One of the items coming up at General Synod is the proposed revised bylaws of the General Synod Council. It is this item that is the focus of the first Albany Synod overture.
The proposed bylaws are on pp. 53 ff. of the General Synod Workbook. In my opinion, to get the proper sense of the meaning and scope of the changes, you must read the proposed bylaws in conjunction with the “GSC Adopted Policy Document”.
Now Rett Zabriskie (Stated Clerk for Classis Passaic Valley) has written an excellent commentary on the proposed bylaws. Its telling refrain is “This is not of God.”
Here is an excerpt:
“We got the current GSC because we were told that, being elected from the Synod, it would actually be an executive committee and carry out the instructions of Synod in the months between synod meetings. But this article [Art. IV] eliminates that derivative connection and makes GSC simply another independent “agency” of Synod, like the seminaries or (for the moment) the Church Herald. The practical effect is that the Synod has no continuing presence. It only has existence when it is actually meeting as there is no longer any continuing executive committee. Thus government by office-bearers in assembly disappears. We are left with a meeting which can only be called a “Convention” , which has no staff or budget of its own and can only give instructions to one or more agencies and then wait a year or more to see what happens. All denominational decisions will now be made by the GSC – , which is not composed of office bearers, is not representative, and is not an assembly. This is not of God.”
Excellent material. Again, please check it out.
Dan Griswold