To: Session and Friends of the PCA

General Assembly Preparations
The Local Arrangements Committee in Tampa has sent out registration packets. The Assembly will meet June 20-23 in Tampa, Florida. Several Committees of Commissioners will meet on Monday, June 19, and the rest will meet on Tuesday, June 20. The theme chosen by the committee this year is, Consecrating the Church, Confronting the Culture. MNA has arranged for pre-Assembly seminars consistent with that theme. Invited speakers for the General Assembly worship services include Joe Novenson, Sinclair Ferguson, Skip Ryan, Harry Reeder, and Frank Barker. This year’s docket is full, with several matters of concern scheduled for discussion. I do not anticipate that we will conclude early as we did last year. Commissioners will need to plan to work through Friday as scheduled. As of this date 647 TE’s and 326 RE’s have registered. Each year the Assembly concludes with the singing of a metrical version of Psalm 133.

Thank You
We have had a good response to our appeal for the Administrative Committee’s ongoing ministry and the effort to erase the debt carried over from 1998. More churches than ever are participating in the support of the AC’s ministry. We ended 1999 "in the black" in the contributions-to-expenditures ratio. The 1998 debt has been reduced from $125,000 to about $25,000 as of today. We are praying that the remaining $25,000 will come in before the Assembly convenes. We appreciate your support.

PCANEWS.com
After "The PCA Messenger" was discontinued in 1994, the General Assembly delegated to the AC the responsibility of developing the PCA News Office. We do not have a duly authorized PCA News Officer or PCA News Service at present. We have not begun another magazine heretofore because of fiscal exigencies. We believe we can now effectively resume the accurate and timely publication of the story of the PCA by means of an Internet magazine, "PCANEWS.com," which we intend to launch at the General Assembly. PCANEWS.com will include many items of interest including, PCA news (updated six days per week, Monday through Saturday), feature articles, news of special interest to pastors, missions updates, educational ministries, outreach ministries, columnists, editorials and letters, debates, the marketplace (classified ads and job opportunities), and a number of helpful resources such as prayer requests, devotional materials, ministry materials for families, youth, and children as well as book reviews. A PCANEWS.com kick-off luncheon is slated for Tuesday, June 20 at the Assembly. See the blue flyers in the GA registration packet mailout or contact this office.

Interchurch Relations
The North American Presbyterian and Reformed Council met November 16-17. NAPARC declined to approve the concept of forming a non-judicial general synod as had been proposed by an overture at the 1999 PCA General Assembly. The Synod of the United Reformed Churches, within whose ranks the idea had originated, had previously declined to approve the concept. NAPARC approved a proposal that all NAPARC-member denominations’ Interchurch Relations Committees prepare Self-Descriptions of their respective denominations, considering their distinctives (beliefs, practices, and government) and the degree to which those distinctives warrant continued separation. A similar process resulted in 1982 in the joining and receiving of the Reformed Presbyterian Church Evangelical Synod into the PCA. NAPARC will discuss the issue in its Fall, 2000 meeting. Any recommendations for action will be reported to the subsequent General Assemblies or General Synods of the NAPARC Churches.

Women in Military Study Committee
The WIM Committee has received additional designated funding to enable them to proceed with their work. Their report will be printed in the Supplement to the Commissioners’ Handbook that will be distributed at registration at the Assembly. The WIM Committee report is docketed for 10:15 a.m., Thursday, June 22.

Creation Study Committee
The CSC has been working diligently, meeting three times since the last General Assembly. Additional contributions have been received to fund their work. The committee report is to be published in the Commissoners’ Handbook before the Assembly. The report is scheduled for 3:30-5:30 p.m. on Wednesday, June 21. The committee is presenting its report for the advice and study of Presbyteries, Sessions, and individuals.

PCA Office Building Recommendation to Assembly
The 1998 General Assembly directed the Administrative Committee to find an "amicable solution" to concerns about the adequacy of the PCA Office Building that were first expressed by MTW. Over the 1998-1999 Assembly year, a Building Management Committee was established to give all PCA committees and agencies in the building a voice in the operation of the building. That solved the "amicable" aspect of the mandate. As further study was done over the 1999-2000 Assembly year, it became obvious that the primary difficulty is the location of the building. Employees cannot afford to buy homes near the building and face increasingly longer commutes. This adversely affects employee productivity and recruitment. The BMC left the decision to the Administrative Committee, where all General Assembly Ministries have representatives, to make a recommendation to the Assembly. The AC unanimously recommends to the Assembly that the present building be sold and that all Atlanta-based PCA Committees and Agencies relocate together to a new campus approximately seventeen miles northeast of the present building. We believe this to be the "solution" aspect of the "amicable solution" mandate. Full details are in the AC report to the Assembly in the Commissioners’ Handbook.