Chapter 30 : Church Censures

Paragraph 4 : Of Excommunication

30-4. Excommunication is the excision of an offender from the communion of the Church. This censure is to be inflicted only on account of gross crime or heresy and when the offender shows himself incorrigible and contumacious. The design of this censure is to operate on the offender as a means of reclaiming him, to deliver the church from the scandal of his offense, and to inspire all with fear by the example of his discipline.

[Historical Summary : The current PCA text differs only from PCA 1973 by the deletion of a comma and the insertion of "and" in the second sentence ("...or heresy and when the...".]

Background and Comparison :
PCA 1973, RoD, 4-4, Adopted text, as printed in the Minutes of General Assembly, p. 146
Continuing Presbyterian Church 1973, RoD, 4-4, Proposed text, p. 41
Excommunication is the excision of an offender from the communion of the Church. This censure is to be inflicted only on account of gross crime or heresy, when the offender shows himself incorrigible and contumacious. The design of this censure is to operate on the offender as a means of reclaiming him, to deliver the Church from the scandal of his offense, and to inspire all with fear by the example of his discipline.

PCUS 1879, Rules of Discipline, IV-4
Excommunication is the excision of an offender from the communion of the Church. This censure is to be inflicted only on account of gross crime or heresy, when the offender shows himself incorrigible and contumacious. The design of this censure is to operate on the offender as a means of reclaiming him, to deliver the Church from the scandal of his offence, and to inspire all with fear by the example of his discipline.

PCUS 1869 draft, Canons of Discipline, IV-4
Excommunication is the excision of an offender from the communion of the Church. This dreadful censure is only to be inflicted on account of such gross and flagitious crimes or heresies as are accompanied with peculiar aggravations, when incorrigible offenders treat the authority of the courts of Christ’s Church with contempt. The design of this censure is to operate on the offender as a means of reclaiming him, to deliver the Church from the scandal of his offence, and to inspire all with fear by the example of his discipline.

PCUS 1867 draft, Canons of Discipline, IV-4
Excommunication is the excision of an offender from the visible church. This dreadful censure is only to be inflicted on account of such gross and flagitious crimes or heresies as are accompanied with peculiar aggravations, when incorrigible offenders treat the authority of the courts of Christ’s church with contempt. The design of this censure is to operate on the offender as a means of reclaiming him, to deliver the church from the scandal of his offence, and to inspire all with fear by the example of his discipline.

PCUSA, Forms of Process in the Judicatories of this Church (1789), I-15
Such gross offenders, as will not be reclaimed by the private or public admonitions of the church, are to be cut off from its communion, agreeably to our Lord's direction, Mat. xviii. 17. and the apostolic injunction respecting the incestuous person, I Cor. [5], ver. 1-5. But as this is the highest censure of the church, and of the most solemn nature, it is not to be inflicted, without the advice and consent of, at least, the presbytery under whose care the particular church is, to which the offender belongs; or the advice of a higher judicatory, as the case may appear to require.