GCE45 GS29 Amendments to section D.5.3.2 for November 2025

1. What is the issue? Why is it important?

GC45 WF26: GCE01 – Review of the Roles of the Moderator and General Secretary for Summer 2025 was carried at the last General Council meeting in August. A task group reviewed the respective roles and produced a report with several recommendations.

The General Council received the report and adopted all of its recommendations except Recommendation 9, which proposed distinguishing between the General Secretary speaking for the Church and the Moderator speaking to the Church. That recommendation was referred back to the General Council Executive (GCE) for further analysis, with a report to be provided to the General Council in 2026.

The proposal also shifted the GCE’s operational responsibilities for the General Council Office to the General Secretary. As a result, section D.5.3.4 was removed. However, it remains appropriate that the GCE retain responsibility for ensuring that there is a General Council Office to carry out the work of the General Council. The GCE also continues to have authority to set denominational policies for the Church, except for human resources policies applicable to General Council and regional council staff.

The General Secretary recommends that these two responsibilities be explicitly reflected in section D.5.3.2 General Council.

2. How might the General Council Executive respond to this issue?

The General Secretary recommends the following changes to section D.5.3.2, highlighted in red.

D.5.3.2 General Council
The Executive of the General Council is responsible for the following has the following responsibilities:

1. Ensuring there is a General Council Office to carry out the ongoing work of the General Council;

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2. Setting denominational policies alongside the General Council;
3. initiating or passing on any proposals to the General Council for action by the General Council that the executive considers necessary or advisable;
   There is a policy for the form and content of proposals to the General Council. It is available from the General Council Office prior to each regular meeting of the General Council.
4. making recommendations to the General Council;
5. consulting with the church and then referring to the General Council any denomination-shaping or faith-shaping issue that arises for the executive;
6. reporting its actions to the General Council;
7. ensuring that the decisions and recommendations of the General Council are carried out, or explaining why they were not carried out;
8. communicating its decisions to all members of the General Council and all councils;
9. calling special meetings of the General Council;
10. overseeing remits; and

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The Executive of the General Council oversees remits authorized by the General Council. The executive may not authorize a remit itself. See Initiating Action and Change F.2 for more information.

11. approving changes to The Manual to
    1. implement General Council decisions; or
    2. improve the wording or organization of The Manual where it is redundant, ambiguous, or unclear.

3. How might the General Council Executive respond to this issue?

N/A