Overture 3

<typohead type="2">Retaining the "Standards" of the Church</typohead>

At St Andrew's Church Te Puke, on 8 June 2004, the Presbytery of Bay of Plenty met and was constituted.

<typohead type="3">Among other things:</typohead>

The Presbytery agreed unanimously to adopt and transmit the following overture to the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church of Aotearoa New Zealand appointed to meet in Christchurch at St Andrew's College on 19 September to 24 September 2004.

Whereas the draft re-write of the Book of Order appears to reduce the importance of the "Supreme" and "Subordinate" Standards of this Church, and to list them only as something we "value"

And whereas the Supreme Standard of the Word of God and the Westminster Confession and other Subordinate Standards are foundational to the faith and constitution of the Presbyterian Church of Aotearoa New Zealand

And whereas the 2002 General Assembly instructed the Book of Order and Judicial Reference Group to draw up a statement with the effect of altering the Church´s relationship with the existing subordinate standards

And whereas for this church to alter or relinquish its Standards has profound constitutional implications, including the need to change various Acts of Parliament

And whereas such a major change demands much wider consultation and debate than placing the proposal on the church website

And whereas some would be happy to see the present Subordinate Standards eventually replaced, with something both contemporary and orthodox, but do not agree with the church having no doctrinal standards

And whereas the Presbyterian Church is currently in crisis, in several critical areas, and it is hardly an opportune time to be changing the church´s basic constitution

<typohead type="3">It is hereby overtured that General Assembly:</typohead>

Put on hold any move to alter or diminish the church´s relationship to its Supreme and Subordinate Standards.

Decline to either adopt or adopt ad interim the draft Book of Order to enable wider consultation as required under the Barrier Act.

Refer the Book of Order rewrite back to the Rewrite Group with the request that it bring to the next Assembly a revised version that would retain the Supreme and Subordinate Standard in the same relationship to the church´s constitution as at present.

That Assembly establish a Work Group to thoroughly investigate the possibility of starting work on an updated Subordinate Standard, something contemporary in form, orthodox, and genuinely consistent with the reformed tradition.

</typolist>

Or that the General Assembly determine otherwise as in its wisdom it shall consider best.

The Presbytery appointed the Rev Martin Macaulay and Mrs Watson to support the overture before the Assembly.

Extracted from the records of the Presbytery by

Phil Aiken
Presbytery Clerk.