1. Skirmish over Presbytery head tax;  2. Belhar is back;  3. Theology, Institutions, and CE move through fast;  4. New Mission Personnel Commmissioned;  5.  New Vice Moderator elected.

Since The Aquila Report has limited staff and budget, we are unable to cover the PCUSA General Assembly.  Our good friends at the Layman are there in force, even adding a new writer just for the occasion.  We will be providing daily ‘teases’ and links to many interesting stories, such as:

Per Capita skirmish erupts at GA

Parker T. Williamson, The Layman

Required to pay a per capita fee for all Presbyterians in their regions whether or not their local churches contribute, several of the denomination’s presbyteries are drowning in red ink. That plight moved Robert Austell, a commissioner and former General Assembly moderator candidate, to propose a motion that would limit the amount of money presbyteries must pay to higher governing councils.

Austell’s motion lost after a flurry of General Assembly loyalists insisted that the high church piper must be paid. But it sparked a floor debate in which spokespersons for several presbyteries pled for relief from the burdensome head tax.

Austell said that his own Presbytery of Charlotte was losing churches and that several of the churches that remain in the PCUSA fold are either refusing or unable to pay their per capita bills. For local churches, per capita is voluntary and cannot be coerced. But presbyteries are required to make up the difference. Austell reported that in recent years, Charlotte Presbytery has had to slash its operating budget, cutting a 10-member staff to the level of two – and decimating its mission budget while its per capita obligation to the General Assembly continues to rise. His proposal would have offered relief by capping the presbytery’s per capita tax at 18 percent of the presbytery’s income.

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Belhar is back

Parker T. Williamson, The Layman

An attempt by the 2010 General Assembly to add the Belhar Confession to the denomination’s Constitution was soundly defeated when it circulated among the presbyteries in 2010/2011 for ratification. Determined not to let it die, the 2012 General Assembly has decided to send it around again.

In a substantial vote, the assembly allocated an estimated $57,000 in addition to other funds already budgeted in order to mount a Belhar Confession campaign across the denomination. The money will be spent on dispatching theologians and sundry Belhar enthusiasts among the presbyteries in an attempt to educate them into an affirmative vote.

Opponents of the move suggested in the alternative that the General Assembly send a pastoral letter to the presbyteries extolling the virtues of Belhar and encouraging church-wide studies of the document. Some voiced an argument that was often heard during the 2010 referendum, namely that Belhar, a document that was birthed by the anti-apartheid movement in Africa is too narrowly focused to serve as a confession of faith.

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Theological issues

By Jason P. Reagan, The Layman, Posted Thursday, July 5, 2012

Following a tumultuous afternoon that saw the sudden resignation of its vice moderator, the Presbyterian Church (USA) General Assembly settled into a milder mode Wednesday night, easily approving all recommendations of the Theological Issues, Institutions, and Christian Education Committee.

After hearing applause when he announced no financial costs flowed from eight overtures, committee Moderator George R. Hunsberger of Lake Michigan Presbytery presented three routine recommendations for the GA consent agenda that unanimously passed and five more that overwhelmingly passed.

The assembly affirmed the committee’s disapproval of Overture 17-01, a plan to establish the “Institute for Effective Parental Leadership” within four metro-area presbyteries.

The institute would “teach effective parenting skills for parents with children six years old and younger.”

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General Assembly commissions new mission personnel and honors retirees

GA220 Communication Center

Continuing a 175-year tradition, the 220th General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) on Wednesday evening (July 4) commissioned 152 Presbyterian mission co-workers and young adult volunteers who have accepted assignments since the previous General Assembly.

The commissioning was held in the state where, in 1837, Presbyterians established their first national denominational mission agency. Presbyterian World Mission traces its heritage to that board formed in Philadelphia.

Nine mission co-workers were at the commissioning, representing the 30 new and reassigned mission co-workers who have been appointed since 2011. The nine mission co-workers present will attend orientation this month.

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Tom Trinidad is confirmed as new vice moderator of 220th GA

GA220 Communication Center

The new vice moderator of the 220th General Assembly said he “shares a passion for sacramental unity” with the moderator, the Rev. Neal D. Presa.

The Rev. Tom Trinidad, pastor of Faith Presbyterian Church in Colorado Springs, Colo., was confirmed and installed as vice moderator Wednesday evening, July 4, following the resignation of his predecessor, the Rev. Tara Spuhler McCabe, earlier in the day.

McCabe stepped down after controversy surrounding her recent signing of a same-gender wedding license in Washington, D.C.

Trinidad, a commissioner from Pueblo Presbytery, said he’s known Presa since the two served together on the Sacraments Study Group, convened in 2003 by the Office of Theology and Worship.

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