 User-friendly liturgical readings are endorsed By John H. Adams The Layman Online Monday, June 17, 2002
Responding to an overture from the Presbytery of Yellowstone, the Committee on Christology and Confessions essentially endorsed the action of the 213th General Assembly by voting to refer the overture to the Office of Theology and Worship of the Presbyterian Church (USA). Dr. Joe Small, associate director of the Office of Theology and Worship, told the committee that the only significant change in the Yellowstone overture and the action of the 2001 General Assembly was that the overture asked for liturgical readings that could be used with a lectionary. Small said his staff already has begun preparing readings drawn from the confessions that use inclusive language and simplify some of the archaic wording of older confessions. He said providing lectionary-based readings would not add to the costs or the timetable. The project is expected to be complete before the beginning of the 215th General Assembly. Paul Peterson, the advocate for the Yellowstone overture, said many young people don't have an ear for the Elizabethan language that is used in the confessions that came out of the Reformation in the 16th century (Scots, Westminster, Heidelberg, Second Helvetic) or even the male-focused language of the Confession of 1967. No one spoke against the overture during a hearing. In its rationale, the Yellowstone overture took a broad reach across the denomination, noting that 2001 Moderator Jack B. Rogers had called himself the "confessing moderator" and that many "churches within our denomination have responded to current theological controversies by identifying with the 'confessing church' movement. A liturgical resource that draws from the fullness and richness of our confessions offers an opportunity for strengthening the ties that bind us together as a denomination." As now planned and under way, the liturgical readings do not constitute a revision of The Book of Confessions. That would require a super-majority vote by the General Assembly and the denomination's 173 presbyteries. Rather, the revisions are solely for liturgical purposes. Neither are Small and his staff planning to change language used for God to make it more gender inclusive. With the blessing of the 213th General Assembly, they said they would use the traditional and Biblical names – Father, Son and Holy Spirit. |
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