The “Rules of Assembly Operation” (RAO) require that all overtures to be considered by the General Assembly (GA) must be received one month (31 days) prior to the opening of the Assembly; in the case of the 49th GA, that deadline was May 23. Since our last article on new overtures, 11 final overtures have been received.
Overture 32 from Tennessee Valley Presbytery (TVP) requests a sentence be added at the end of RAO 8-4.h. that would call for the GA Nominating Committee (NC) to list in their report those nominated by their presbyteries who were also recommended by the Boards of Covenant College, Covenant Seminary, the PCA Foundation, PCA Retirement and Benefits, and Ridge Haven.
TVP points out that the PCA Corporate Bylaws stipulate that these five boards, unlike GA permanent and special committees, may ask presbyteries to nominate men for their board and recommend and endorse them to the GA Nominating Committee (NC). TVP argues that, though the NC is not obligated to nominate these men, it would be helpful for the GA to know who they are. Note: Overture 32 was received by the Stated Clerk’s Office prior to the April 22 deadline for overtures asking for changes in the Book of Church Order (BCO) and RAO, but for technical reasons its posting was delayed.
Though Overtures 33, 34, and 35 from Nashville, Metro Atlanta, and North Florida Presbyteries, respectively, differ in some details, they all ask for the same thing for similar reasons. The three overtures call for the 49th GA to advise sessions and presbyteries of the PCA “to give due and serious consideration” (a phrase drawn from BCO 14-7) to the Ad Interim Committee Report on Human Sexuality (AIC) presented to the 48th GA by carefully studying its contents.
Each of the overtures also asks the Assembly to call for church courts to use the report as a guide to examine the personal character of candidates for church office, and to consider requiring candidates for church office to study the report. Additionally, the three overtures ask the GA to advise church courts to exercise particular care in evaluating a candidate’s use of terminology related to same-sex identity and orientation (as addressed in the AIC); to exhort pastors and elders to instruct their congregations on the historic teaching of the Bible and the Church regarding human sexuality; and to encourage presbyteries and congregations to seek the Lord in prayer for wisdom “to navigate changing cultural contexts faithfully” as a church committed to Scripture and the Great Commission.
Nashville and North Florida are also asking the GA to urge pastors and elders to take care in interacting with each other’s views, especially online. While the rationale each presbytery gives for their overture is slightly different from the others, all three argue that there is a need for the courts of the church to have clear guidance about qualifications for church office with regard to the matter of human sexuality, and that the 48th GA’s judgment that the AIC Report is a “biblically faithful declaration” makes it an excellent resource for that guidance.
Overtures 36 through 40 all invoke BCO 34-1, which allows two presbyteries to ask the General Assembly to assume original jurisdiction (the right to first receive and initially hear and determine) over a doctrinal case or a case involving public scandal when the presbytery of accused minister has refused to act on the allegation.
The nearly identical Overtures 36 and 37 (from Southeast Alabama and Grace Presbyteries, respectively) ask the SJC to assume original jurisdiction “in the case of doctrinal error of Teaching Elder Greg Johnson.” They allege that Johnson, subsequent to the adjudication of the complaint against Missouri Presbytery regarding its decision not to proceed to process against him, “has made numerous public comments that appear to either contradict or at least offer confusion to his previous affirmations” made to his presbytery and to the SJC. They offer 10 examples of these alleged discrepancies in an attachment to their overture.
Overtures 38, 39, and 40, from Chesapeake, Northern New England, and Northern California, respectively all ask the SJC to assume original jurisdiction over matters concerning accusations against Teaching Elder Dan Herron, his subsequent filing of a civil suit against his accusers, and Central Indiana’s handling of these matters
Overtures 41 and 42 were submitted to the GA by the Session of Bethel Christian Church in Chicago after Chicago Metro Presbytery rejected them at its May 18th meeting.
In Overture 41, the Bethel Session asserts that Critical Race Theory (CRT) can be understood through seven tenets that it enumerates and calls on the GA to declare CRT “a seriously flawed, and overall unhelpful way for addressing the issues surrounding race in the church” and instead to point believers to “the greater, truly sufficient answer centered on the reconciliation . . . accomplished through the blood of Christ.”
In Overture 42, the Bethel Session alleges that “secretive and exclusive political factions” have undermined the peace and unity of the church and calls on the GA to “call all teaching and ruling elders to not participate in such political groups for the purpose of influencing or manipulating the church courts according to a particular agenda.”
For a comprehensive article on the overtures received by the Assembly, click here. For information about how these overtures originate and are brought to the GA floor, click here. To read all of the overtures, click here.