Download the minutes of GA12 - Presbyterian Church of Aotearoa ...

Minutes of the General Assembly 2012
Mr Stewart moved, and it was seconded:
[12.032] That, in order to fulfil the General Assembly’s mandate to facilitate and
resource the life, worship and spiritual nurture of the church (BOO 14.2
(1)(b)), that the Assembly’s meeting be held within the context of an
“Assembly Week.”
There was debate. The motion was carried.
[Resumption] Role of Moderator of General Assembly
The Rev Martin Stewart moved, and it was seconded:
[12.033] That representation at Assembly be determined by membership
numbers rather than by congregation.
A proposed amendment to change the words “membership numbers” to “number of
attendees at worship” was lost.
There was debate. The motion was carried.
Retiring Moderator’s Address
The retiring Moderator, the Very Rev Peter Cheyne, addressed the Assembly.
The Moderator expressed the thanks of the Church to Mr Cheyne for his service as
Moderator from 2010-2012.
The session was closed with devotions and the benediction.
The Assembly adjourned, to resume at 8.30am on Saturday 6 October, 2012.
Ray Coster, Moderator
Martin Baker, Clerk
Addendum to Minutes of Session 5
Reasons for dissent to motion [12.115] – lost
(Liberty of Conviction)
The Declaratory Act allows for liberty of conviction on matters that are not of the substance of
the Reformed Faith. The declaration of the 1985 Assembly that “homosexual acts are sinful” on
which this ruling was based, has not been admitted by the church to be of the substance. The
Declaratory Act states clearly that the Confession holds and teaches “…the corruption of man’s
whole nature as fallen….” This ruling attempts to subvert that doctrine by assuming that “sexual
relationships outside of faithful marriage” are in some way to be treated as a special case. To
focus solely on this area of life distorts the Reformed understanding of human nature.
The ruling makes reference to the Supreme and Subordinate standards in a way which does not
admit that there is no agreement in the Church about interpretation of biblical passages and
clauses of the Confessions. Biblical references are taken out of context, and words whose
meaning is unclear even to biblical scholars are presumed to refer to homosexuality, a word that
98 Session 5