Amendments to the Book of Order Proposed

The Presbyterian Church USA’s 218th General Assembly sent ten amendments and four ecumenical statements to all 173 Presbyteries for prayerful consideration and yes/no votes. The changes include a proposed amendment that would delete the current paragraph G-6.0106b in the Book of Order — which requires church officers to live in “fidelity within the covenant of marriage between a man and a woman or chastity in singleness”—and replace it with a new G-6.0106b (see below). The proposed new G-6.0106b ties ordination decisions more closely to assent to the ordination vows currently in the church’s Book of Order without singling out a sexual conduct standard.

The Pittsburgh Presbytery will hold its vote on these amendments and statements on Saturday, March 14th at Northmont Presbyterian. Please keep the Presbytery and Sixth’s voting elders and ministers in your prayers.

Proposed New Language in Amendment 08-B:

Those who are called to ordained service in the church, by their assent to the constitutional questions for ordination and installation (W-4.4003), pledge themselves to live lives obedient to Jesus Christ the Head of the Church, striving to follow where he leads through the witness of the Scriptures, and to understand the Scriptures through the instruction of the Confessions. In so doing, they declare their fidelity to the standards of the Church. Each governing body charged with examination for ordination and/or installation (G-14.0240 and G-14.0450) establishes the candidate’s sincere efforts to adhere to these standards.

The full text of all of the amendments and statements is available at www.pcusa.org/generalassembly/amend/proposed-amendments-2008.pdf . The current vote tally for the amendments is also available online at www.pcusa.org/generalassembly/vote08.htm .