The Historical Development of the Book of Church Order

Chapter 37 : The Removal of Censure

Paragraph 7 :

37-7. When a person under censure shall remove to a part of the country remote from the court by which he was sentenced, and shall desire to profess repentance and obtain restoration, it shall be lawful for the court, if it deems it expedient, to transmit a certified copy of its proceedings to the Session (or Presbytery) where the delinquent resides, which shall take up the case and proceed with it as though it had originated with itself.

DIGEST : Inconsequential differences distinguish the current PCA text from that of PCUS 1879 and the draft versions behind that text. Specifically, these earlier editions had a comma after "case". Otherwise the only other observed difference is the lower-case "session" and "presbytery" in the text of the 1867 draft.

BACKGROUND AND COMPARISON :
1. PCA 1973, RoD, 11-6, Adopted text, as printed in the Minutes of General Assembly, p. 151
2. Continuing Presbyterian Church 1973, RoD, 11-6, Proposed text, p. 54
3. PCUS 1933, RoD, XI-§253
4. PCUS 1925, RoD, XI-§253
When a person under censure shall remove to a part of the country remote from the court by which he was sentenced, and shall desire to profess repentance and obtain restoration, it shall be lawful for the court, if it deems it expedient, to transmit a certified copy of its proceedings to the Session (or Presbytery) where the delinquent resides, which shall take up the case and proceed with it as though it had originated with itself.

PCUS 1879, Rules of Discipline, XI-6
and
PCUS 1869 draft, Canons of Discipline, XI-6
When a person under censure shall remove to a part of the country remote from the court by which he was sentenced, and shall desire to profess repentance and obtain restoration, it shall be lawful for the court, if it deems it expedient, to transmit a certified copy of its proceedings to the Session (or Presbytery) where the delinquent resides, which shall take up the case, and proceed with it as though it had originated with itself.

PCUS 1867 draft, Canons of Discipline, XI-6
When a person under censure shall remove to a part of the country remote from the court by which he was sentenced, and shall desire to profess repentance and obtain restoration, it shall be lawful for the court, if it deems it expedient, to transmit a certified copy of its proceedings to the session (or presbytery) where the delinquent resides, which shall take up the case, and proceed with it as though it had originated with itself.

COMMENTARY:
F.P. Ramsay, Exposition of the Book of Church Order (1898, pp. 229-230), on XI-6:
232.--VI. When a person under censure shall remove to a part of the country remote from the court by which he was sentenced, and shall desire to profess repentance and obtain restoration, it shall be lawful for the court, if it deems it expedient, to transmit a certified copy of its proceedings to the Session (or Presbytery) where the delinquent resides, which shall take up the case, and proceed with it as though it had originated with itself.
In other words, a member or officer under censure may be dismissed from one court to another, his exact standing, and the reasons therefor being certified ; but the court dismissing a deposed Minister must certify its consent to his restoration. (Par. 203.)