» News: OPC General Assembly Update

Saturday, The Orthodox Presbyterian Church considered its proposed Directory for Public Worship, section by section. After completing the perfection and approval of 5 out of the 18 sections, the assembly deferred further consideration of the directory to 2008's General Assembly. The assembly made its decision to defer on the basis of time constraints.

On Monday, the assembly approved a name change for the Presbytery of Northern California. The presbytery will now be designated as the "Presbytery of Northern California and Nevada" because of the addition of three churches in the state of Nevada. The assembly heard from the Committee on Christian Education and Great Commission Publications, including word about several new publications orderable online.

The assembly considered the much anticipated report on illegal immigration Monday evening. To quote from the OPC's GA summary:

"While a prima facie case might be made that many illegal aliens cannot make a credible profession of faith because of their apparent failure to submit to the governing authorities ... it is nevertheless appropriate for sessions to judge the credibility of a person's profession of faith based on a case-by-case basis." Hence, "it is not wise for presbyteries and sessions to determine in advance that a person's illegal status automatically disqualifies him from membership in the church, neither would it be appropriate to determine in advance that an illegal status is of no consequence... It should be the goal of presbyteries and sessions that as much as possible all members live as legal aliens or residents in keeping with Romans 13:1-2 and the implications of the fifth commandment (LC qq. 125-128) and the ninth commandment (LC qq. 144-145). It is therefore appropriate for the presbyteries and sessions to provide assistance to members seeking to change their status so that they may live as legal residents."

No word yet on the Assembly's conclusion concerning this report.

Tuesday's work largely concerned a judicial case brought by Gregory Baus. Baus appealed several decisions of the Presbytery of the Mid-Atlantic. The assembly declined to sustain his appeal in a nearly day-long consideration of the matter.

The Assembly has not yet adjourned; RN will continue to update as new information is released. Photographs of the assembly are being posted online and, as mentioned previously, there is a running summary of events at the OPC website's update page.