Baltimore presbytery approves overture regarding status of organizing pastors The Layman Online Friday, November 22, 2002 TOWSON, Md. – The Presbytery of Baltimore has approved an overture to the 215th General Assembly that seeks to clarify the relationship that an organizing pastor has with the presbytery and the group of people that calls him/her. In addition to some phraseology changes, the overture's rationale argues that "a temporary pastoral relationship presumes a church with which the relationship may be undertaken by a minister of the Word and Sacrament. However, no such church exists in the case of an organizing pastor who serves "a group of people who are in the process of becoming a new Presbyterian church." The overture seeks to make clear that, under this scenario, the call of the organizing pastor is "from the presbytery" and not the "group of people." Here is the text of the Overture 03 (On Amending the Form of Government to Clarify the Status of Organizing Pastors): "The Presbytery of Baltimore respectfully overtures the 2003 General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) to direct the Stated Clerk to send the following proposed amendments to the presbyteries for their affirmative or negative votes: In G-14.0513, delete the last three words "or organizing pastor" and insert the word "or" before the term "temporary supply" so that the last sentence reads: "Temporary pastoral relations are those of stated supply, interim pastor, interim co-pastor, interim associate pastor, or temporary supply." Redesignate G-14.0513f to be G-14.0514, and, in the second sentence, replace the words "may be designated a member of the presbytery administrative staff" with "is a member of the presbytery staff," so that the sentence reads, in part, "An organizing pastor is a member of the presbytery staff and is to be hired. ..." Redesignate G-14.0514 and G-14.0515, to be G-14.0515 and G-14.0516 respectively. [The current G-14.0516 is blank.] Rationale 1. A temporary pastoral relationship presumes a church with which the relationship may be undertaken by a minister of the Word and Sacrament. However, no such church exists in the case of an organizing pastor who serves "a group of people who are in the process of becoming a new Presbyterian church." G-14.0513f makes it clear that when the group of people becomes a church, it must undertake the process of calling a pastor and may call the organizing pastor. But the call of the organizing pastor is from the presbytery, not the " group of people." Since there is no church with which to have a temporary pastoral relationship, this is an inappropriate placement of "organizing pastor" in the Book of Order. 2. G-14.0513f indicates that the presbytery "may designate" the organizing pastor as a member of its administrative staff. However, no alternative placement of the organizing pastor is suggested if the presbytery selects the evident option of not designating the organizing pastor as a member of its administrative staff. The new wording would resolve the ambiguity by simply noting the fact that the organizing pastor is part of the presbytery staff. This makes the call and employment status of the organizing pastor completely unambiguous. 3. G-11.0303, which provides for presbytery staffing, does not distinguish between "administrative staff" and other elements of the presbytery staff. The use of the term "administrative staff" has been eliminated in the proposed new G-14.0515 (Organizing Pastors) and replaced simply by "staff."

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