Addendum

<typohead type="2" class="western">Recommendation

</typohead>

That the Act of Modification be adopted and sent to Presbyteries/Union District Councils under the Barrier Act.

<typohead type="2" class="western">Introduction

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The 2002 Assembly decided:

1. That the General Assembly:

1.1 Give approval to extend the provisions for training and authorising elders to conduct the sacrament of communion to include the sacrament of baptism.

1.2 Ask the Book of Order and Judicial Reference Group to draft the appropriate amending legislation and report to the next General Assembly.

1.3 Instruct the Council of Assembly to ensure the preparation of resources for use by authorised elders.

The proposed appropriate amending legislation is based on the Act for the sacrament of Communion at Appendix B-4 in the Book of Order:

<typohead type="3">Act of Modification</typohead>

1. Assembly, in view of the Church’s right in dependence on the promised guidance of the Holy Spirit to modify its Subordinate Standards, always in agreement with the Word of God and the fundamental doctrines of the Reformed Faith contained in its Subordinate Standards, hereby modifies its standards by falling from those phrases in the Westminster Confession of Faith and Larger Catechism that state it is the function of the ordained minister of the Word and none other to dispense the sacrament of Baptism (Westminster Confession, chapter XXVII (iv); Larger Catechism, answer to question 176) and instead recognises, as part of its Subordinate Standards, that the Sacrament of Baptism is normally administered by ordained ministers except where, at the discretion of the Presbytery or Union District Council, certain elders may be authorised so to do, but always under the authority of the minister or interim moderator and of the Session or Parish Council.

2. Assembly affirms that the understanding set out in Appendix B-4 in relation to the sacrament of Communion applies also to the sacrament of Baptism, namely:

(a) Assembly affirms the Reformed understanding of the essential relationship between Word and Sacrament, and the need for Baptism to be dispensed with understanding in the context of the preached Word.

(b) Assembly affirms the biblical principle of the sacrament of Baptism being administered decently and in order.

(c) Assembly affirms the true significance of the sacrament of Baptism depends upon the work of the Holy Spirit and the command and promise of Christ.

Presbyterian Church of Aotearoa New Zealand

Addendum