On Saturday, April 16, Louisiana Presbytery passed a resolution proposing changes to the Standing Judicial Commission (SJC), the highest court in the PCA, including term limits for SJC members.

The overture will be sent to the 39th General Assembly which is meeting June 7-10 at Virginia Beach. Here is the full text of what the Presbytery has named “Sunshine Resolution”: [Editor’s note: the original URL (link) referenced is no longer valid, so the link has been removed.]

Whereas, recent reports of allegations of misconduct of SJC members, the officers handling of same, and the full SJC’s rejection of the officers’ recommendations on those allegations remind us all that we are fallible human beings in desperate need of the grace of God; and

Whereas, the existing rule requiring dissents and concurring opinions to be in “temperate language” raises the possibility of censorship of dissent; and

Whereas, proposed amended rules presently circulating would make future dissents and concurring opinions from the SJC even more difficult; and

Whereas, we need to encourage more dissent on the SJC when unwise action is alleged, even if only one member is willing to cry foul; and

Whereas, long tenures on the SJC do not lead to greater openness in the exercise of the high powers this commission holds; and

Whereas, there are reports that the SJC recently voted to expunge portions of its minutes because of actions taken that the full SJC did not approve of, making it difficult for outsiders to know what even actually happened that was disapproved of:

Now therefore, we call for:

1. The rule requiring dissents & concurring opinions to be in “temperate language” to be abolished, and that there be no restrictions on dissents & concurring opinions other than that they be timely filed.

2. Further restrictions on dissents and concurring opinions not be allowed.

3. Term limits on SJC members, like those on other PCA boards and committees, such that once a member has served at least two full terms, or a combination of terms totaling eight (8) years or more, he not be eligible for another term until he shall have been off the SJC for at least one year.

4. A restriction on the SJC being able to expunge its own minutes, without the concurrence and approval of the Committee on Constitutional Business, which under our rules has oversight over SJC minutes, and then only by express finding by the CCB that there is a legitimate need for confidentiality, and no cover-up of embarrassing actions by the SJC.

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 http://weswhite.net and is used with permission.