January 20, 2010: Too Much To Chew

All right, I admit it: I bit off more than I could chew. I was going along at a pretty good pace, then ran into trying to work old GA PJC (General Assembly Permanent Judicial Commission) cases through the proposed new Form of Government (nFoG) and got bogged down. Instead of trying to zip off something half-finished, I am going to have to do some more homework to get through that material.

That, in itself, is a lesson. It is a lesson I re-learn each General Assembly: as familiar as I am with the process and with the general notion of the business, I cannot do a quick read-through and pretend that I am fully prepared for my work as a commissioner.

It also is why I start this early. If this were June, the workload would be overwhelming and -- truth be told -- I probably would not do it. Oh, I would try to get through as much as I could. But I would rationalize and think, "There's no way I could be expected to read through eighteen inches of paperwork to prepare for all the issues." At that point, it is accurate: there is no way to quickly read through eighteen inches of paperwork. At this point, though...

But, just in case you thought this update would be completely devoid of useful information, I am introducing a new feature (that does not take as much prep time):

Acronym of the Day: ACC

The General Assembly is filled with acronyms. There is a page dedicated to all the different shorthand references on the denomination's site. I am going to (try to) go the acronyms most often heard/used at General Assembly in alphabetical order.

Today's acronym of the day: ACC - the Advisory Committee on the Constitution.

The ACC is a big one. You will begin seeing this on reports, you will hear from them in committee and you will hear from them on the plenary floor. They give advice on just about anything that comes close to interpreting or applying the Constitution.

None of the business for the 219th General Assembly posted on pc-biz has an ACC comment yet; so I went back to the 218th General Assembly and found this. It was an overture from Beaver-Butler Presbytery, "On Amending the Book of Order to Provide Flexibility in Presbytery and Synod Membership." In the header, you will see that this was the fifth item of business for Committee 3 (thus, numbered 03-05).

The overture language -- the proposed changes to the Book of Order -- are provided in bold. Then, the rationale follows. Under the rationale is a section entitled "Comment"; there, you will see ADVICE FROM THE ACC. That's what were looking to find.

Note how the ACC tees off on the proposal. They "advise" the General Assembly to disapprove. They conclude with "The effect of this overture will be to exacerbate the proclivity of the church to dissolve itself into associations based on affinity. This proclivity is antithetical to the call of God to engage Christ’s mission together, to honor the critiques of brothers and sisters of faith who disagree, and to plan and work together to live out our calling to be “the sign in and for the world of the new reality God is making available to people in Jesus Christ” (G-3.0200)."

Their interpretive approach is the same approach I have been advocating regarding the proposed new Form of Government: what problems does it create, what is lost, and what are the unintended consequences.

You will hear speeches on the floor saying, "The ACC said..." or "The ACC wrote..." When something comes up during debate in plenary, the moderator may call on the ACC to offer some advice or an opinion as to a motion's constitutional consequence. It is provided to help the Assembly think through the issues and to highlight issues that may not be obvious to people unfamiliar with dealing in constitutional changes.

I will repeat this a number of times through the acronyms. The ACC advice is just that: advisory. The ACC's advice is to be followed like I am to be followed -- to the extent persuasive. It is not gospel and it is not the law, but it is an opinion offered by someone with fairly extensive experience.

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