Chapter 36: The Infliction of Church Censures

36-1. When any member or officer of the Church shall be found guilty of an
offense the court shall proceed with all tenderness and shall deal with its
offending brother in the spirit of meekness, the members considering
themselves lest they also be tempted.

36-2. Church censures and the modes of administering them should be
suited to the nature of the offenses. For private offenses, censure should be
administered in the presence of the court alone, or in private by one or more
members of the court. In the case of public offenses, the degree of censure and
mode of administering it shall be within the discretion of the court, acting in
accordance with paragraphs below which deal with particular censures.

36-3. The Censure of Admonition should be administered in private by one
or more members of the court if the offense is known only to a few and is not
aggravated in character. If the offense is public the Admonition should be
administered by the moderator in presence of the court and may also be
announced in public should the court deem it expedient.

36-4. Definite suspension from office should be administered in the
presence of the court alone or in open session of the court, as it may deem best,
and public announcement thereof shall be at the court’s discretion.

36-5. Indefinite suspension from office or the Sacraments should be
administered after the manner prescribed for definite suspension, but with
added solemnity, that the indefinite suspension may be the means of
impressing the mind of the delinquent with a proper sense of his danger.
Indefinite suspension should also be administered under the blessing of God
of leading him to repentance. When the court has resolved to pass this
sentence, the moderator shall address the offending brother to the following
purpose:

Whereas, you, ___________________ (here describe the
person as a teaching elder, ruling elder, deacon, or private
member of the church) are convicted by sufficient proof (or are
guilty by your own confession) of the sin of ______________ (here
insert the offense), we the _______________________ Presbytery
(or Church Session) in the name and by the authority of the Lord
Jesus Christ, do now declare you suspended from the Sacraments
of the Church (and from the exercise of your office), until you give
satisfactory evidence of repentance.
To this shall be added such advice or admonition as may be judged
necessary, and the whole shall be concluded with prayer to almighty God that
He would follow this act of discipline with His blessing.

36-6. Excommunication is to be administered according to one or other of
the two modes laid down for indefinite suspension, or to be inflicted in public
as the court may decide. In administering this censure the moderator of the
Session shall make a statement of the several steps which have been taken with
respect to the offending brother, and of the decision to cut him off from the
communion of the church. He shall then show from Matthew 18:15-18 and 1
Corinthians 5:1-5 the authority of the church to cast out unworthy members,
and shall explain the nature, use and consequences of this censure. He shall
then administer the censure in the words following:
Whereas, _________________________, a member of this
church has been by sufficient proof convicted of the sin of
_______________________, and after much admonition and
prayer, obstinately refuses to hear the Church, and has
manifested no evidence of repentance: Therefore, in the name and
by the authority of the Lord Jesus Christ, we, the Session of
________________________ church do pronounce him to be
excluded from the Sacraments, and cut off from the fellowship of
the Church.
Prayer shall then be made that by God’s blessing this solemn action of
the court may issue in the repentance and restoration of the offender, and in
the establishment of all true believers.