13-8. The Presbytery before receiving into its membership any church, shall designate a commission to meet with the church's ruling elders to make certain that the elders understand and can sincerely adopt the doctrines and polity of the Presbyterian Church in America as contained in its Constitution. In the presence of the commission, the ruling elders shall be required to answer affirmatively the questions required of officers at their ordination.

DIGEST: The current PCA text dates to the Sixth PCA General Assembly (1978), with an overture brought before the Assembly by the Mid-Atlantic Presbytery. This provision is not found in earlier editions of either the PCA or PCUS Books of Church Order.

BACKGROUND & COMPARISON:
PCA 1978, Overture 33, from Mid-Atlantic Presbytery [M6GA, 6-11, A, p. 36; 6-111, III, 19, p. 113]
The Presbytery, before receiving into its membership any Church, shall designate a Commission to meet with the Church's ruling elders to make certain that the elders understand and can sincerely adopt the doctrines and polity of the Presbyterian Church in America as contained in its Constitution. In the presence of the Commission, the ruling elders shall be required to answer affirmatively the questions required of officers at their ordination (25-5)."

No comparable text in the following key editions and drafts:
PCA 1973, Chapter 14, Adopted text
Continuing Presbyterian Church 1973, Chapter 14, Proposed BCO
PCUS 1933, Chapter XV
PCUS 1925, Chapter XV
PCUS 1879, Chapter V, Section IV
PCUS 1869 draft, V-4
PCUS 1867 draft, V-4

COMMENTARY :
F.P. Ramsay, Exposition of the Book of Church Order (1898, p. ), on :
[no comparable discussion]