PCA approves change in subscription requirement
PCA News Service, June 12, 2003
CHARLOTTE – The General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in America voted Wednesday to approve an amendment to its Book of Church Order defining the nature of adherence to its doctrinal standards by ministers and elders.
At its 2002 General Assembly, the PCA approved an amendment to the Book of Church Order that its framers believed would define the nature of subscription clearer. Defining subscription or theological adherence by ministers and elders to the Confession and Catechisms of the Presbyterian Church in America has been a matter of great debate for most of its history. Forty-five presbyteries approved the amendment, while 19 did not approve it, giving it the necessary two-thirds vote needed for passage. To complete the ratification process, the amendment also had to be approved by this meeting of the General Assembly.
The effect of the amendment will require ministers to state any differences with the PCA’s confessional standards, to have the presbytery (regional court) determine whether the differences are allowable exceptions and to have the differences recorded in writing.
While only a majority vote was necessary for ratification, the amendment received a 66 percent vote of the commissioners with a vote of 821 to 545.
In other business, the General Assembly voted to explore church union with like-minded churches.
Two presbyteries (regional bodies) requested the General Assembly to consider exploring organic union with churches in the North American Presbyterian and Reformed Churches (NAPARC). One overture asked GA:
“1. To direct the stated clerk of the General Assembly to communicate to the General Assemblies and General Synods of the constituent NAPARC Churches that the PCA is desirous of entering into conversations with each of them with a view toward Church union; and
2. To direct the InterChurch Relations Committee (IRC) to initiate conversations with equivalent NAPARC Churches’ committees with a view toward Church union.”
The General Assembly voted to answer these overtures in the affirmative. It also approved the following motion: “To instruct and advise the Permanent Interchurch Relations Committee to return to the 32nd General Assembly (in 2004) with a statement on church union from a PCA perspective, including a definition of ‘organic’ union.”
The General Assembly also approved a motion that the IRC develop a profile of each member church in NAPARC to include things like history, size and growth record and report its findings to the 32nd GA.
The following reasons were offered for approving these recommendations: “The unity of Christ’s Church is a present, indestructible reality grounded in the spiritual union between Christ’s people and their great Head – not in any merely organizational or institutional union. And, in some cases, the existence of separate denominations of Christians may be a necessity and even a benefit in the cause of truth and faithfulness to Christ. Nevertheless, while our division into various denominations does not destroy our spiritual unity as God’s people, it does, to some extent, obscure it. Given our duty to give outward expression to our inward oneness in Christ, it seems appropriate and worthwhile to discuss the possibilities of greater outward unity with other Christians, especially such like-minded churches as those in NAPARC.”