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2020 Reports Eighty-Seventh General Assembly Yearbook 2020 REPORTS Prepared for the EIGHTY-SEVENTH GENERAL ASSEMBLY Postponed to June 2–8, 2021 and YEARBOOK of THE ORTHODOX PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH Published by THE ORTHODOX PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH 607 N. Easton Road, Building E Willow Grove, Pennsylvania 19090-2539 USA FOREWORD Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, which occurred in the United States in 2020 and resulted in various travel restrictions, stay-at-home executive orders by state governors, and business and campus closures across the nation, the 87th General Assembly, which had been scheduled to meet June 3–9, 2020, on the campus of Eastern University in St. Davids, PA, was postponed to June 2–8, 2021, and rescheduled to meet on the campus of Trinity Christian College in Palos Heights, IL. Consequently, the annual volume for 2020 does not contain minutes or any overtures, communications, or appeals to the 87th General Assembly, as would otherwise be included. Nevertheless, this 2020 volume is provided for informational purposes and the historical record of the denomination. The two sections of this volume are: REPORTS – the 2020 reports of the standing and special committees of the General Assembly, as well as those of the Stated Clerk, Trustees, Statistician, and Historian. Except for the reports of the Foreign Missions and the Appeals and Complaints Committees, these reports were made available online to the ministers, presbyteries, and sessions of the OPC in June 2020. Online access was password protected. This volume contains the 2020 report of the Foreign Missions Committee, but still excludes that of the Committee on Appeals and Complaints at the chairman’s request on behalf of the committee. The recommendations of these reports have been removed due to the postponement of the 87th General Assembly until 2021. YEARBOOK – general information about the denomination. References to items in this section are by page number. ABBREVIATIONS used in this volume for the Standards of the Church BCO The Book of Church Order FG Form of Government BD Book of Discipline SR Standing Rules WCF Westminster Confession of Faith WLC Westminster Larger Catechism WSC Westminster Shorter Catechism The Clerk welcomes suggestions for the improvement of these annual volumes. CONTENTS REPORTS ................................................................................................................................5 Reports of the: General Assembly Arrangements, Committee on .............................................................5 Stated Clerk .......................................................................................................................8 Trustees of the Orthodox Presbyterian Church ...............................................................14 Statistician .......................................................................................................................20 Christian Education, Committee on ................................................................................25 Home Missions and Church Extension, Committee on ..................................................51 Foreign Missions, Committee on ....................................................................................69 Coordination, Committee on .........................................................................................153 Diaconal Ministries, Committee on ..............................................................................163 Ministerial Care, Committee on ....................................................................................201 Ecumenicity and Interchurch Relations, Committee on ...............................................210 Chaplains and Military Personnel, Committee on ........................................................241 Historian ........................................................................................................................248 Historian, Committee for the ........................................................................................249 Visit the Presbytery of the Dakotas, Special Committee to ..........................................252 Updating the Language of the Doctrinal Standards, Special Committee on ................256 YEARBOOK .......................................................................................................................261 Statistical Reports of the Churches for the Year Ending December 31, 2019 ......................262 Summary of OPC Statistics for 2019 ............................................................................262 Statistical Reports of the Regional Churches and Congregations ................................264 Recapitulation of Membership Statistics, 1938–2019 ..................................................284 Statistical Reports of the Presbyteries for 2019 ...........................................................285 Apportionment of Commissioners to the 87th (2021) General Assembly ............................306 Standing Committees of the General Assembly ...................................................................307 Moderators of the General Assemblies .................................................................................310 Clerks of the General Assemblies .........................................................................................312 Historians, Statisticians .................................................................................................314 Stated Clerks of the Presbyteries ..........................................................................................315 Clerks of Session...................................................................................................................317 Ministers of the Orthodox Presbyterian Church ...................................................................329 INDEX ..................................................................................................................................343 Reports 5 REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE ON GENERAL ASSEMBLY ARRANGEMENTS I. PURPOSE The Committee on General Assembly Arrangements shall consist of four elected members in three classes of two, one, and one, respectively. A fifth, alternate member shall be elected for a term of one year. In addition, the Stated Clerk shall be a sixth member, ex officio. If three elected members are not present during the Assembly, temporary members will be assigned by the Assembly. The Committee shall (1) Report to the General Assembly the funds that are available for the travel expenses of the commissioners to that Assembly. (2) Recommend to each General Assembly a date and place for the next General Assembly. (3) Be responsible for arrangements before and during the meetings of the General Assembly that will enable the work of the Assembly. In order to facilitate the exercise of this responsibility, presbyteries and committees authorized to send commissioners or corresponding members are requested to elect such persons and to communicate their selection, including name, address, and telephone number, to the Committee and the Stated Clerk by March 1. (4) It shall recommend to the Assembly the granting of excuses and the method of reimbursement of the commissioners’ expenses. (5) Members of this Committee will be exempt from serving on Temporary or Advisory Committees. [Standing Rule X.2.h] II. ACCOMPLISHMENTS This has been a year of change for our Committee. Mr. Tress has asked that he not be nominated for another term on the Committee, so Mr. Mahaffy was elected as Chairman and is taking over responsibilities from Mr. Tress. The new Stated Clerk of the GA, Mr. Belfield, started his service in January, though he has been participating in Committee meetings since last fall. We continue to work on cross training each other on the various tasks that we have to strengthen the committee and spread knowledge to different members. The rapidly changing situations caused by the coronavirus pandemic kept the Committee busy shortly after we opened GA registration in February. The committee monitored the fluid situation as restrictions on gatherings and travel increased. On April 1, Eastern University notified us that they were not going to open the campus in June. They did not have any other 1-week blocks available for us this summer, and weren’t even sure if their campus would be open at all this summer. In order to assess our options, the Committee held a meeting on April 9 to which we invited the General Secretaries from the three program committees, the previous stated clerk and moderator, and representatives from other major Assembly committees. We spent a couple hours in discussion of the various options available, none of which was ideal: We considered recommending utilizing General Assembly Standing Rule II.3 (If a quorum be not assembled at the hour appointed, any two members shall be competent to adjourn from time to time, that an opportunity may be given for a quorum to assemble.) to hold a scaled-down assembly at a Philadelphia-area church with commissioners from nearby presbyteries who could hopefully provide enough commissioners for the quorum of 20. But at this point in time we don’t know if gatherings of that size will be permitted in June, and if only 6 Eighty-seventh General Assembly (Postponed) area commissioners attend the meeting, it would not be a representative assembly of the entire church. We considered recommending utilizing General Assembly Standing Rule II.3 to adjourn GA to a different location later in the year. But we don’t know
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