Letters of Transfer

I often get questions from clerks of session about letters of transfer.

So, what is a letter of transfer, anyway?

I can tell you what it’s not.  It’s not one letter amongst a whole file of letters that clerks of session keep on hand, ready for the day when a member may want to transfer to another church.

Sometimes you hear church members say, “I moved my letter to another church.” This is a complete fallacy, for three reasons. First, such a file of letters does not exist - at least, not in any church I know of. Second, even if there were something to move, the member doesn’t move it; the clerk of session does (or perhaps a church secretary, operating under the clerk’s direction). Third, even when such a letter is issued, it’s not “their” letter.  It’s the church’s letter: a piece of correspondence from one clerk of session to another.

Often, it’s not a custom-written letter, but rather a half-completed "Certificate of Transfer" form sent from the new church to the old one.  Upon receipt, the clerk of session or session moderator of the old church signs the form, confirming that the person transferring is a member in good standing, and sends it back to the new church. Then, after the person has become a member, the new church sends a little, tear-off "Certificate of Reception" form back to the old church, confirming that the transaction has been completed. The Session of the old church must then vote (if they haven't already) to direct that the name be removed from the membership roll. You can order blank forms from Cokesbury.

The form is optional. The transfer could just as well be accomplished by an exchange of custom-written letters. But most churches find the form to be a convenient way to accomplish this little piece of routine ecclesiastical business.

The best way to think of a letter of transfer is as a courtesy to the old church, notifying them that they can now remove their member’s name from their roll. That’s pretty much its sole purpose.

You may find that the reverse side of the form includes a place to indicate whether the member being transferred is an ruling elder or a deacon. Don't neglect to mention that! The member's ordained status continues, whether or not he or she is currently serving on your church's Session or Board of  Deacons at the time of transfer. Presbyterian churches and other churches of the Reformed tradition that recognize our orders of ministry need to know that the person they're receiving is a church officer, so they can add that person's name to their own roll of ordained officers. Not all transferring members will mention this to their new church, so you need to make sure the new church knows!

I just received a question today about what to do when a transfer request arrives for a person who’s on the inactive roll.

There is no longer a requirement in the new Form of Government that a Session maintain an inactive roll, but most churches I know of still do, as a local option defined in their own manual of operations. Under the old book, only active members could be transferred. The new book makes no such stipulation: as far as it's concerned, there's only one membership roll, the active roll. If a local church does make use of an inactive roll, and its manual specifies that those people cannot vote in congregational meetings or hold office, then those on the inactive role are, de facto, no longer members as far as the larger church is concerned.

If a Session is inclined to respond positively to a letter-of-transfer request anyway, it's a relatively simple thing to vote to restore the person to the membership roll, then issue the letter of transfer. (Even if the Session uses the older word "reactivate," rather than "restore," the meaning of that action - as understood beyond the walls of the local church, where the Session's manual of operations has no authority - is to restore the person to membership, rather than to move him or her from one roll to the other.)

In the case of a request to transfer a person on the inactive roll, therefore, the Session has two choices:

1. Write back to the Session of the other church, explaining that it's not possible for you to issue a letter of transfer because the person is no longer on the membership roll; then, since joining another church is imminent, you should suggest to the Session that they vote to delete the person's name from the inactive roll.  You could say something like this in such a letter: “We thank you for notifying us and celebrate with enthusiasm John’s decision to join your church, but in fact we have already removed his name from our membership roll.” The only way this affects John's reception as a member of the new church is that he would be listed as being received by reaffirmation of faith, rather than by letter of transfer.  Once the membership-reception Sunday is over, no one will much care what the difference is.

2. Ask your Session to vote to reactivate the person’s membership - understanding that this is really a restoration to membership, as far as the larger church is concerned - then immediately issue the letter of transfer. Then, once you hear back that the transfer is complete, you can remove the person’s name from your roll. (It's up to your Session to determine the criteria for membership, within the general guidance of G-1.0402.)

I usually recommend that sessions take option #2. The rationale is that the desire to join another church is sufficient evidence to justify restoration, for the brief time it takes to accomplish the transfer - and, besides, we're just glad to encourage anyone who wants to join a church.

Now, in case anyone's wondering, option #2 will probably have no impact on your church's per capita apportionment. Unless this process stretches from one calendar year into the next, on December 31st - when the membership-numbers "snapshot" is taken , producing the (active) membership total on which the per capita apportionment will be based, one year hence - you will have added a member, then subtracted one, so there’s no net change to your membership total.

There's only one exceptionally rare circumstance in which, upon receiving a letter-of-transfer request for someone on the membership roll, the Session of the old church would decline to issue such a letter. That is a case in which a complaint has been filed against a person under the Rules of Discipline. While such a case is pending, the old church needs to keep the person on the roll until the investigation (and possible trial) is concluded, so the Session retains ecclesiastical jurisdiction.

Help for Ecclesiastical Hoarders

Here's a question that just came up in our local church, so I thought it might be a good idea to pass the answer on to colleagues from other churches in the Presbytery.

Our Buildings & Grounds chairperson was up in the church attic a few days ago, and came across a number of old cardboard boxes filled with church financial records: check stubs, accounts-payable documentation, bank statements and the like.  The boxes all had years written on them, and some of them, he says, go back quite a while.

I knew immediately where these boxes came from.  Sometime in January or February of each year, our church treasurer fills a box with financial records from the previous year, writes the year on the outside in felt-tip marker, and asks that it be carried up into the attic.

"When is it safe to start throwing out some of this stuff?" our Buildings & Grounds chair wanted to know.  (He was starting to get worried about how much weight is accumulating up there on the rafters, not to mention fire safety.)

I guess it has been a long time since we went through that old stuff and got rid of some of it.  Fortunately, I was able to direct the person who asked about it to a place where a definitive answer can be found.

A Stated Clerk colleague from another presbytery reminded me of some helpful information from the Presbyterian Historical Society on the subject of records retention.  The PHS, located in center-city Philadelphia, is a wonderful resource not only for presbyteries, but also for each and every PC(USA) congregation.

Quick digression: Did you know the PHS will archive and store your church's historical records in a secure, climate-controlled environment in their large, professionally-managed underground storage facility?  Historical material of this sort that's been entrusted to the Society continues to be owned by the local church, and can be reclaimed anytime by the Clerk of Session or other authorized representative.

Records less than 50 years old are typically stored on a restricted-access basis (if someone shows up and asks to see the item, the PHS will first contact the local church to obtain permission). Beyond 50 years, they're fair game for historical researchers (but always under the guidance of the PHS staff, in their closed-stacks system).

It's strictly a holding-for-safekeeping sort of arrangement.  Not only that, but if a question comes along from a local church requiring research in its archived documents, a phone call to the PHS will send one of their professional archivists into the stacks to look up the answer.

How much does this service cost, you may ask?

Nothing.

Yes, you heard me right.  Nothing.  It's free to PC(USA) councils (what we used to call "governing bodies") - sessions, presbyteries and synods.

Well, it's not free, exactly - it does cost something, after all, to keep the archive staffed and open - but let's say the cost has already been paid.

It's been paid by per capita.

Yes, per capita!  The operating expenses of the PHS are provided by the General Assembly, out of the annual apportionment your church has been paying through Monmouth Presbytery.

Look at it this way: you've already been paying for the PHS' archival services, so why not take advantage of them?  It's an ideal arrangement for those old minutes books, registers and the like, that may be sitting in the back of a file drawer or storage-closet shelf (or maybe even in a cardboard box in the attic).

Now, back to our original question: those boxes of old financial records in the church attic.  Can we safely send those old bank statements from 1991 to be shredded?

According to the PHS, the answer is yes.  Their website includes a helpful guide to records retention, including specific recommendations for different types of records.  If you take a look at that guide, you'll see that bank statements can safely be disposed of after 7 years.  For deposit-slip receipts, it's just 3 years.  Old W2 records for church staff?  Keep 'em around for 7.  Better hang onto those annual audit reports and finalized financial ledgers, though: the PHS recommends that these be retained permanently.

For a fuller treatment of this subject, download the PHS' booklet, Managing and Preserving Official Records for Congregations.

There's a very popular TV show called Hoarders.  I've seen an episode or two.  The typical Hoarders show focuses on a person who just can't throw anything out.  These are pretty sad cases, typically rooted in severe psychological problems, and the TV show's team of experts seems well-equipped to address those.  Often, fear is at the root of it, as well as an inability to definitively answer the question, "But what if I need it someday?"

Well, when it comes to those old papers stored in your church's attic, there's no reason for hoarding.  The PHS' records-retention guide - not to mention their free archival services for the truly important stuff - gives you, as Clerk of Session, all the information you need to answer the "Can we throw this out now?" question.

Happy excavating!

Do We Need an Inactive Roll?

One of the questions Sessions need to address under the new Form of Government (nFOG) is: “Do we need to maintain an Inactive Roll?”

Unlike its predecessor, the nFOG makes no provision for an Inactive Roll.  However – as has been frequently pointed out – the book is permissive on this point, so there’s nothing to stop a Session carrying on just as it has in the past, maintaining both an Active and an Inactive Roll.  A great many Sessions are planning to do just that.

Under the nFOG as well as the old Form of Government (oldFOG), congregations are assessed per capita apportionments based on the number of people on their Active Roll, as of December 31 two years previously (thus, the 2012 per capita calculation is based on December 31, 2010).  The numbers of names on the Inactive Roll have never entered into that calculation.

The old Inactive Roll can best be described as a list of people the Session believes should be the subject of special outreach, because they have not been participating regularly in the life of the church.  While the precise definition of an Inactive Member has always been left to the Session to determine, the list of member responsibilites in nFOG G-1.0304 (identical to those found in oldFOG G-5.0102) provides general guidance.  Most Sessions I know have followed either formal or informal policies that take note of the regularity of participation in worship, volunteer work and financial contributions.  Sessions have tended, also, to create protected categories of  Active Members who are exempt from these requirements, notably those who are homebound for health reasons or living in medical-care facilities, as well as young people who are away from home temporarily for college or military service.  Those in these protected categories have typically been retained on the Active Roll, despite their inability to be present for a time.

For those Sessions who decide to continue using an Inactive Roll, here are some Frequently-Asked Questions about how to do it under the nFOG:

1. Where is the Inactive Roll maintained?

Short answer: Wherever the Session decides.

Longer answer: Because it is no longer a constitutional requirement, those who review the Session’s minutes, rolls and register on behalf of the Presbytery will no longer be looking to see that there is an Inactive Roll section in the church’s roll book.  There is nothing to stop a Session from continuing to keep an Inactive Roll in the same roll book as before, it they so desire; it’s just that the Inactive Roll will no longer be reviewed by the Presbytery.

With respect to the required church rolls – the rolls of Baptized, Active and Affiliate members – these must be maintained in hard-copy form on archival-quality paper.  It’s all right to use a computer database for the convenience that affords, but there must always be a current, hard copy available, stored in a place where it will be safe in the event of fire or natural disaster.

2. What are the rights of Inactive Members?

They are no different than the rights of anyone else who has been baptized and who comes in off the street to attend worship: “To participate in the life and worship of the church and receive its pastoral care and instruction” and to receive the Lord’s Supper (nFOG G-1.0404).

There are two specific areas of involvement, however, that the nFOG limits to those on the Active Roll:  “participating in the governance of the church” and “being elected to ordered ministry” (that is, being elected as Deacons or Ruling Elders).   That means only Active Members may vote or have the privilege of the floor in congregational meetings (although, if someone other than an Active Member requests to speak, the congregation may always vote to extend that privilege).

3. What is the church’s obligation to care for Inactive Members?

The Session should feel obliged to extend the same pastoral care, instruction and invitation to the Lord’s Supper it offers to the general public (nFOG G-1.0404).  Beyond that, it's up to the Session to decide how it interprets its further responsibility to those individuals, under the Great Ends of the Church (nFOG F-1.0304).

4. Are those persons counted for per capita purposes?

Clearly, no.

5. What if someone on the Inactive Roll wants to become an active member?

Such a person should petition the Session, who will decide what preparation is appropriate for reception by reaffirmation of faith (nFOG G-1.0303c) – either on a case-by-case basis, or according to Session policy.  This process will likely include some discussion of the responsibilities of membership outlined in nFOG G-1.0304.  It shall require some form of “examination” by the Session, followed by reception “at a regularly scheduled service of public worship” in which “it is appropriate for them to reaffirm the commitments made at Baptism, to make public again their profession of faith in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, and to express their intention to participate actively in the worship and mission of the church” (nFOG/oldFOG W-4.2004).

Now, if a person has done any of these things recently, or if a person’s name has been removed from the Active Roll based on an error, it may be that the Session will want to handle some of these requirements less formally.  The important thing is that the Session members do assure themselves that the general principles are being followed.

6. What does our Session need to do, with respect to the names on the Inactive Roll as of July 11, 2011, when the nFOG took effect?

Short answer: Nothing.  Those people weren’t Active Members before, nor are they Active Members now.  They couldn’t vote in congregational meetings nor be elected to ordained office then, nor can they now. Although the oldFOG defined “Inactive Members” as one of several categories of membership, in fact that was an empty distinction, since there was no right or privilege that pertained to them that did not also pertain to any other Christian who might happen to show up in worship.

Longer answer: There’s nothing the Session needs to do. What the Session has, essentially, is a list of names.  How Session members decide to use that list to guide their efforts to care for and invite those people back into active involvement in the church is up to them.

If the Session does decide to continue an Inactive Members Roll, and to keep referring to those people as “members,” they may certainly do so.  They could do this by means of a simple motion, stating that all those whose names were listed on the Inactive Roll under the old Form of Government are part of a continuing Inactive Roll they are setting up under the new Form of Government.  That distinction, however, will have meaning only within the local church, and will not necessarily be intelligible to Presbyterians elsewhere.

As they ponder these matters, Session members may want to consider the emotional impact on some people of being considered “not a member” of the church, as opposed to simply “not an active member.”  Most of us can think of people who ceased coming to worship and stopped contributing years ago, who may even live halfway across the country, who continue to refer to our congregation as “my church.”  A few of these people may take comfort in saying of themselves: “I may be an inactive member, but I’m still a member.”

That wasn’t meant to happen even under the oldFOG, since the Inactive Roll was clearly set up as a temporary way-station for names of people the Session was intending to reach out to in special ways, before taking timely action to remove them from the roll altogether.  A great many Sessions, however, did something different.  They left names on the Inactive Roll indefinitely, since there was no real incentive to remove them – thereby creating a sort of Grade-A and Grade-B membership.  Where that’s been the case – and I have to be honest and say it’s true of the church I serve as Pastor – the change could possibly create some pain among a few people who haven’t especially minded thinking of themselves as Grade-B members, as they learn they can no longer do so.

7. I hear of a Session who’s created a “Friends” list, for casual adherents who haven’t become members.  Does the nFOG let us do that?

Absolutely.  The new book is permissive, not restrictive.  You may already have a functional equivalent of a “Friends of the Church” list, but not know it, if you regularly mail or e-mail a newsletter out to prospective members and to others who are not on the membership roll.  In fact, this could be a creative solution to the very dilemma we’ve just been discussing, of longtime Inactive Members who may feel hurt that they’re “no longer members.”  Calling them “Friends” is more accurate, and may even make them happier.

8. What should we do if a letter arrives from another church, asking us for a letter of transfer for someone who’s no longer an Active Member?

There’s no difference from former practice.  It’s up to the Session how to handle this – whether to go through the motion of restoring such people as Active Members and then immediately transferring them, or to write back and say, “We thank you for notifying us and celebrate with enthusiasm their decision to join your church, but in fact we have already removed their names from our roll.”

It really makes no difference to the other church, because the sole function of a letter of transfer is as a courtesy to your church, so you may know it’s time to remove transferred members’ names from your roll.  Members sometimes speak of “transferring my letter” – as though every church keeps a file-drawer of letters somewhere for each member, all ready to go – but this is a misunderstanding.

9. What other steps should a Session take?

Adopt a policies manual, in which these and other questions are answered.  Then, as brother Luther advises, “sin boldly, but let your trust in Christ be stronger still.”

Hall's Index

Through an article in the newsletter of the Presbyterian Historical Society, I've become aware of a newly-completed online resource that's part of the PHS website. It's called Hall's Index of American Presbyterian Congregations, and it's a respository of basic information about every Presbyterian church in the country that's ever existed, of the PC(USA) and its antecedent denominations, as well as the Cumberland Presbyterian Church.

The information there is pretty limited: mostly the name and location of the church, and the date of founding.

Still, you may be interested to go to the site and look up your church's listing.

It's mostly a tool for historical researchers, but is available to anyone.

The Presbyterian Historical Society is supported largely by per capita funds.

What About Session Records Review?

We've been getting some questions about when Session Records Review is going to take place.

After years of reviewing local church minutes, rolls and registers in September, the Presbytery has made a change, amending its standing rules. Because the annual reports that clerks of Session compile at the end of the calendar year mark a natural division-point, it seems better to review minutes based on a calendar year, rather than an artificial 12-month period that begins and ends mid-year, as has been true in the past.

The next Session records review will be scheduled for sometime in February or March, 2011, and will cover a period of approximately a year and four months - everything from the time of the last review in September, 2009 through December 31, 2010. This longer review period is a special, one-time occurrence, so we can catch up to where we'll need to be. In future years, Session records review will cover the calendar year, from January 1 through December 31.

A further advantage of the new arrangement is that it will create less of a time crunch, allowing clerks more than a month to get their minutes and records in order, using the end of the year as the cut-off point.

We hope this change will be agreeable to all.

Dump the Book and Use a Database?

One of the questions I get most often from clerks of session has to do with databases: “Why, in this computer age, do we still have to keep our minutes, rolls and registers in paper form?”

It’s a reasonable question. Databases are wonderfully convenient, and offer powerful search capabilities. Compared to what a program like Microsoft Access can do, the old system of handwritten cross-references in our membership roll books seems positively archaic.

It’s still necessary, though. Remember: minutes, rolls and registers are permanent records, meant to last not just for decades, but for centuries. Generations from now, some historian may be grateful we took the extra time to maintain a hard copy.

Do you doubt what I say? If so, I have a phrase for you to ponder: “Five-and-a-quarter-inch floppy disks.”

Remember those? Think back to the good old days, when men were men and floppy disks really were floppy. It wasn’t that long ago that floppy disks were the storage medium of choice.

Now, here’s a follow-up question: “Do you have access to a computer that can read one of those things?”

I used to have one of those – about five computers back. I don’t, anymore. In fact, my present computer can’t even deal with those hard-shelled, three-and-a-half-inch diskettes that replaced the old-time floppies. Diskettes of any size – once ubiquitous – are becoming scarce as hens’ teeth. It’s CD-ROMs we’re all using.

Or is it? Ask a bunch of youth under the age of 18 how many music CDs they own, and you’re likely to get “none” for an answer. Today’s kids are the MP3 Generation. They deal in solid-state data storage. Have iPod, will travel.

Up-and-coming on the horizon (and, in many cases, already here) is the technology known as The Cloud. It’s a limitless place somewhere out there on the Internet, carved up into secure, electronic pigeonholes where we can squirrel away computer files to our hearts’ content. Could it be that The Cloud is where our old church records are meant to live, in retirement?

Can you see where I’m going with this? The world of data processing is expanding so rapidly, no one knows where it’s headed. Generations of data-storage come, and generations of data-storage go, but the hard copy remains forever (or nearly so, if we deposit it in a dry, fireproof place).

For storage of records, the Presbyterian Historical Society in Philadelphia is the church’s best source of expert records-preservation advice. The PHS strongly recommends we use only “formats that are considered archivally permanent – hard copy (acid-free paper) or microfilm. At present there is no electronic medium that is considered permanent by archival standards.”

If you like the convenience of a searchable electronic record, though, all is not lost. There’s a way to enjoy the best of both worlds. Go ahead and write your minutes using your favorite word-processing program, then use the word processor to print those words onto acid-free paper for inclusion in your record book. (Be sure you use the right kind of ink in your printer, though – I’m told that laser printers and photocopiers produce permanent, archival-quality results, but inkjet printers do not.) Armed with your back-up, electronic copy, you can then use the search function of your word-processing program to find things in the minutes, without having to go back through the books page by page.

Rolls and Registers

“What’s the difference between a roll and a register?” is a question many new clerks ask. Both are similar-looking ledger sheets containing a lot of the same names, and may even be bound together in a single volume. Wouldn’t it be simpler if they were all just combined into one record?

It wouldn’t, because rolls and registers have very different functions.

The difference can be simply described in this way: a roll is a record of names and a register is a record of events.

Information is recorded in church rolls and registers only upon action of the Session. There must be a corresponding notation in the Session minutes for every entry in a roll or register.

The Constitution requires clerks of session to keep the following four rolls:

Active Members Roll – G-10.0302a(2) – This is the most familiar, and the most frequently used. These are the church members who are entitled to vote at congregational meetings.

Inactive Members Roll G – 0.0302a(3)(a) – The best way to think of this roll is as a guide to intensive outreach on the part of Session members. These folks have already made themselves scarce; if the Session doesn’t so something to re-connect with them soon, they’ll be gone for good.

Baptized Members Roll G – 10.0302a(1) (Please note: this is different from the Register of Baptisms, described below.) – These are the children in your congregation who have previously been baptized in your church or any other, but who have not become active members by making a public profession of faith and confirming the promises their parents or guardians made at their baptism. Names should be added to this roll at baptism, or when families with already-baptized children join the church . At confirmation, these names should be removed from the Baptized Members Roll and transferred to the Active Members Roll. In the case of children who are baptized in the church but who never do become active members in their own right, the Session should develop a policy to direct when these names should be removed from the Baptized Members Roll.

Affiliate Members Roll G-10.0302a(2)(b), G-10.0302a(4) – Your church may not have one of these rolls, because not every church has affiliate members. Affiliate member status is a flexible category that’s especially useful in the case of temporary residents who are worshiping in your church during the time they’re in the community. Examples include college students, Armed Forces members stationed nearby and “snowbirds.” Affiliate members maintain their active membership in the community where their permanent home is located.

Besides the rolls, there are five (and possibly six) registers, that record dates when certain things took place:

Register of Marriages – G-10.0302c(1) – all marriages of members and all marriages performed by pastoral staff of the church, whether on or off church property

Register of Baptisms – G-10.0302c(2) – full name, parents’ names and date of birth

Register of Elders’ Ordinations/Installations – G-10.0302c(3) – date of ordination, church where ordained, history of terms of active service, record of removal

Register of Deacons’ Ordinations/Installations – G-10.0302c(4) – date of ordination, church where ordained, history of terms of active service, record of removal

Register of Trustees’ Installations (if the congregation has a separate Board) – date of installation, history of terms of active service, record of removal

Register of Pastoral Staff (G-10.0302c(5) – ministers who have served the church, with dates of service

It's much easier to keep the rolls and registers updated on an ongoing basis, instead of doing it in a last-minute rush once a year, just before the Presbytery's review of Session minutes.