PCA HISTORICAL CENTER
Archives and Manuscript Repository for the Continuing Presbyterian Church


The Historical Development of the Book of Church Order

Chapter 21 : The Ordination and Installation of Ministers
Paragraph 3

21-3. No Presbytery shall ordain any intern to the office of minister of the Word with reference to his laboring within the bounds of another Presbytery, but shall furnish him with the necessary testimonials, and require him to repair to the Presbytery within whose bounds he expects to labor, that he may submit himself to its authority, according to the Constitution of the Church.

[Historical Summary : Where PCA 1973 and earlier editions had "licentiate or candidate," the current text now simply has "intern". This change dates to ________. The originating text dates to the major revision of the PCUS BCO in 1925.]

BACKGROUND & COMPARISON:
1. PCA 1973, 22-3, Adopted text, as printed in the Minutes of General Assembly, p. 140
2. Continuing Presbyterian Church 1973, 22-3, Proposed text, p. 28
3. PCUS 1933, XXIV, §134
4. PCUS 1925, XXIV, §134
No Presbytery shall ordain any licentiate or candidate to the office of the gospel ministry, with reference to his laboring within the bounds of another Presbytery, but shall furnish him with the necessary testimonials, and require him to repair to the Presbytery within whose bounds he expects to labor, that he may submit himself to its authority, according to the Constitution of the Church.

No comparable text in these editions:
PCUS 1879, Chapter VI, Section V
PCUS 1869 draft,
PCUS 1867 draft,

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

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