 Two conferences planned as followups to 2006 GA and PCUSA's turbulence By John H. Adams The Layman Online Tuesday, October 25, 2005
Two events, one sponsored by the Montreat Conference Center and the other by the New Wineskins Initiative, are scheduled a few weeks after the General Assembly, which will meet June 15-22, 2006, in Birmingham, Ala. At Montreat, a Presbyterian mecca near Asheville, N.C., 15 former moderators and representatives of the denomination's 11 loosely connected seminaries will try to smooth over the waves coming from the General Assembly. That conference will be held July 5-8. The second New Wineskins Convocation will be held July 19-22 at Kirk of the Hills Presbyterian Church in Tulsa, Okla. The New Wineskins Initiative held its constitutional assembly in June in Edina, Minn., with 190 delegates representing 85 congregations approving in principle the constitution and beginning to chart an uncertain future. Dean Weaver, co-moderator of the New Wineskins Initiative, urged the participants at the first convocation to stick together and remain a part of the denomination. But, he added, a "moral-theological compromise" by the General Assembly could spawn a breaking point. He identified possible breaking points as 1) General Assembly repeal of the Authoritative Interpretation that undergirds the constitutional "fidelity/chastity" ordination standard; 2) repeal of that standard by presbyteries in a national referendum; and 3) a weakening of the denomination's Christology. Much of the focus of the two conferences will be on how the General Assembly responds to the report of the denomination's Task Force on Peace, Unity and Purity. Furthermore, eight presbyteries have overtured the General Assembly to repeal the constitutional "fidelity/chastity" clause that prohibits the ordination of practicing homosexuals. The same eight presbyteries have also called for elimination of the General Assembly's Authoritative Interpretation that declares that homosexual practice is sinful. The task force report does not seek the repeal of either the constitutional clause or the Authoritative Interpretation. But it does call for giving ordaining bodies – local sessions and regional presbyteries – the latitude to deem that the "fidelity/chastity" standard is a nonessential in spite of the votes approving it and affirming it in three national referendums. The last vote on the standard, G-6.0106b in the Book of Order, was in 2001, when presbyteries affirmed it by a margin of more than 73 percent. Countering the unprecedented attack on the denomination's ordination standard, the Montreat Conference Center says its meeting is also "uprecedented" in bringing together the 15 moderators since 1990 and 11 representatives of the seminaries. In addition, one of the billed attractions is Jack Haberer, a Houston pastor who has served as a member of the task force and was recently named editor of The Presbyterian Outlook, a weekly newspaper (about 10,000 circulation) that consistently supports the denomination. In a press release by the Montreat Center, Haberer was described as the "VIP voice" for the conference. The Montreat conference is titled "The Hope of the Church: Celebrating Common Ground." It is a "hope" for unity in diversity, a different tack from a document approved by the 214th General Assembly (2002) titled "Hope in the Lord Jesus Christ." The 2002 statement affirmed John 14:6 – Jesus' declaration that "I am the Way, the Truth and the Life. No one comes to the father except by me." It was intended to diffuse criticism of previous pluralistic statements by the General Assembly and the General Assembly Council that suggested Jesus was "a" way, not "the Way." The 15 moderators who have agreed to be part of the conference are Price Gwynn (1990), Herbert Valentine (1991), John Fife (1992), David Dobler (1993), Robert Bohl (1994), Marj Carpenter (1995), John Buchanan (1996), Pat Brown (1997), Doug Oldenburg (1998), Freda Gardner (1999), Syngman Rhee (2000), Jack Rogers (2001), Fahed Abu-Akel (2002), Susan Andrews (2003) and Rick Ufford-Chase (2004-2005). On their combined watch, the denomination has lost 533,570 members, not including the final tab for Ufford-Chase, the denomination's first two-year moderator. Ufford-Chase has stated his opposition to G-6.0106b and eight of the other 14 signed the Covenant Network's "Call to Covenant Community." That statement favored allowing sessions and presbyteries to ordain homosexuals as a matter of conscience. The Montreat Conference Center press release about the meeting listed the 11 seminary representatives who will attend the conference: Mark Achtemeier (Dubuque), Phillip Butin (San Francisco), Cynthia Campbell (McCormick), William Carl (Pittsburgh), W. Stacy Johnson (Princeton), Laura Mendenhall (Columbia), Dean Thompson (Louisville), David Wallace (Johnson C. Smith), Ted Wardlaw (Austin), Louis Weeks (Union-PSCE) and Barbara Wheeler (Auburn). Along with Haberer, Achtemeir, Johnson and Wheeler are members of the Task Force on Peace, Unity and Purity, which voted unanimously to recommend that the General Assembly adopt the local-option ordination position that was embraced by the "Call to Covenant Community." Mendenhall was a member of the General Assembly Permanent Judicial Commission, the highest court in the denomination, when it ruled in 2000 in the key case involving the ordination standard that ordaining bodies do not have the right to grant exceptions to the church's law. The Montreat press release quoted Merri Bass, Montreat's vice president for program development and marketing, as saying, "We believe this consultation will provide hope, inspiration, insights, and energy to help our pastors lead their churches through turbulence which may follow the 217th General Assembly next June in Birmingham." The press release also quoted Lauren Mathews, director of program services at Montreat, as saying, "No amount of planning or foresight could have prepared us for the overwhelming enthusiasm with which this conference is being received." However, Bass told The Layman Online that "enthusiasm" was expressed by the participants and it was too early to predict how many people might attend. She said Montreat had received only a handful of registrations. Bass said the conference was the brainstorm of the staff at Montreat and not the suggestion of denominational leaders. Montreat will pay "small" honorariums to the participants, their travel expenses, lodging and food, she added. She said the format for "The Hope of the Church: Celebrating Common Ground" will imitate the model used by the task force during the four years it considered four issues: the ordination standard, Christology, Biblical authority and power. The task force spent much of its time building relationships and mustering group discernment rather than debating issues and voting them up or down. One of the task force's few votes was its unanimous approval of the entire report, including the recommendation that ordaining bodies be allowed to choose whether practicing homosexuals are suitable candidates for office. More information about "The Hope of the Church" is available on the Montreat Conference Center's Web site or by calling the center at 828-669-2911 or 800-572-2257, ext. 371. The New Wineskins Initiative is an effort to call the PCUSA back to a more faithful orthodoxy – "for her to return to her first love," as Scripture and a Christian leader from the Middle East put it during the first convocation in Edina. By returning to her first love, leaders of the group said it is the prayer of those working on the New Wineskins Initiative that God may yet revive one of America's oldest mainline denominations. During its well-attended convocation in Edina, delegates approved in principle a draft constitution that affirms the voice and vote of local church sessions. To become delegates, they had previously endorsed the New Wineskins Initiative's "Essential Tenets" and "Ethical Imperatives." The New Wineskins Constitution recognizes that congregations – and not its higher governing bodies – are the lifeblood of the Presbyterian Church (USA) because they provide the people, the money, and the vision for the church. Co-moderators Dave Henderson and Weaver have called on Presbyterians to join "with other New Wineskins congregations in upholding the faith essentials and ethical imperatives, in entering into covenant relationships of mutual encouragement and accountability, and in engaging with one another in collaborative ministry and mission." For more information about the second New Wineskins Convocation, visit the Web site or call 1-888-754-9693. |
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