GA will be asked to name FOG group to abridge, overhaul Book of Order
By John H. Adams, The Layman Online, April 5, 2006
The 217th General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (USA), already facing a daunting agenda of controversial issues, will be asked to authorize the selection of a task force to consider a major overhaul of the Book of Order.
The recommendation for the task force comes from the Office of the General Assembly, whose chief staff member is Stated Clerk Clifton Kirkpatrick. It was Kirkpatrick who introduced the notion of a revised – and substantially abridged – Book of Order during a presentation in 2002 at Columbia Theological Seminary. He has sought to muster support for that idea frequently since then.
The proposal to the 217th General Assembly calls on the moderators of the 215th, 216th and 217th General Assemblies to name the nine members of a body called “The Form of Government Task Force.” The Office of the General Assembly abbreviates the name to “FOG Task Force,” a perhaps unwittingly chosen name that could become a pejorative as Presbyterians debate the progress of the group.
In his original proposal about revising the Book of Order, Kirkpatrick urged changes that would elevate the “five great ends of the church” and minimize regulatory sections, including the current constitutional prohibition against ordaining practicing homosexuals.
As two of the three moderators who would select the members of the FOG Task Force, Susan R. Andrews (215th General Assembly) and Rick Ufford-Chase (216th) have repeatedly stated their strong opposition to the ordination requirements.
The General Assembly, during the opening plenary session of its meeting in Birmingham on June 15-22, will elect a new moderator, who would become the third member of the selection panel. In the last 10 moderatorial elections, the General Assembly elected six moderators who were openly opposed to the ordination requirement.
If the 217th General Assembly follows that trend, the front-running candidate this year might be Deborah Block. She is a former co-moderator of the Covenant Network, an organization begun solely for the purpose of seeking the repeal of G-6.0106b, the “fidelity/chastity” ordination requirement in the Book of Order.
Meanwhile, the overwhelming majority of Presbyterians support the ordination requirement, according to the denomination’s own polls.
The proposal by the Office of the General Assembly does not spell out any theological or ideological qualifications for the proposed task force. It merely enumerates slots to be filled: “at least one clerk of session, one session moderator, one new immigrant pastor, one executive/general presbyter, one stated clerk, one committee on preparation for ministry member/staff, one committee on ministry member/staff, and one member of the Advisory Committee on the Constitution.”
With that criteria, the panel could have as many as three staff members. Notably, only two slots are designated solely for pastors: the session moderator and the “new immigrant pastor.” Immigrant pastors represent a tiny percentage of Presbyterian ministers.
The proposal calls on the General Assembly to instruct the task force “to preserve our foundational polity (perhaps most concisely laid out in the first four chapters of the current Form of Government),” precisely as Kirkpatrick spelled out in his first public announcement about his special project.
Otherwise, the proposal says, the task force should recommend a “new Form of Government [that] shall provide flexibility at all levels, granting authority while permitting governing bodies to develop the structures to carry out their respective missions.”
The flexibility plank is similar to the proposed Authoritative Interpretation by the Theological Task Force on Peace, Unity and Purity – which has also been reduced to an acronym (PUP) that opponents often use in a demeaning way. PUP calls for “flexibility” in allowing ordaining bodies to decide on their own whether to adhere to G-6.0106b when considering candidates for ordination.
Furthermore, the proposal makes a direct reference to the PUP task force – saying the FOG panel should be “guided by the principles proposed by recommendations 1-4 from the Theological Task Force on Peace, Unity and Purity of the Church.”
Recommendations 1-4 in the PUP report include: 1) a call to unity and avoiding division, 2) “intensive discernment through worship, community building, study, and collaborative work;” 3) studying PUP’s “Theological Reflection;” and 4) exploring “the use of alternative forms of discernment and decision-making as a complement to parliamentary procedure, especially in dealing with potentially divisive issues.”
Much of the PUP Task Force’s “discernment” process was done in closed sessions, particularly about the controversial issues. The task force members apparently approved the substance of their report during those closed sessions. The report was in its final form when they voted unanimously in open session to approve it.