Reformed Presbyterian Minutes of Synod 1995 - Rparchives.org

REFORMED PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH 69Recommendation: That the committee be dismissed.Respectfully submitted,James M. Wright, ChairmanWilliam EdgarGodfrey FranklinThomas ReidEdmund SchislerThe report of the Committee to Revise the Book of Discipline wastaken up. Item 1 was referred back to the committee. The report asa whole was approved and is as follows:REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE TO REVISE THE BOOK OF DISCIPLINEDear Brothers:The Committee to Revise the Book of Discipline (BOD) respectfullyreports that we have begun the work that the Synod of 1994 assigned to us.We have been doing much correspondence among ourselves, and mettogether for the first time on 24 March, 1995, at the First RPC in BeaverFalls, PA. The meeting was quite fruitful. We put together what we believeto be a general outline of our work. We have already been doing"comparative anatomy", with different members studying the disciplineguides of different related denominations. The preliminary findings havebeen quite useful.Your committee requests some information from Synod members andother interested parties. We would like to know if Synod wants us topropose deep changes or merely a tightening up. In other words, doesSynod wish a full version upgrade, or doesit want the current one debugged?Further, we want to have any suggestions or observations that you or othersmight have that would help the committee in doing the revision. Particularlyhelpful might be personal experiences in discipline cases, patterns observed inapplying church discipline, bibliographical suggestions, and Scripture studieson church discipline. Please send any such to the committee secretary after 1September:Philip H. PockrasPOB 365Belle Center, OH 43310-0365Phone-513 464 6851Email- phil.pockras.@f915.nl 10.z1.fidonet.orgThe phone number will work for fax or a modem data transfer, but youmust call by voice first so that Phil can set up his computer to receive.We thought that Synod might be interested in a preliminary bibliographyfor personal study. Here are some good places to go:Associate Presbyterian Church of North America, Book of Discipline,Philadelphia: Associate Presbyterian Board of Publication, 1883.Berghoef, Gerard and Lester De Koster, The Elders' Handbook, pp 121 -135, Grand Rapids: Christian's Library Press, 1979.*