Panel backs proposal to include Scriptural allusions in Book of Order By Paula R. Kincaid The Layman Online Tuesday, June 18, 2002 214th General Assembly Columbus, Ohio June 15-22, 2002 COLUMBUS, Ohio – If the 214th General Assembly approves a recommendation from its Church Polity Committee, the next edition of the Book of Order will include an index of Scriptural allusions. Mark Tammen from the Office of the General Assembly said June 17 that the recommendation was referred to the OGA by last year's assembly. He said he went back to 1958, when the northern stream of the Presbyterian Church "actually had Scriptural allusions in our Book of Order. … We went back and looked to see if those were applicable." The Book of Order is amazingly the same, he said. "We looked at what allusions were attached to provisions of the previous book and attached them to the current book," Tammen said. "Many of these trace back to the 1868 version of the Book of Order." He recommended that the Scriptural allusions be listed in the Book of Order, but not fully printed out, which would considerably lengthen the book. In chapter two, he said, there are allusions to the confessions. Neil Lloyd, a representative of the Advisory Committee on the Constitution, told committee members that endnotes or footnotes are not considered constitutional, just informational. "You are not bound by footnotes or indexes," he said. When asked if that was made clear in the Book of Order, Lloyd replied, "It's just common wisdom." The committee also recommended that, by the 2006 assembly, the Office of the General Assembly provide Scriptural allusions to chapters that had no allusions listed in the original recommendation. Tammen said the chapters with no allusions were not in the 1958 or 1868 version and that, to do that, the staff would have to rethink its criteria. "The Divines picked the allusions and I did not try to guess why they chose John 1 instead of James," he said. "When the Divines were writing this, they were doing it with Scripture in hand. We will have to go back and do it backward." The committee also has recommended that the Office of the General Assembly apply icons to allusions that stand behind confessional statements as they apply.

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