 Kirkpatrick unveils details on plan to abbreviate the Book of Order The Layman Online Tuesday, June 14, 2005 On the eve of a national convocation considering a "bold new design" for the Presbyterian Church (USA), Stated Clerk Clifton Kirkpatrick has unveiled more details on his plan for an abbreviated Book of Order that would reduce the regulatory and disciplinary roles of governing bodies. Delegates to "Following Christ into the 21st Century, scheduled to open Wednesday night at Christ Presbyterian Church in Edina, Minn., will work on draft documents that propose new statements of faith essentials and ethical imperatives, as well as a revised constitution that calls for greater flexibility, a new approach to leadership development at the congregational level and a pared-down, adaptive service structure at the national level. Kirkpatrick, at a recent meeting of the Association of Stated Clerks at Ghost Ranch, provided a synopsis of his plan, which makes four proposals:
In a letter to presbytery executives and stated clerks before the Ghost Ranch meeting, Kirkpatrick, who on several occasions has stated that it is not his duty to enforce compliance with the constitution, thanked them for "the partnership in shaping and upholding our Constitution for the well-being of the church." The full text of his letter is as follows: Office of the General Assembly Clifton Kirkpatrick, Stated Clerk May 25, 2005 Clerks and Executives Presbyteries and Synods Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) Dear Colleagues: It was good to visit with many of you during the three recent conferences of the Board of Pensions. I particularly appreciated the opportunity to share with you and your COM and CPM chairpersons some of the results from the many focus groups that have been helping us take a fresh look at the shape of our Constitution for the twenty-first century. I also appreciated your responses to the four preliminary proposals for constitutional revision:
Along with this electronic letter are a number of items: the PowerPoint presentation I made at the Board of Pensions conferences, which outlines a summary of the responses being received from around the church and the four proposals; a compilation of your evaluations from these conferences; and a copy of the Belhar Confession. Many of you will have seen some of this material before; others may be seeing it for the first time. Those of you who will be attending the upcoming Association of Stated Clerks retreat may want to peruse this material in advance of coming to Ghost Ranch, where we'll have an opportunity to discuss it. Those of you who participated in the focus groups will be receiving additional materials in June from Keith Wulff in Research Services. I am grateful to all of you for the partnership in shaping and upholding our Constitution for the well-being of the church. I hope you will both continue these conversations in your governing bodies and your work with those of us in the Office of the General Assembly as we seek to shape these proposals for the General Assembly. Blessings on your ministry! Grace and peace, Clifton Kirkpatrick Stated Clerk of the General Assembly Background on proposals This is the latest instance in which Kirkpatrick has pushed for changes in the Book of Order. Since 2002, he has advocated an abbreviated version. During a presentation on "The Role of the Constitution in the Life of the Church" at Columbia Theological Seminary in Decatur, Ga., for example, Kirkpatrick, in reference to constitutional fights and numerous national referendums on proposed amendments, said, "We are heading toward a 'train wreck' if we can't find a way to a new track as we seek to uphold the constitution of the church." For his abridged version of the Book of Order, Kirkpatrick suggested that a number of current rules be taken out of the constitution. But the church "may" include some key polity issues such as "things like the meaning of membership, our understanding of the offices of ministry, the call to holy living for church officers, the presbytery as the governing body of original jurisdiction, the ordination questions and the like." Convictions and rules He called the current Book of Order "an odd mixture of cherished and deeply held Reformed convictions that gives far too many specific rules for matters that can and should best be decided by a session or presbytery." To illustrate his train-wreck metaphor, Kirkpatrick told a story about a train trip he took to Mexico City – only to have his interpretation of the story later challenged by the Rev. Jerry Andrews of Glen Ellyn, Ill., the only person who spoke against Kirkpatrick's call for an abbreviated constitution. The train-wreck story The train was headed toward Mexico City when the engineer discovered that another train was approaching on the same track. Both trains stopped, and their engineers got out and met between the two trains to argue about which one had the right-of-way. That didn't settle the matter, so they retrieved their operation manuals to continue the argument. Nothing was settled then, either, and the engineers resorted to a fist fight. Finally, railroad officers arrived and settled the issue – ordering one train to back up while the other proceeded toward its destination. Kirkpatrick's interpretation of the story was that the operation manuals failed to resolve the stalemate – just as, he contended, the Book of Order has failed to bring peace and unity to the denomination. "We have a Book of Order almost as long as the manual those two engineers were using against one another and with every bit as many rules and regulations. We have transformed our Book of Order, which through most of our history was a very slim document of essential principles … into a detailed manual made for a regulatory agency model of church life." Leaders ended the stalemate But Andrews, one of six panelists at the conference, later said, "I love the end of the story. It is the railroad officer who comes out of the office and offers a resolution." He looked at Kirkpatrick when he made that statement, challenging the clerk by his gesture to exercise the duty of his office to "preserve and defend the Constitution of the Presbyterian Church (USA)." Andrews is a former co-moderator of the Presbyterian Coalition, an evangelical group that has called on Kirkpatrick to enforce the denomination's constitution. Representatives of the Coalition wanted to meet with Kirkpatrick in Louisville to discuss their disagreements over his interpretation and enforcement of the constitution, but he declined when the Coalition insisted that the meeting be open to the public. Trust and trustworthiness Kirkpatrick and several of the panelists harkened back to the days when the Book of Order would fit in a shirt pocket. But Andrews said Presbyterians did not need a detailed Book of Order in times past because they shared theological consensus. "There was a time when our consensus of faith was wrapped around the Westminster standards. Our trust permitted a broadness of behavior based on that coherence in doctrine," he said. The size of today's "Book of Order is a function of trust," Andrews said. "Regulation is a function of trustworthiness. Both are to be called for. Was there not a time when our consensus of faith was greater, the coherence of the body was tighter, the trust in our membership was deeper, so the rules of our common life were fewer?" Why trust is an issue The trust factor is an issue for many evangelicals because Kirkpatrick has expressed sympathy toward pastors and elders who have declared that they will defy the ordination standard. But he has threatened pastors and elders who discuss possible separation from the denomination or withholding per-capita apportionments. Kirkpatrick has said those officers are, in effect, violating their ordination vows. Kirkpatrick called for a Book of Order that would place a priority on the first four chapters, which do not include regulatory or disciplinary requirements. He suggested – without explaining how – that those chapters be elevated in importance over the rest of the Book of Order. "In my experience, these four chapters have a broad resonance in all quarters of the church and are a wonderful statement of the vision of church life that is the unique gift of the Presbyterian Church to the Church ecumenical," he said. He said he had no "magic formula" for major overhaul of the Book of Order. The denomination's presbyteries recently rejected one proposal, Amendment 01-H, which called for simplification of the Book of Order. That proposal came from Kirkpatrick's office. |
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