Task Force meeting
goal
is to start work toward report
By John H.
Adams
The Layman
Online
Friday, February
25, 2005
The Theological Task
Force on Peace, Unity and Purity, which is approaching a September
deadline for putting its recommendations on paper, will meet in Dallas
March 2-4.
In September, the task force will send its draft report to presbyteries
and synods for comment. After reviewing the comments, task force members
will prepare a final report for the 217th General Assembly, which will
meet in Birmingham, Ala., June 15-22, 2006.
Much of the Dallas meeting will be in executive sessions, which the task
force has used increasingly to escape the scrutiny of reporters who
cover the Presbyterian Church (USA). The 215th General Assembly granted
the task force an exemption from the denomination's open-meetings
policy, but required two-thirds of its members to vote to close the
doors. Most of the votes for executive sessions have been nearly
unanimous.
Task force members say they have used the closed meetings to share their
personal views and experiences, but not to make decisions. Most
decisions have been made by "consensus," and few members of
the panel have staked themselves out individually.
They have not resolved the most controversial issue – their
recommendation on what the denomination should do about the
constitutional standard that prohibits the ordination of
self-acknowledged, practicing homosexuals and adulterers.
However, during discussions about ordination at their last two meetings,
the task force majority appeared to be leaning toward a compromise for
practicing homosexuals that would allow their ordination if they were in
monogamous relationships.
Furthermore, they submitted an interim report to the 216th General
Assembly that met in Richmond, Va., last year that suggested opening the
door to homosexual ordination should not become a dividing factor in the
PCUSA.
That report, gleaned primarily from selected verses in the first three
chapters of Ephesians, declared that Jesus alone was the Church's peace,
unity and purity. And the task force members included a stern warning
against schism over purity standards. "Christians cannot even
entertain the notion of severing their ties with sisters and brothers in
Christ without also placing themselves in severe jeopardy of being
severed from Christ himself."
What was not quoted from Ephesians, chapters 4-6, includes a number of
admonitions about purity in doctrine and lifestyle, including:
- … no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and
carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by
craftiness in deceitful schemes. (4:14, NIV)
- … no longer walk as the Gentiles do, in the futility of
their minds. (4:17)
- … put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner
of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires. (4:22)
- … there must not be even a hint of sexual immorality, or of
any kind of impurity, or of greed, because these are improper for
God's holy people (5:3)
- No immoral, impure or greedy person-such a man is an
idolater-has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God.
(5:5)
- Therefore do not be partners with them. (5:7)
Besides the ordination issue, the task force was commissioned by
the 213th General Assembly "to lead the Presbyterian Church
(U.S.A.) in spiritual discernment of our Christian identity…on
issues of Christology, biblical authority and interpretation,
Christology, and power."
It also was assigned the task of developing "a process and an
instrument by which congregations and governing bodies throughout our
church may reflect on and discuss the matters that unite and divide us."
Through the Office of the General Assembly, which is headed by Stated
Clerk Clifton Kirkpatrick, the task force prepared a news release about
the Dallas meeting titled "Theological Task Force beginning to put
pieces together."
The text of the news release follows:
- LOUISVILLE – The Theological Task Force on Peace,
Unity, and Purity of the Church will meet in Dallas next week, March
2-4, to work on its report to the 217th General Assembly in 2006.
- The report is due September 15, 2005.
- The group will be working to bring together the various elements
of its mandate, namely, "to lead the Presbyterian Church
(U.S.A.) in spiritual discernment of our Christian identity…on
issues of Christology, biblical authority and interpretation,
Christology, and power." Further, "The task force is to
develop a process and an instrument by which congregations and
governing bodies throughout our church may reflect on and discuss
the matters that unite and divide us…."
- The planning for next week's meeting has been coordinated by task
force member Sarah Sanderson-Doughty, a pastor in Lowville, NY.
Frances Taylor Gench, professor at Union-PSCE and task force member,
will lead Bible studies on testing and discernment. A study of the
Lord's Prayer, prepared by Stacy Johnson, professor at Princeton
Theological Seminary, will be an ongoing element of the task force's
times of worship and reflection, which were planned by Joan Merritt,
an elder from Seattle. Johnson and Merritt are also members of the
group. There will also be sessions on remaining theological and
polity issues on which task force members have not had an
opportunity to share their views and personal experiences with each
other.
- The task force first met in December 2001. Over the last three
years, members have attended to their mandate by releasing various
resources, including two videos, to encourage congregations and
governing bodies to "reflect on and discuss the matters that
unite and divide us." Members of the task force have also
shared their work in over seventy presentations to presbyteries and
groups throughout the church. They presented a preliminary report to
the 216th General Assembly in 2004.
- Previous meetings of the task force have normally highlighted a
pair of topics, one theological and one related to Presbyterian
history and/or polity. Worship, Bible study, and prayer have focused
on the theme of each meeting. The upcoming meeting is designed to
bring together the different topics of the mandate to enable
incorporating them in the final report. The format will provide time
for prayer and reflection as task force members strive to clarify
what they have learned from previous meetings and discern the way
forward.
- The task force will meet again in July, when the final report
will be formulated.
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