through greater efficiency, and providing a better financial picture are reasons for the change.
Elders and Diaconal Ministers to Administer Communion
Assembly approved a set of guidelines that could allow ruling elders and diaconal ministers to administer the sacrament of communion in remote charges where no minister is available.
If added to the Book of Forms, the new section will require a candidate to be interviewed by presbytery and trained in the theology and practice of the sacrament. Presbyteries may commission the candidate to administer communion in a particular pastoral charge for a two – year term, which can be renewed following a presbytery review, and the elder or diaconal minister must be accountable to presbytery through the interim moderator assigned to the charge.
The new section will be sent to presbyteries for their approval under the Barrier Act, and must be endorsed by the 2012 assembly to become law.
New Church Laws
The 2011 assembly approved five remits—or changes to the Book of Forms endorsed by the 2010 assembly and sent to presbyteries for approval making them part of the official law of the church, including:
– Legislation for ecumenical shared ministries with the United Church, Evangelical Lutheran Church and Anglican Church were approved. Guidance for these ministries can be found in the Ecumenical Shared Ministries Handbook and the Book of Forms.
– A change to section 245.1 of the Book of Forms has effectively put an end to mandatory retirement for ministers. Those who wish to continue in a pastoral charge after age 70 may do so, with the presbytery making “arrangements mutually acceptable to the presbytery concerned, after consultation with the pastoral charge and the minister.”
– A committee of presbytery may now lodge a complaint against a minister after a routine visit to a congregation, although they are expected to first “meet with the minister to seek resolution of the issue.” Previously, such complaints had to come from within the congregation, making it difficult for presbyteries to deal with a perceived problem when no member of the congregation was willing to lodge a formal complaint.
The other two remits dealt with changes to some of the General Assembly’s committees.
E. H. Johnson Award and Presentation of Prayer Shawls
For the first time ever, the annual E. H. Johnson award for cutting – edge mission was presented not to a person but to an organization. Rev. Rodger Hunter, chaplain and founder of Boarding Homes Ministry, accepted the award on behalf of his group.
“Myself, I am basically just an agent,” Hunter said at a luncheon where the award was presented. “I stand somewhere between the gifted people in the homes, and the gifted people in your churches, and suggest that life might be richer if you all got together.”
BHM is an ecumenical ministry of the Presbyterian Church that links members of congregations with people who live in boarding homes, facilitating regular visits to the homes. It currently serves 359 residents.
During the assembly, Hunter was presented with 245 prayer shawls, knitted by Presbyterians from 45 congregations, for residents of the boarding homes. Each bears a card to let the recipient know “there’s a prayer in every stitch.” As one of his final endeavours as moderator of the 2010 assembly, Rev. Dr. Herb Gale put out a pre assembly request for shawls; at the presentation he noted that more shawls have been promised but were not yet completed.
Regional Staffing Formula Remains Unchanged
A special committee charged with re evaluating how funding is allocated to each synod for their regional staff positions concluded the current formula “is a fair and transparent approach.”
“The present formula is based on the principle that each synod receives funding for one regional staff person ($61,000),” the committee wrote in its report. “The issue came down to how to divide the remaining approximately $189,000.” Committee members unanimously concluded that the current method of dividing the remaining funds according to membership was “the most equitable and logical” formula. Assembly agreed to maintain the current funding formula “until such a time as there is a change in funding.”
Response to Kairos Palestine Document Endorsed
An official response to a statement known most widely as the Kairos Palestine Document caused a flurry of debate on the floor of assembly.
The document, which was crafted by Palestinian Christians, was circulated to congregations and presbyteries by the 2010 assembly, along with a collection of responses from various groups and a study guide.
Debate on the floor focused primarily on tweaks to the wording of the response, fashioned by the Ecumenical and Interfaith Relations Committee, including an amendment to specify the State of Israel as a “Jewish state” or “Jewish homeland.” The amendment was eventually defeated.
Assembly recommended the Kairos Palestine Document, A Moment of Truth: A word of faith, hope and love from the heart of Palestinian suffering, and supporting documentation, and encouraged the church to learn more about the situation in Israel – Palestine.
Moderator Urged to Visit Israel – Palestine
On the heels of the church’s discussion of the Kairos Palestine Document, Glen Davis, a commissioner from Westminster presbytery, moved that the assembly urge the relevant committees to arrange a visit to Israel – Palestine “in response to the invitation from Palestinian Christians to ‘come and see.'” Assembly passed the motion.
Church Doctrine Committee
The Church Doctrine Committee’s report continued the lively debate on issues surrounding relationship with the Jewish people. “One Covenant of Grace: A Contemporary Theology of Engagement with the Jewish People” was commended as a study document. While presbyteries and churches had wide ranging concerns and comments, particularly concerning evangelization of the Jews, the committee felt the document was a valuable tool for further study and discussion in the church.
However, a statement on the church’s relationship with the Jewish people brought more debate to the assembly floor. Rev. Barry Mack moved an amendment to amend the eighth paragraph of the statement, adding a few lines on how Christians—though at times have been guilty of anti – Semitic acts — have also “provided refuge for this persecuted people.”
Ministers and Marriage
An overture from 2007 asking whether ministers should continue to sign marriage licenses or register marriages for the government provoked prolonged study by the Church Doctrine Committee. They sent a document to presbyteries and synods for study back in 2009, and while the overture raises important questions about the relationship of church and state, the responses advised leaving the current relationship as is.
However, assembly voted to send the report back to the committee in consultation with the Clerks of Assembly and legal counsel to consider potential legal implications of clergy acting as agents of the state for the solemnization of marriage in Canada, and to report back to a future General Assembly.
Listen to Teachers’ Stories
A former president of the Women’s Missionary Society, Druse Bryan, asked that the assembly “acknowledge the devoted service rendered by those teachers and caregivers who worked for the WMS and PCC in residential schools in Canada and who are on their own healing journeys and in need of our love and support. We thank those who gave their best, in a flawed system, for their service to the church and to the young people in their care.”
Her motion was seconded by Lori Ransom, the church’s truth and reconciliation animator. As she spoke to the motion, Ransom said she had heard hundreds of people “share the brutality of their experiences at residential schools” as students. Yet she said she had also met those who taught there and now struggle to find a place to share their experiences. The motion was adopted.
Encouraging Racial and Ethnic Diversity
Justice Ministries proposed 10 guidelines (and assembly added one more) to help foster the inclusion of diversity within all church structures and courts. “The taskforce was motivated by Paul’s vision of the church in which there are no dividing walls, but a oneness in Christ demonstrated by true inclusiveness,” states the report. Among other things, synods are encouraged to pro – vide opportunities for regional staff to take training workshops in ethnic and racial diversity; and camps are encouraged to enable young people from various racial and ethnic backgrounds to attend the camps.
New Education Guidelines
Ministry and Church Vocations, after receiving feedback from across the church, proposed new guidelines for graduates of non – PCC theological colleges.
Dissatisfaction with the current guidelines stem from the impression that candidates for Presbyterian ministry are required to repeat courses they completed in their M.Div. degrees; and that candidates with extensive experience as leaders in the PCC have been assigned the same courses of study as candidates new to the denomination.
The assembly adopted new guidelines that maintain the church’s current practice of requiring candidates for ministry who are graduates of “other” theological colleges to complete the candidacy process in its entirety, “but make explicit the expectation that duplication of a candidate’s previous theological education is normally to be avoided.” They also state that significant leadership experience within the PCC should normally be reflected in the educational requirements that are assigned, and reduce the length of programs required for completion.
Support Needed for Assistance Fund
The report of the fund for ministerial assistance asked that sessions and presbyteries be aware of “the urgent need for new infusions of capital into the fund.”
According to the committee’s report, disbursements from the fund will be “significantly lower this year, without new contributions” and annual Christmas/year end gifts may have to be suspended.
The fund provides financial support for ministers who struggle to support their families on a minimum stipend.
Pension Change
Due to a projected solvency deficiency in the pension plan of over $19 million as of Dec. 31, 2010, the Pension and Benefits Board voted to increase members’ contributions from six to seven per cent of pensionable income, effective Jan. 1, 2012. This would contribute approximately $459,000 to the plan, and was approved by assembly. The last increase in employee contributions occurred in 2004.
Call to Ministry Document Updated
Congregations can now call ministers using updated language in a more streamlined format.
The changes to the Appendix of the Book of Forms tie together the congregation’s call to their new minister and their promise to guarantee him or her a stipend. Previously, the call and the guarantee of stipend were separate components, although they were often presented together, and some commissioners took issue with the move to link them.
“The clerks were thinking of this as a call and covenant all together,” Don Muir, deputy clerk, explained to the court. “Both the call and the covenant or the guarantee of stipend are promises between a minister and a congregation”
Additional legislation, to be sent to presbyteries under the Barrier Act, aims to eliminate the need for elders to circulate call forms among members of the church if at least 75 per cent of members, at a congregational meeting, vote in favour of calling a minister. In such cases, only the presiding minister and the meeting’s secretary would be required to sign the call documents and forward them to presbytery.
Title ‘Elder Emeritus’ to be Created
Assembly endorsed legislation that would allow sessions to bestow the title “elder emeritus” on elders who “after a period of faithful service” resign or retire from sessions, are not on the constituent roll, and will not be re elected to session. The legislation will be sent to presbyteries under the Barrier Act, and must be approved by the 2012 assembly.
French Book of Forms May have a Future
An overture asking for the Book of Forms to be translated into French got a second wind when commissioners referred it back to the clerks, asking for a “report next year regarding the feasibility of translating portions of the Book of Forms most relevant to daily congregational life.”
In their response to the original overture, the clerks wrote: “[While we] thank God for our francophone brothers and sisters” and “appreciate the concern expressed in this overture, it seems imprudent to expend the time and resources necessary to translate the Book of Forms into French.” There are only two francophone congregations in the PCC.
Commissioners suggested there was a symbolic need to make the Book of Forms available in both official languages, and a minister from Sherbooke, Que., said having an official translation of such a technical book would be an asset.
Other business from the clerks of assembly:
If approved by presbyteries and the 2012 assembly, sessions in multiple point charges would be allowed to meet together to conduct common business as long as each session maintains its own records.
Theological Education Committee Dissolved
At the request of the committee, assembly voted to dissolve the 23 person committee on theological education and replace it with a nine person theological education liaison group composed of the heads of the church’s three theological colleges, the conveners of their college boards, and the national church’s three general secretaries.
The new group will report to Assembly Council, and responsibility for the Ewart Endowment Fund and the Cameron Doctoral Bursary Fund, which were previously overseen by the theological education committee, will be shifted to the council.
The committee was originally established in 1990. As noted in its final report to assembly, “work that it has done through the years is now being addressed by other bodies,” including the colleges’ boards, which are “made up of members and ministers of the Presbyterian Church in Canada named by the General Assembly.”
The committee will be dissolved effective Dec. 31. In the future, the colleges will bring their reports directly to assembly.
International Affairs Committee:
The international affairs committee presented a report about access and control of land, particularly in India, Guatemala and Malawi.
Assembly approved a number of letters to be written by the Moderator to various government officials:
• To the Church of North India and the Church of South India to “support their endeavours to tackle casteism,” particularly discrimination against the Dalits or “untouchables.”
• To the Government of Canada to encourage it to “integrate human rights impact assessments and monitoring in the free trade negotiations with the Government of India.”
• To Asociación Maya – Mam de Investigación y Desarrollo, a church partner working with seven communities affected by the Canadian – owned Marlin mine, “to express our continuing prayers and concern for their work and wellbeing.” The Presbyterian Church in Canada owns 29,000 shares in Goldcorp Inc., the company that acquired the mine in 2006.
• To Goldcorp Inc. “asking for information on the company’s policies and practices regarding allegations of human rights abuses and/or environmental degradation and encouraging Goldcorp’s co – operation with the Inter American Commission on Human Rights with regard to Marlin mine operations.”
It also recommended that the church, “realizing that Malawi faces enormous internal and external pressures to develop its farming, fishing and mining potential, encourage its partner Synods of Livingstonia and Blantyre to advocate that all development brings benefit to the most poor and vulnerable, while protecting its precious environment.”
Praying for Pakistani Christians
A commissioner’s overture came from the floor in solidarity with Pakistan’s Christians.
“Whereas in recent days Christians in Pakistan have come under increasing attacks by Islamic militants.
And whereas Christians are being killed, raped, humiliated and falsely accused by mobs and local authorities cannot or will not control.
Therefore we ask the assembly to direct the Moderator to write to the Prime Minister, the minister of foreign affairs, and the Governor General to ask for our government to make representation to the government of Pakistan to take action to protect and secure the lives and livelihood of our Christian brothers and sisters in Pakistan.”
The motion was carried unanimously, and was spurred by a husband and wife ministry team in British Columbia who recently went to Pakistan following the death of the woman’s mother. The couple returned with reports of the dire situation for Christians there, and urged commissioners to bring the plight of Pakistani Christians to the attention of the church, and to ask for prayers.
Retiring Ministers to be Celebrated
Thanks to a recommendation from the committee on history, time will be set aside during future General Assemblies to “publicly celebrate” retiring ministers and church workers.
The committee suggested all presbytery clerks be asked to submit the names and biographical details of those within their bounds who will be retiring before the next assembly.
College Professors Endorsed
Assembly approved tenure for Dr. Brian Irwin, associate professor of the Old Testament at Knox College, Toronto.
The board of governors promoted Irwin to associate professor in February, and recommended assembly grant him tenure. The decision was based on a comprehensive review of his work and teaching.
Assembly also agreed to reappoint Rev. Dr. Dale Woods to a second term as director of Pastoral Studies at the Presbyterian College, Montreal. His second term will last five years.
Woods was appointed to his position by the 2008 assembly, and the college’s board of governors unanimously recommended he be reappointed.
Minutes of Appreciation
Lori Ransom’s five year term as program animator for the church’s Healing and Reconciliation program has ended. The position will not be renewed. Ransom worked with congregations and presbyteries, ecumenical groups, Aboriginal organizations, and other denominations in an effort to educate, inspire and forge partnerships among non – Aboriginal and Aboriginal peoples.
“She has been an exemplary representative of the PCC…She has been a liaison, an ambassador, and emissary for our church in this vital issue at this time in Canada’s history…We offer her God’s blessings and remain confident in the realization that there will be new opportunities to draw upon her knowledge and wisdom in the future.”
“The spirit I see as I travel across the country leads me not to despair about the future of this denomination,” said Ransom, as she thanked the church for supporting her in her ministry.
“My prayer is that this ministry will continue to receive appropriate importance even as we struggle to decide where to apply our financial resources.”
Rev. Dr. Glen and Rev. Joyce Davis were recognized by St. Andrew’s Hall at the Vancouver School of Theology for their work there over the last five years. Glen served as Presbyterian director of Denominational Formation, and Joyce as the Field Education Supervisor. Glen has served the church in numerous capacities, including as a missionary in Japan for 15 years, 18 years as mission administrator and then General Secretary of the Life and Mission Agency at the PCC’s national offices, as minister in congregations in Japan and Canada, and as moderator of the General Assembly in 2000. He has visited 50 countries, and all 46 presbyteries of the PCC. In his position at VST, “he was the primary influence on the shaping of future Presbyterian ministers studying in Vancouver…His practical wisdom, gained through the varied experience of a long ministry, was invaluable in his teaching.”
Joyce Davis is a diaconal minister and is presently publishing a book on the history of the Order. She is also an ordained minister, and served with her husband, Glen at Knox, Agincourt, Toronto. Her work at VST has helped faculty evaluate the fitness for ministry of student candidates. “The widely varied needs of students demand great patience and creativity on the part of the administrator. Joyce has provided just those qualities, and a keen pastoral sense.”
Tori Smit was recognized for her work as associate secretary at the Vine since October 2009.
“Throughout her ministry, Tori has created new and novel programs and instituted unique educational innovations. Her strong faith and wide ranging experience have been a blessing to our denomination,” states the report. “Tori is a creative and passionate educator, a compassionate mentor, and a skilled writer. She gets great satisfaction from enabling others to grow and become competent…She is dedicated to assisting young people to claim their place in the church and more importantly, their faith in Jesus Christ.”
Rev. Ian McDonald, most recently minister at Calvin, Toronto, was hired as the new associate secretary of Canadian Ministries/The Vine, effective Sept. 2011.
