PCA BCO and voting age

[Steve Dixon]

Our church is in the process of amending their by-laws to attempt to bring them into agreement with the BCO. One of the issues we are confronted with is voting age. The proposed by-law change prohibits communing members from voting who are under age 18 on "corporate" matters while allowing them to vote in "ecclesiastical" matters. I don't find either the age requirement or these two issue classifications (ecclesiastical and corporate) in the BCO. I understand the BCO supersedes the church by-laws but this by-law provision expresses the intent of how this church will conduct future votes. I was told that "corporate" issues would include votes on the sale or purchase of property and even by-law amendments. The BCO in 25-7 states that all communing members are members of the corporation. An elder was told by another teaching elder we could have these two classifications and thus exclude minor members from voting.
Could any of you shed some light on this?
Thank you,
Steve

 

[TimV]

As a matter of fact, there was a recent attempt to amend the Constitution to allow churches to set a voting age for congregational meetings. The 1996 Assembly approved the measure, as did the requisite number of presbyteries; but the 1997 Assembly voted it down, thus defeating the amendment.-Ed.]

<PINS Article

BUT, what if in places like California where the law doesn't allow members of corporations to vote if under 18? I'd guess that's the thinking behind the two standards???

 

[fredtgreco]

There are two different sets of requirements here. One is ecclesiastical (the church as congregation, with elders as its leaders), and one as a 501c3 corporation (with the Board of Trustees as its leaders). The church's bylaws may not restrict congregational voting by age status. A communing member is a communing member, period.

However, the bylaws of the corporation may restrict voting if State law permits. Obviously, the corporation only votes on a limited set of matters (usually financial).