What’s the rush?
March 26, 1999
A lengthy, complex and highly controversial proposal to realign the upper levels of the PCUSA bureaucracy was presented to the General Assembly Council at its recent meeting.
Well, sort of. What the GAC received was labeled “Final Draft 3.” Presumably the final, final draft will be sent to General Assembly commissioners before they arrive in Fort Worth to vote on it. But the fact that it remains unfinished only three months before the Assembly means that the potential impact of the report could easily be overlooked, buried within hundreds of fine-print pages dumped on commissioners between now and June, which in turn could lead to it being rubber stamped without significant discussion.
Even assuming some suggested editorial tweaking, this report (see story, p. 9) should set alarm bells ringing throughout the Presbyterian Church (USA). It proposes to create a very small, unrepresentative group, the Council of the Assembly, and vest the new body with very large powers. That this proposal was created and advocated by career bureaucrats then challenged by such “citizen legislators” as former GAC chairs Fred Denson, a labor attorney, and Youngil Cho, a management professor, is even more reason for concern.
GA commissioners should consider carefully the suggestion of GAC member Peter Pizor, who urged that GA “provide for a two-year study process by the whole church. … If the report has merits then the merits will still be there in two years.”
Given the sweeping nature of the changes proposed, and the centralization of so much power at a time when decentralization is what most Presbyterians are requesting and requiring, a two-year churchwide study would seem in the best interests of the denomination.
Those who oppose an open, unhurried inspection of this major restructuring should be asked, “What’s the rush?”