 Panel endorses biennial assemblies starting in 2006 By Coleen Klecic The Layman Online Tuesday, June 18, 2002
The committee on June 17 voted 33 to 13 to approve all six items, despite one attempt to amend item number 5, which encourages agencies and governing bodies of the church to create other events in off years to facilitate dialogue and community within the PCUSA. The idea of biennial assemblies will not be on the General Assembly Consent Agenda, which opens the possibility that it could be defeated on the floor of the 214th General Assembly. Commissioners listened intently as Peter Pizor argued in favor of a move to meet every other year. Pizor, former chair of the General Assembly Council who now serves on the Committee on the Office of the General Assembly, challenged commissioners to consider what their legacy will be, and to make that legacy one of change. "Will we continue to do things the same way we have done it for the last 200- plus years, or venture into new waters?" he asked. Doing something new, he said, is an act of faith and trust. Pizor's appeal for a biennial general assembly meeting preceded an amusing video presentation that was designed to demonstrate the hectic pace that he says denominational staff members face by having to meet annual deadlines. Grady Parsons, assistant stated clerk of the general assembly, compared the problem of meeting annually to exercising a sore joint in need of rest. "By changing to a G.A. meeting every other year instead of meeting annually," Parsons contended," we create space for grace. We move the focus to other places where other conversations can take place." Pizor claimed that meeting less than once a year has worked for other denominations, and that more are considering this kind of change. "Democracy is what we are – we are a people of process," he said. "However, we now have hyper-democracy, when debate expands and action is shortened. If we change to meeting every other year, it will release energy." The idea of every-other-year general assemblies for the Presbyterian Church (USA) has been seen by its detractors as attempts to avoid the kind of frequent controversies that have characterized past general assembly meetings. Item 02-01 would authorize the Committee on the Office of the General Assembly to renegotiate planned meeting sites and to facilitate the necessary changes for a biennial meeting with all denominational agencies. It also authorizes the preparation of amendments to the Book of Order that would increase the total number of commissioners to a biennial assembly. Such action is necessary due to the diminished number of commissioners to a general assembly that are a direct result of shrinking membership in the PCUSA. Both Stated Clerk Cliff Kirkparick and John Detterick, executive director of the General Assembly Council, spoke in favor of item 02-01, claiming that the measure would mean better stewardship of dollars and solve polity problems in relationship to commissioner ratio. Kirkpatrick warned that efficiency, the need for more time in consultation and deliberation, as well as better stewardship of dollars over church issues, make biennial assemblies a necessity. He warned the committee that per-capita reserves are running down to a 30-percent level. "The time is right for change," he said. "We badly need to break the cycle of polity that every presbytery has the right to overture the GA for change annually." Claiming that the denomination needs to move ahead and rest from this process, Kirkpatrick called item 02-01 a solution to "group politics" and an allowance for more time to "advance the church's mission." The proposal elicited considerable debate, especially over what kind of programs would be developed to take the place of annual meetings. Jim Goble, a commissioner from Homestead Presbytery, opposed the wording of point number five, which would allow agencies and governing bodies to encourage other programs in off years of the general assembly. He suggested a more specific directive that would mandate synod meetings in those years. Such an amendment to the item, however, was ruled unconstitutional. Commissioners expressed a variety of reservations to biennial assemblies, including the possibility that such an action would send a message to the synods and presbyteries to do less talking face to face. Commissioner Cliff Rust, on the other hand, favored biennial assemblies to reduce what he called "sound bite psychology." Communication at the general assembly has become "knee jerk," he contended. "Biennial meetings would allow more reasoned responses," he said. "It takes time to give reasoned reactions to the issues before the church." Steve VanKuiken, pastor of Mount Auburn Presbyterian Church, a controversial More Light church in Cincinnati, voiced opposition to 02-01. Echoing Kirkpatrick's statements earlier that the PCUSA was "headed for a train wreck," VanKuiken suggested that instead of conflict avoidance, the denomination needs to deal with conflict directly, honestly and straight forwardly. Others, however, suggested that the need to dialogue could be met by other types of conferences besides a general assembly. Several commissioners addressed the issue of cost savings by suggesting that the general assembly meet in Louisville every year. The general assembly staff claims that about $200,000 annually could be saved by confining the meeting site to Louisville. The possibility of meeting on college campuses instead of using upscale hotels also was debated among commissioners, but with limited support. Commissioner David Long of Savannah Presbytery expressed caution about passing item 02-01, declaring that the general assembly staff has neglected the kind of groundwork necessary to propose such a sweeping change in polity. He also disputed the suggestion that biennial meetings were working well in the United Church of Christ, saying that members of that denomination with whom he has spoken have warned him not to give up the present form of Presbyterian government. "We must be careful before we jump onto something that has not been studied as well as it could be," he said. Rev. Ted Churn of Boston expressed a change of opinion on the wisdom of item 02-01, suggesting that a move to biennial meetings reflects what he characterized as "an independent spirit" that prevails in America. "There is more disconnection now in our culture," he said. "I came prepared to vote yes to 02-01, but I am now more concerned about the need for this body to talk to each other more frequently, rather than less frequently. I've changed my mind about the idea of meeting less often. I'm now against it." The motion, however, was approved by the committee and now is headed for the general assembly floor, despite evangelical concerns that item 02-01 is a step toward institutional hierarchy. Conservatives fear that it will lead to an even more entrenched national leadership that will increase bureaucratic control over the PCUSA agenda. They also fear less accountability to the people in the pews from the general assembly. Most evangelicals see the measure as a move to block prospects of reform in the denomination. In other action:
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