“Governing bodies are no longer ‘separate and independent,’ but instead are ‘interconnected’ in a hierarchical structure in which powers of presbyteries are significantly increased while powers of sessions and congregations are greatly diminished.

The new Form of Government (nFOG) has been approved by a majority of the Presbyterian Church (USA)’s 173 presbyteries.

nFOG, approved by the 219th General Assembly and sent to PC(USA) presbyteries for ratification, will take effect on July 10, 2011. The 87th vote, representing a majority of the denomination’s presbyteries came June 7 by Trinity Presbytery. The vote as of June 8 is 87-81.

The approved nFOG replaces the Form of Government in the PCUSA’s Book of Order with three sections. According the to nFOG website they are:

· “Foundations of Presbyterian Polity – lays out the principles that are foundational to government, worship, and discipline for the PC(USA). Preserves the vast majority of the material in the first four chapters of the current Form of Government.

· “Form of Government – in six chapters, spells out the constitutional framework for government of the PC(USA) as it seeks to respond to God’s call to life in mission.

· “Advisory Handbook for Councils for the Development of Policies and Procedures Required by the Form of Government – an aid to councils (governing bodies) of the church for developing the policies and procedures to carry out their mission.”

According to the Reclaim Biblical Teaching website, which lobbied against the proposal, problems with nFOG include:

· “Governing bodies are no longer ‘separate and independent,’ but instead are ‘interconnected’ in a hierarchical structure in which powers of presbyteries are significantly increased while powers of sessions and congregations are greatly diminished.

Read More

[Editor’s note: Original URLs (links) referenced in this article are no longer valid, so the links have been removed.]