Task force asked to mull possibility of writing confessional-quality report By John H. Adams The Layman Online Friday, February 21, 2003 DALLAS – The Theological Task Force on Peace, Purity and Unity broached the subject cautiously: Why not write another confession to add to the dozen less one that few Presbyterians read now? Mark Achtemeier That idea was introduced by Mark Achtemeier – not as a direct suggestion that the task force write a confession, which requires an entirely different process, but that what the task force does report would be of such great value to the Presbyterian Church (USA) that it might be accorded confessional status. "Confessions are gifts of the Holy Spirit," said Achtemeier, a professor of theology at Dubuque Theological Seminary in Iowa. "I don't think it's inconceivable to envision a scenario in which something produced by the task force would become a candidate for the Book of Confessions." Achtemeier was recommending a document that would address in a compelling way the "fragmentation and catastrophe" of the PCUSA. "We ought to proceed with a sense of responsibility to make Jesus Christ's voice heard," he said. Achtemeier made his proposal Thursday during an afternoon meeting that was devoted to the denomination's confessions. At one point, the members of the task force went around the table and talked about how confessions are used in their congregations. The short answer is: Not much. But yet another confession? John Wilkinson "This would be worth pondering," said the Rev. John Wilkinson, pastor of Third Presbyterian Church in Rochester, N.Y., who made a presentation and led a discussion on the confessions. But Dr. Barbara Wheeler, president of Auburn Theological Seminary in New York, was more cautious. "There are capital 'C' confessions and lower 'c' confessions," Wheeler said. She described the Declaration of Faith in the former Presbyterian Church (U.S.) as a lower 'c' confession because, while it never gained confessional status, it was widely used by the Southern Presbyterian churches. And Wheeler, an advocate of ordaining practicing homosexuals, had another idea. She referred to local church "covenants" that were common in Northern Presbyterian churches. The local covenants had some "old side, new side" leeway; for instance, "how tough you were going to be on limited atonement. People went around and chose their local churches. There was always differentiation." One of the arguments of Presbyterians advocating the ordination of practicing homosexuals is that there should be local option – or, in Wheeler's words, "differentiation" by local covenants. While Achtemeier raised the possibility of writing a confessional-quality report, and no one openly objected, the task force has not given a hint of what approach it would take on the issues dividing the church, including the authority and interpretation of Scripture and the question of ordaining practicing homosexuals as church officers. Such ordinations are now forbidden by the Constitution of the PCUSA – a position affirmed by a 3-1 vote in the most recent referendum. Dr. John B. "Mike" Loudon, pastor of First Presbyterian Church in Lakeland, Fla., worried that the current confessions in the Book of Confessions are not resolving the divisive issues in the church. He pointed to the eruption that occurred in 2000 after a speaker at a Presbyterian conference questioned the sovereignty of Christ by asking, "What's the big deal about Jesus?" "Why didn't we say then, 'We have a Book of Confessions. Here, use it.'?" he said. Wilkinson traced the history of confessional evolution in the Presbyterian Church, noting that, until 1967, the standard since the 18th century for American Presbyterians was the Westminster Confession of Faith and its Larger and Shorter Catechisms. That changed in 1967 when the United Presbyterian Church (USA), the northern wing of the denomination, adopted the Confession of 1967 and, for the first time, a Book of Confessions. The Confession of 1967 is radically different from Westminster. While Westminster addresses the nature of God, Christology, the work of the Spirit, Scripture, original sin, salvation and the historic Reformed doctrines of faith, "C-67," as it is called, had a single focus – reconciliation. On Scripture, C-67 took a different tack, saying it was inspired but "nevertheless the words of men." Wilkinson, also an advocate of ordaining homosexuals, defended confessionalism. "You do no one a good service by simply giving someone the Bible and wishing them good luck. We don't believe in luck." He mentioned the Latin terms – status confessiones (state of confession) – that describe the conditions that warrant a new confession of faith: "when there is internal danger to the truth, when there is external danger or when there is new insight." But a new confession is not the final word, he added. "Confessions are subordinate to Scripture, which is subordinate to the Lordship of Christ," Wilkinson said. Even so, he added, "This is in our DNA … confession is not optional in order to preserve our identity and our integrity." Nonetheless, the proliferation of confessions in the Constitution of the Presbyterian Church (USA) has caused problems, he added. "In 1967, two important things happened … We went not from one to two, but from one to 10 or more … We as a task force are faced with an interpretative loop that never was closed … For nearly a quarter of a millennium, American Presbyterianism had not a catalogue, but a single confessional standard." "The adoption of C-67 and adoption of a Book of Confessions helped to forge the complex place where we are," Wilkinson said. "We planted the seeds for future theological difficulty. In part, the travail of the Presbyterian community has been a crisis in theological identity." Although he seemed to warm up later to Achtemeier's recommendation of a confessional-quality report by the task force, Wilkinson expressed a different view during his presentation: "Perhaps you have asked, is it time for a new confession? I personally respond, there are plenty." Wilkinson concluded his presentation with a number of questions, including, "How do we gauge confessional issues raised in various quarters of the church, for example, the three-point confessional statement of the Confessing Church Movement?" But Achtemeier suggested that Wilkinson's questions would "swamp the resources we're able to bring to it. Are we in a situation of status confessiones in the Presbyterian Church? … What are the criteria for status confessiones? What are the issues?" Wheeler said the division in the Presbyterian Church (USA) was not unusual. She cited the battle over the Declaration of Faith in the Southern church and the unsuccessful attempts to give it confessional status. "The battle was bitter," she said. "Families were divided. People who really cared thought that the integrity of the church turned on whether or not this change was made. Now it sounds remote and academic. We're talking about a book [of Confessions] that a lot of Presbyterians don't even open." Loudon recalled when the Southern and Northern Presbyterian denominations reunited in 1983 to become the PCUSA. Part of the reunion agreement was that the new PCUSA would have a Book of Confessions that included Westminster, C-67, the Barmen Declaration and other confessions. As to C-67, he said, "A lot of us in the Southern church felt like we opened our mouths and this was shoved down our throat. I think that tension is still there." Wheeler said there were battles within the denomination when it had one confession and battles when it had many. "When we had a single confession, we didn't fight any less, we just fought about that one. This notion that we would be secure at peace and ease in Zion if we just had one is really undercut by Presbyterian history." She also said Americans tend to be parochial, like clinging to Westminster as the sole confessional standard, while Reformed Christians internationally tend to use many confessions. "I've become a fan of some Scottish theologians," she said. "Their animosity with Westminster is intense." She said Scottish theologian Tom Torrance "just feels that Westminster darn near killed the Reformed tradition." The controversies, she added, are "what it means to be a Reformed church. This isn't new, and it didn't start in '67 and we didn't do it to ourselves." Neither Wheeler nor any other member of the task force questioned why the Presbyterian Church (USA) and its predecessor denominations, after growing steadily from the inception of Presbyterianism in America in the 17th century, have lost an average of 47,000 members annually since 1967.

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