13-5. Ordinarily, only a minister who receives a call to a definite ecclesiastical work within the bounds of a particular Presbytery may be received as a member of that Presbytery except in cases where the minister is already honorably retired, or in those cases deemed necessary by the Presbytery, subject to the review of the General Assembly. In such cases deemed necessary, which may include the case of a minister without call whose circumstances appear to require relocation within the bounds of that Presbytery, the time allotment of BCO 13-2 shall be counted from the day the minister was first continued on the roll without call in any Presbytery.

DIGEST: This paragraph was initially added to the BCO in 1982, with subsequent paragraphs accordingly renumbered [cf. M10GA, 10-89, Item 2, p. 113. Then in 1998 Potomac Presbytery brought Overture 1 before the 26th General Assembly, noting an apparent tension between 13-2 and 13-5, and thus sought to clarify the membership of a minister without call by way of the addition of what is now the second sentence of the current text of 13.5. The overture was adopted at the 27th General Assembly in 1999, by a vote of 49 to 2. (cf. M26GA, 26-55, III, 5, p. 198-199 and M27GA, 27-12, Item 1, pp. 53-55).