 Kirkpatrick: After 20 years together, 20 percent have left the denomination By Paula R. Kincaid The Layman Online Sunday, May 25, 2003
And in those 20 years, he said that the denomination's membership has declined 20 percent. In 2002, he said the church has lost 41,000 members. A trip down memory lane Kirkpatrick said it was 20 years ago next month during a gathering in Atlanta, Ga., that the Presbyterian Church U.S. and the United Presbyterian Church USA came together in celebration to unite. After 122 years apart -- split over the issue of slavery -- the northern and southern churches became one. Kirkpatrick, who was there, said, "That occasion was a wonderful experience. … because of the underlying dream that the people of God could be reconciled by God." "I want to suggest that as we gather in Denver, that dream needs to be very much alive," he said. Kirkpatrick called The Book of Confessions and the Book of Order the "covenanting documents that bring us together." The first four chapters in the Book of Order -- "the core of our covenant together" -- defines who we are, he said, and "brings together an interesting mix of the old and the new." Chapter one, Kirkpatrick said is a summary of the great convictions Presbyterians have always held. Chapter two, for the first time, described the form of government. "It pointed us to a Book of Confessions and affirmed who we are as a generous orthodoxy." Chapter three is a chapter on mission. "The church by nature is a missionary society," he said, "not to keep it to ourselves, but to share it with the world." Kirkpatrick said that chapter four includes a commitment that to be Presbyterian we have to be ecumenical and another section on diversity in the life of the church. "We are an inclusive community," he said. That foundational document launched the PCUSA, he said. "It dreamed of us characterized by generous orthodoxy … a community focused on the mission we had to the world," and also committed to church unity. It is a dream, said Kirkpatrick, that is unfulfilled. Kirkpatrick said the denomination spends "lots of energy" on a variety of issues and that "some of our theological debates make people wonder if we are either generous or orthodox." He said that the denomination is challenged to reach out in new ways to the incredible diversity we find in the world today. "We have a long way to go," he said, adding that there was no better place to seize that vision than this assembly, since this year's theme comes from Isiah 56, "because that theme has such resonance to what I think was the dream at reunion." "I can think of no better dream than that we commit ourselves to reflect a church that is a house of prayer for all peoples," he said. |
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