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Rules of Discipline Revisions Sent to Presbyteries for Vote
By Rev. Dr. Paige McRight

When General Assembly met in July the commissioners approved by overwhelming majority to send to the presbyteries a major revision to the Rules of Discipline.  The revision was developed by a task force appointed in 2017. Made up of four presbytery stated clerks and our own retired minister, Rev. Paige McRight, the task force was charged to prepare a revision to the current Rules of Discipline in response to an overture to make the Rules of Discipline more accessible to the church, to preserve and enhance the accountability of councils and individuals to the church, to expand the role of mediation and alternate dispute resolution and to provide flexibility in crafting censures and remedies in disciplinary cases in light of recent learning in ethical and social development and secular legal system experience with alternative sentencing. 

The charge was not to change the rules themselves in any major way, but to clarify process and to take advantage of advances both in dealing with offenses and in technology that have developed in the years since the rules were last revised in 1996.  The task force consulted with individuals and groups across the church in preparing this revision.  Those groups who represent the interests of victims of abuse and the interests of persons often marginalized on the basis of race were particularly helpful in identifying reforms to make church discipline more accessible to the whole church and to enhance the accountability of councils and individuals.

The revision is titled Church Discipline to stress that it is for the internal discipline of the Presbyterian Church USA and is much more than rules.  Church discipline, as stated in the preamble to this section of the Book of Order is the church's exercise of authority given by Christ, both to guide and nurture its members, and for the correction and restraint of wrongdoing. To make the accountability of councils or remedial process and the accountability of individuals or disciplinary process easier to follow, the revision describes each process separately start to finish.  In disciplinary cases, restorative justice is introduced into alternate resolution with additional options for acts of voluntary repentance when an accused admits guilt.  To fulfill the mandate for clarity and accessibility, there are other changes to give specific definition to time limits, to permanent judicial commission membership, and to use of technology in communication, witness interviews and trials. The task force put into the constitution wording from authoritative interpretations of the Book of Order that are often cited in judicial commission rulings but are now only available in the Annotated Book of Order.
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All this is to say that Church Discipline, the proposed fourth section of the Book of Order, clarifies language and process to make Church Discipline more useful to the church.  


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