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Overture 5

About the Council of Assembly

At Albany Presbyterian Church on Tuesday 25th June 2002 the Presbytery of North Shore met and was constituted

Among other matters:

It was moved, seconded and carried that the following overture of the Session of St Aidan's Northcote be transmitted simpliciter to the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church of Aotearoa New Zealand appointed to meet in Wellington on 22nd September 2002

Whereas the government of the Presbyterian Church of Aotearoa New Zealand is considered to be agreeable to the Word of God and "the government of the Church is vested in courts designated respectively Sessions or Parish Councils, Presbyteries, Synods and General Assembly, in regular gradation of authority and in the order named" and

Whereas the efficacy of such government lies in the highest possible level of participation by all members and the real strength of the Presbyterian Church lies in its parishes having (a) direct representation and control, exercised and expressed by way of their own annual General Assembly and (b) support, encouragement and protection provided by a strong local presbytery and

Whereas the Council of Assembly was originally established "to give effect to the will of the Church as expressed by General Assembly" and

Whereas subsequent General Assemblies, in passing greater authority to the Council of Assembly, have created a situation whereby the Council of Assembly now appears to formulate the will of the Church without direction from the General Assembly and

Whereas now there is widespread disquiet at the growing influence and control being exercised by the Council of Assembly and its attendant central bureaucracy, far beyond its original mandate, and whereas the Council of Assembly has not fulfilled its stated obligation given in the report to the 1998 General Assembly (CofA Report Section A Clause 1.2), namely, to develop policy and priorities in conversation with congregations and present those policies to the General Assembly for consideration and

Whereas the current development of structures which support congregations have proven to remain complex, unresponsive and at times burdensome to presbyteries and congregations in their revitalization of the church and

Whereas the Presbyterian Church has failed to invest adequately in real activity likely to produce growth in numbers attending worship, has failed to produce a coherent strategy for recovery and has failed even to ensure adequate funding is made available for maintenance of hospital chaplaincy, despite the growth of funds available and

Whereas the Council of Assembly's intention to carry out activities which are rightly the prerogative of Presbyteries is evinced throughout it's published draft strategic plan

It is hereby overtured that this Assembly

(a) reaffirms the primacy of local congregations and parishes supported by their local presbyteries as the source of the Presbyterian Church's real strength and

(b) restores the General Assembly to its rightful place as the superior court of the Church which meets each year, receives reports directly from the Assembly Committees and directs the Council of Assembly to implement the Assembly's decisions and

(c) returns the Council of Assembly to the spirit and intent of its 1972 terms of reference and/or constitution by directing the Council of Assembly to restrict its activities to implementing the decisions of the General Assembly and

(d) establishes a Special Committee to meet during this Assembly and report back before the close of this Assembly with proposals for the way in which a return to annual meetings of the General Assembly may be achieved or that the General Assembly determine otherwise as in its wisdom it shall consider best.

The Presbytery appointed Mr Rob Ripley and one other to support the overture before the Assembly.

Extracted from the records of the Presbytery of North Shore by

Don B Stewart

Presbytery Clerk

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