GS 1971 ARTICLE 20 – Yearbook of the Churches
Committee IV presents:
Material
Agenda 8
- Q. 1 – Overture Church at Edmonton, Alta.
- Q, 2 – Agreement Church at Brampton with 1.
Information
- 1. Edmonton overtures Synod to have an official Yearbook published by deputies of Synod, because certain problems have arisen around the Yearbook as it is presently published privately. Edmonton formulates the problem: “that the churches are not granted the right to decide themselves which data will be inserted under the name of the Church.”
- 2. Brampton supports this overture, but on the ground that “the responsibility is too great for one person.”
Considerations
- 1. The overture fails in prove that publishing a Yearbook is in the province of a General Synod;
- 2. it also fails to prove that the fact, that there are certain problems around a privately-owned Yearbook, renders an official publication by General Synods necessary or even desirable;
- 3. it further fails to convince that turning a Yearbook into an official, synodical publication, would prevent any problems as described;
- 4. the ground which Brampton adduces is not convincing either, because the issue is not whether editing a Yearbook is “too great a responsibility for one person”, but a matter of policy followed by publisher and editor.
Recommendation
Synod decide not to accede in the overture of the Church at Edmonton, supported by the Church at Brampton.