Committee Regulations

There shall be a committee of the General Assembly named the Conciliation Committee.

The membership of the committee shall consist of 3 ministers and 3 elders, appointed annually, and in addition, the immediate past Moderator shall be the convener of the committee. If members are involved in a dispute that is to come before the committee, then the Moderator is empowered to appoint alternates.

The purpose of the Conciliation Committee is to seek to resolve disputes through negotiation prior to Assembly with a view to earlier resolution of the dispute and to save taking up the time of Assembly unnecessarily.

The committee shall exercise the following powers and functions:

1. to assist parties to appeals (and petitions that air grievances) to resolve their dispute through negotiations, prior to the hearing of the appeals, (or petitions);
   
   
2. to conduct negotiations between parties, or to assist parties to come before mutually agreed negotiators;
   
   
3. to report to the General Assembly, in the case of unresolved disputes, whether negotiations have been held and the general outcomes of those negotiations, while keeping the content of those negotiations confidential.

The Committee receives copies of the relevant documents that have been lodged with the General Assembly.

While parties to the dispute are strongly encouraged to meet with the Conciliation Committee, such meeting is not compulsory.

It is the duty of Clerks of Presbytery to transmit the appeal documents to the Clerk of the General Assembly.