One difference with the Great Lakes overture is that the Potomac overture allows the permanent committee or agency to present its own view on the matter, if the OC disagrees with them.

Potomac Presbytery met on January 24, 2012 and passed two overtures requesting that the 40th General Assembly (GA) of the Presbyterian Church in America amend its Rules of Assembly Operation (RAO). The first amendment would send all proposed amendments to the constitution to the Overtures Committee (OC). The second would allow committees of commissioners (CofCs) to divide any recommendation from the permanent committees and agencies by two-thirds vote.

The first overture is similar to one that Great Lakes Presbytery passed on January 14 that would require all constitutional changes to be sent to the OC. Whereas the Great Lakes overture changes 15-1, the Potomac Presbytery overtures changes 12-1 and 15-1.

Each permanent committee and agency has a committee of commissioners which consists of up to one representative GA commissioner from each presbytery. The CofC reviews the work of the permanent committee or agency, and it is the CofC that actually brings the permanent committee recommendation to the General Assembly either recommending it, modifying it, or asking that it be rejected. The current RAO 12-1 allows a permanent committee or agency to propose a constitutional change through its own CofC.

The RAO amendment would change that and add the following sentence:
However, all recommendations proposing amendment to the Constitution shall be referred to the Overtures Committee for their review and recommendation to the General Assembly under the rules governing a committee of commissioners as applicable (RAO 14-6.d.-k.; 14-7.c.-d.; 14-9.d.-h.).

The rationale of the overture is that the OC is better equipped and designed to deal with constitutional changes:

Under the revised rules the Overtures Committee is the forum designed for full deliberation of and potential amendment to proposed amendments to the Constitution. However, should the committees in view in 12-1 recommend amendments to the Constitution, they should have the same rights as the other Committees and Agencies under the Committee of Commissioner rules.

One difference with the Great Lakes overture is that the Potomac overture allows the permanent committee or agency to present its own view on the matter, if the OC disagrees with them. The substitute would then be presented as follows according to 14-9.k:

The chairman of the permanent Committee or Agency or his designee shall have ten (10) minutes to move the recommendation and present the argument of the Committee; the chairman of the committee of commissioners or his designee shall have fifteen (15) minutes to move the substitute and present the argument of the committee; the same representative of the permanent Committee or Agency shall have five (5) minutes to reply to the committee of commissioners.

If the overture passes, any recommendation from a permanent committee or agency that requests a constitutional change would go to the OC, but the permanent committee or agency would have the right to contest any recommendation different than their own in the manner above.

The second overture seems to be rooted in a controversy in the Administrative CofC last year about whether or not the CofC could divide a recommendation and consider its elements separately. The permanent AC received several overtures related to its work and bundled them all into one recommendation (namely, refer to the Cooperative Ministries Funding Plan Subcommittee).

This overture states as rationale that the CofCs should be able to divide the question, “Committees of commissioners ought to have the ability to divide a question in order to affirm part while reserving the right to propose an alternative for part of a recommendation.” Thus, Potomac Presbytery proposes the following addition to 14-6.h:

Should a recommendation of a permanent Committee or Agency be properly liable to division (cf. Robert’s Rules of Order, §27), a committee of commissioners may, by a two thirds (2/3) vote of those present and voting, divide the recommendation.

This amendment would make it clear that the CofCs do have a right to divide any recommendation from a permanent committee or agency.

Wes White is a Teaching Elder in the Presbyterian Church in America. He is currently serving as the Pastor of New Covenant Spearfish Presbyterian Church, Spearfish, South Dakota. This article originally appeared on his web site and is used with permission. [Editor’s note: the original URL (link) referenced is no longer valid, so the link has been removed.]