General Assembly (GA) Commissioners/
Bills & Overtures Committee*

General Assembly Commissioner and Bills and Overtures Committee 

(Must be an ordained ruling/teaching elder) 

General Assembly Commissioners after their service will serve for the following two years on the Bills and Overtures Committee. It has been discerned that since you were present for the assembly, you will provide the most help to the presbytery in understanding the overtures that come from the Assembly process. 

Therefore, your service is to both…the Bills and Overtures Committee is a two-year term until the next assembly. 

Job Description for GA Commissioner: 

General Assembly is for 8 days usually in the month of June. You will be expected to be there for the entire time. There will be a training for our presbytery commissioners to talk about logistics of the assembly, the important business coming before the Assembly, and this will be an opportunity to get to know each other.  

All business is now done on the computer so you will need a laptop and some general working knowledge. It is not a complicated program…and it will be discussed in the training to get you familiar. There is a great deal of reading and preparation work involved to understand the issues before the Assembly, for the two months in advance of the Assembly. 

Physical requirements involve a great deal of walking and stamina for long days of meetings. 

Other requirements: need to be either a teaching or ruling elder in the PCUSA. 

Job Description for Bills and Overtures: 

The Bills and Overtures folks get together towards the end of the year to begin work on going through the overtures that will come before the Presbytery in February of the following year. The group will look at pros and cons and help with information. They may also ask others outside the committee for help if needed. A follow up meeting takes place in January to finalize things for that Feb meeting. Other meetings may be required throughout the year if overtures arise from within the presbytery. These meetings are usually 4-5 weeks before a presbytery meeting. Presbytery meets 4 times a year.  

Meetings are usually held on a Monday from 1-3 pm. Email is essential.  

All meetings will be held virtually until further notice.  

For more information on GA Commissioners and Bills and Overtures Committee, contact Andy James at 770-330-7838 or cajames@atlpcusa.org