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PCA's 31st General Assembly, 2003
PCA's 31st General Assembly, 2003
by Pastor Bob Burridge ©2003
Index to the daily reports
Tuesday: June 10th
Wednesday: June 11th
Thursday: June 12th
Friday: June 13th
The above logo links to the recorded archives of the General Assembly.
By clicking on it you can view the streaming recordings of the various worship times,
reports and business sessions. Those without broad-band internet connections may be
limited to the audio only.
Note: The following daily reports are a summary of highlights only.
Updates and expanded notations were made June 28, 2003.
Tuesday: June 10, 2003
The Presbyterian Church in America Convenes:
1,383 delegates gathered at the Convention Center of Charlotte, North Carolina,
to open the 31st General Assembly of the PCA with a time of worship. The theme of the
Assembly is The Supremacy of Christ.
The out-going moderator, TE Joseph F. Ryan,
presented an exposition of 2 Corinthians 4 under the title How Not To Lose Heart.
As business began, a motion was presented by the first moderator of the PCA, Dr. Morton Smith,
to delay all assembly business on Wednesday until after the 11:15 am worship service.
During that time delegates should engage in a season of serious prayer and fasting concerning
the important and historic issues before them. The motion
was modified and adopted to set aside Wednesday morning from 8:00 am and 10:00 am for this purpose.
Docketed business was set to begin at 10:00 am instead of the originally scheduled time of 8:00.
During this prayer time the exhibits were closed in keeping with the spirit of the
motion's intent.
Also during the Tuesday evening session, Ruling Elder Dr. Joel Belz
was elected without opposition to serve as moderator of this assembly.
He is a Ruling Elder in the PCA, serves as Chief Executive Officer of God's World
Publications and was founding editor of World Magazine
where he now serves as chairman of the board of directors.
Wednesday: June 11, 2003
Prayer, BCO Changes and Reports:
The delegates engaged in prayer for the business before them between 8:00 am until
10:00 am when the Wednesday morning business session was called to order.
Four changes to the Book of Church order had been sent down to the Presbyteries by last
year's General Assembly.
One asked to increase the number of persbyteries needed for the General Assembly to
assume original jurisdiction in cases of process where a presbytery is accused of not having
acted properly in the discipline of a minister. This change failed to receive the needed votes
by individual presbyteries to come back to the GA for a final vote.
Items 3 and 4 were passed with little objection. They added the words "and unity" to the
6th ordination vow, and adjusted the wording to reflect the change in name and status
of PCA Retirement and Benefits, Inc.
Item 2 was the most controversial of the changes proposed. The final votes from the
presbyteries indicated that it was sustained as business for this GA by 45 presbyteries
(just over the 43 needed to bring it to the floor). The intent was to adopt a "good faith
subscription" position in handling the exceptions officers of the PCA may take to our doctrinal
standards. Debate was extended several times to permit ample discussion both from those
who oppose the BCO change and from those who support it. The reported vote was 816 in favor,
and 545 opposed. The amendment to the BCO was sustained by the support of 60% of the commissioners.
In response to rulings made last year, Ascension Presbytery presented Overture 23 to
clarify the process used as the Committees of Commissioners bring business before the
General Assembly. The Bills & Overtures Committee was split regarding this matter.
The minority report supporting the overture was voted to become the main motion allowing
the Committees of Commissioners to be able to propose amendments to overtures.
Improvements were made from the floor to the language of the Overture before it was passed.
The committee on Review of Presbytery Records recommended that General Assembly should
declare that the response of the Southern Florida Presbytery to last year's concerns to
be unsatisfactory. (That presbytery sustained the examination for the transfer of a
candidate who stated that he does "not believe that the Holy Spirit eternally proceeds
from the Father and the Son, but in the integrity of the Holy Trinity, from the
Father alone.") The GA asked Southern Florida Presbytery to give a better response
than the one they have presented for this very serious matter.
Reports were received from the Committees on Interchurch Relations, Constitutional
Business, Mission to North America, Mission to the World, Covenant College, the Christian
Education Committee, the Standing Judicial Commission, and the PCA Foundation.
By a motion from the floor, the Interchurch Relations Committee was instructed
to prepare a report profiling the member NAPARC churches, and to work toward true organic
unity of the member denominations.
Thursday: June 12, 2003
Overtures and More Reports:
More reports were received from the various church agencies and permanent
committees including the Administration Committee's recommendations regarding
budgets.
Overture 5 from Central Carolina Presbytery was adopted as amended.
It attempts to clarify the reporting by presbyteries of exceptions
ministers take to our doctrinal standards when they are received.
One of the most anticipated and controversial issues for this assembly was
Overture 16 from Western Carolina. It proposed an Ad Interim Committee
for perfecting the language of the BCO regarding doctrinal subscription.
It was supported by the Committee of Commissioners on Bills and Overtures.
A minority on the committee, garnering a small majority (530 to 477) of floor
voters, was able to make its proposal (denying Overture 16) to become
the main motion preventing the study committee from being established.
Overture 17 from Nashville Presbytery asked for an Ad Interrim Committee
to clarify our position on the issue of the gospel and race. The majority
of the Committee of Commissioners proposed that this task be given to our
Mission to North America committee. A minority suggested that the language
of the overture implied attitudes that might perpetuate walls of separation
between the races in Christ rather than eliminate them. The position of the
majority on the committee prevailed.
After the inspirational service a business session was called which lasted
a little past 10:30 pm. During that time the assembly dealt with overtures 1
and 3 which expressed concerns about women serving in the military facing
possible discipline by the church in response to the position paper adopted
in the 30th General Assembly. The 31st GA answered with this statement, "Nothing
done by the previous General Assembly compels any court of original jurisdiction
to exercise discipline on issues pertaining to the report on the Ad-Interim
Committee on Women in Military."
Overture 21 was answered by directing the Stated Clerk to correct
future copies of the BOC to return to the wording of the institution words
for the administration of the Lord's Supper which were adopted originally. The
present wording was due to a switch in the Bible translation used. A change
was also approved to adjust the BCO requirement to allow other biblical accounts
of the institution of the Lord's Supper to be used.
Overture 19 from the Philadelphia and Rocky Mountain Presbyteries asked the PCA
to endorse the Marriage Amendment being proposed to the US Constitution. The
General Assembly responded with this statement of its own which is taken from
the Westminster Confession of Faith.
"The church now declares to the world the
teaching of God's word concerning the family as summarized in the WCF 24:1-2,
1. Marriage is to be between one man and one woman: neither is it lawful for
any man to have more than one wife, nor for any woman to have more than one
husband, at the same time (Gen. 2:24; Mat. 19:5-6; Prov. 2:17).
2. Marriage was ordained for the mutual help of husband and wife, for the
increase of mankind with a legitimate issue, and of the Church with an holy seed;
and for preventing uncleanness (Gen. 2:18; Mal. 2:15; 1Cor. 7:2,9).
Furthermore the Scriptures warn of the danger to any nation that defies God's
law regarding the family. (Proverbs 14:34)"
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Other overtures dealt with by the General Assembly did not evoke
much debate or dissension.
At the end of the Thursday session Dr. Morton Smith and several other delegates
submitted a protest concerning the passage of the "Good Faith" formulation of the
subscription matter. Many other delegates added their names to the protest as
supporters of Dr. Smith's sentiments and concerns.
The text of the protest follows:
"In accord with BCO 45-1, the undersigned commissioners respectfully protest
the adoption of the BCO 21-4 for the following reasons:
1. It is our conviction that as the PCA came into existence, it was the intent to
establish a continuing Southern Presbyterian Church, which was clearly an Old School
Presbyterian Church, which historically included the full or strict subscription to
the Westminster Confession and Catechisms.
2. The adoption of the position set forth in BCO 21-4 is essentially the same
position adopted by the PCUSA in 1927. The history of the PCUSA shows that once this
position was adopted the PCUSA moved toward liberalism. The most extreme case of this
movement was the Kaesman case of 1978 in which a man denied the deity of Christ with the
approval of his Presbytery. The PCUSA Assembly refused to correct this error on the
ground that it was the prerogative of the Presbytery, and that Assembly could not reverse
the Presbytery. It is our fear that under this new amendment the PCA may move toward
liberalism without safeguards to prevent it."
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Friday: June 13, 2003
Presbytery Review and Final Reports:
The final day of the 31st General Assembly began with a time of worship.
This was followed by the report of the Committee on Review of Presbytery Records.
Its 40 page report was received with minimal debate.
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