An appreciation of the late Professor Bruce Metzger in the March 12 Outlook included an anecdote recounting how a North Carolina pastor had, in the pulpit, used a blowtorch to burn a copy of the then-new Revised Standard Version of the Bible, with the ashes eventually being bestowed upon Dr. Metzger when he became chair of the RSV committee.
It’s possible that the only thing that could get some Presbyterians more “fired up” than a new translation of the Bible is a new version of the Form of Government. So perhaps we, as co-moderators of the Form of Government Task Force, should brace ourselves for some ashes to come our way from those who want to take a blowtorch, either literally or figuratively, to what the Task Force will present to the church in September.
The Form of Government Task Force came together for the first time last August, and has met five times since. Nine of us — each representing particular segments of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A) — were given the task, by the 217th General Assembly, of creating a revised Form of Government that will focus on “providing leadership for local congregations as missional communities,” while still preserving our foundational polity and also maintaining the role of the presbytery as the central governmental unit.
We accepted from the start the two-edged reality that faces us: first, that the majority of persons sitting in PC(USA) pews on Sunday are focused on many things other than our form of government. Many don’t know, or don’t care, what it is. At the same time, however, those in the pews who do know and do care do so passionately and fervently. Sure, they say, the Form of Government may be too long, but how can you possibly think of changing or deleting (insert almost any section number here)?
With that reality facing us, we began with prayer, study, and reading. We read together a wide range of resources on polity, theology, and mission. We focused on two questions: Who is God calling the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) to be? — the identity of the church, and What is God calling the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) to do? — the polity of the church. We have sought to create a missional polity that places the particular congregation at the forefront of the church’s witness, because the congregation is the place where the church engages the world. Governing bodies in a missional polity exist to guide, support, and govern the work of the particular congregation, and serve to coordinate and connect those congregations so that the witness of the whole church may be more effective.
What we have drafted so far falls into two parts:
First, “The Foundations of Presbyterian Polity.” We envision this as a new initial section of the Book of Order. The “Foundations” essentially preserves the basic content of the present Chapters I — IV but in a reorganized and somewhat shortened form. We believe that separating these foundational principles from the Form of Government emphasizes their importance as the bedrock of the entire Book of Order.
We recognize, however, that a great love has developed for the current first four chapters over the 25 years since their adoption in their present form. For that reason, we have presented both “The Foundations of Presbyterian Polity” and the current first four chapters to the Advisory Committee on the Constitution for its input and comment. The task force will decide at its meeting in August which document will be included in our report released to the church in September.
Second, a proposed “Form of Government” with six chapters: 1) Particular Congregations and Their Membership; 2) Ordination to Office, Commissioning, and Certification; 3) Governing Bodies; 4) The Church and Civil Authority; 5) Ecumenicity and Union, and 6) Interpreting and Amending the Constitution.
These chapters include the necessary and essential constitutional provisions that guide and govern all of us as Presbyterians — the statutory framework of our polity. These chapters do not include procedural and process-oriented regulations that we believe inhibit, rather than promote, the “flexibility at all levels” that we were instructed by the GA to provide. The absence of these regulatory processes doesn’t mean that processes and procedures won’t exist. We envision that each presbytery and session will formulate the rules and procedures that are best suited to allow each particular presbytery and session to carry out mission and ministry in accordance with the Book of Order.
What we propose is a Form of Government that seeks to describe rather than to proscribe, that seeks to define function rather than mandate structure. What we propose is a Form of Government that, rather than saying to the Church, “Don’t do this,” instead says, “Feed my sheep. Proclaim my Word. Go out into the world and make disciples of all.
What we propose will mean change for all of us in the PC(USA). But we were struck by the assertion, in Darrell Guder’s The Continuing Conversion of the Church, that “the way we change is itself a form of witness.”
The Form of Government we propose is written for a Church in pilgrimage. The Church it contemplates is not the Church of the past, nor has it arrived at the future God yet holds in store for it. All of us are part of that Church in pilgrimage. We encourage you to join with us in this task of creating a Form of Government for the Church in pilgrimage. Please visit our Web site, review our proposed documents, and submit your comments.
Cynthia J. Bolbach is an elder and clerk of session in the Presbytery of National Capital. Sharon M. Davison is an elder and a member of the committee on ministry in the Presbytery of New York City.
