LOUISVILLE— A special panel has recommended reducing membership on the General Assembly Council (GAC) by almost half and strengthening links between the council and the middle governing bodies of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.).
If the plan is approved, the council will shrink to just 39 voting members — 36 elected and three ex-officio (the current and immediate past General Assembly moderators and the moderator of Presbyterian Women) — by 2008.
The GAC will vote on the plan during its next regular meeting, which is scheduled for Feb. 7-11.
In a letter to the 72 current members of the GAC, the Governance Task Force and its chair, Carol Adcock of Fort Worth, TX, said the restructuring is intended to make the council “leaner, more responsive and more flexible.”
The proposal was outlined to the national staff of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) on Jan. 23.
The number of corresponding (non-voting) members of the GAC would be halved, to six — the General Assembly stated clerk; the GAC executive director; a representative from the Committee on Theological Education; and the chairs of the Advocacy Committee for Racial Ethnic Concerns, the Advocacy Committee for Women’s Concerns and the Advisory Committee on Social Witness Policy. Two non-voting ecumenical advisory members would bring council’s total membership to 47, down from 84.
Each member would serve for a single term of six years. Members now may serve for a maximum of two four-year terms.
How could a much smaller GAC be adequately “representative”?
The task force says representation in Presbyterian polity is not based on geography or constituency, “but on the determination of elected persons to seek the will of Christ…representing the larger interests of all parties involved.”
Restructuring of the national staff of the PC(USA) will be undertaken after the GAC restructuring. John Detterick, executive director of the GAC, said he doesn’t want “the GAC structure to get bogged down by organizational structure.”
The task force and Detterick’s staff leadership team will develop a “preliminary” staff structure for the GAC to consider at its April meeting. It will then be reviewed and evaluated by Detterick’s successor next fall with the GAC making a final decision on staff structure in February 2007.
Detterick, who is retiring in June after eight years, said he wants his successor “to have the opportunity to determine what staffing changes will best match the new GAC.”
The focus of the GAC would also change.
For the first time, a substantial bloc of members — 11 of the 39 voters — would come from the ranks of General Assembly commissioners. In addition to the GA moderators, nine members would be GA commissioners, three from each of the three most recent Assemblies.
“The GAC is accountable for interpreting and implementing the actions of the General Assembly, so their presence will remind us whom we are accountable to,” the task force said in its report.
Twenty-one GAC members would come from the presbyteries (down from the current 48). The GAC would include one synod executive and two presbytery executives. The current council has a representative of every synod; in the new configuration, every synod would be included in the GAC’s membership, though not as designated representatives.
Three young adults (18 to 35 years old) would be elected at-large.
Nominations would be managed, as now, by the General Assembly Nominating Committee, which is responsible for seeing that the inclusivity requirements of The Book of Order are met. The General Assembly elects all GAC members except those who are ex-officio.
“The plan moves (the GAC) from being a programmatic body to focusing on vision for the council, emphasizing the Mission Work Plan (MWP) goal areas,” the task force noted in its report.
The MWP is a focused strategic blueprint for the GAC, which now is working on the plan for 2005-2006. It includes four “goal areas” — Justice and Compassion; Evangelism and Witness; Spirituality and Discipleship; and Leadership and Vocation — and 22 specific objectives. The proposed 2007-2008 MWP would trim the number of objectives to just eight.
To align the council’s work more closely with the MWP, the task force proposes a GAC committee structure based on the mission plan’s goals rather than the staff structure of the PC(USA)’s three ministry divisions — Congregational Ministries (CMD), National Ministries (NMD) and Worldwide Ministries (WMD) — plus the Mission Support Services Committee (MSS).
WMD Director Marian McClure praised the plan’s recommendation “that the GAC take more ownership of vision and direction-setting,” and said a smaller council “will do better work, which will be easier to communicate to the church.”
The concern for better communication and connectedness with middle governing bodies is paramount, said Steve Benz, executive presbyter for East Tennessee Presbytery and the task force’s vice chair. “Communication is two-way, and being tied tighter to presbyteries should improve communication,” he said.
To foster improved relations between the GAC and middle governing bodies, one council meeting each year would include a meeting of GAC members with all presbytery and synod executives. “This annual meeting of all execs is a particularly important piece of this proposal,” Detterick said. “It will concretely enable us to work more closely together across the church.”
Adcock agreed. “We feel that formally convening an annual meeting will help our respective work be done in tandem so as to better support congregations,” she said. “We think it will also provide opportunities to combine efforts for the PC(USA) to have a more cohesive approach and thus a greater impact on ministry both in the United States and around the world.”
The proposed changes — a smaller GAC but an annual meeting with all middle governing body executives — would require a net increase in the GAC budget of about $25,000.
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