Co-moderator's opposition to executive session evaporates By John H. Adams The Layman Online Monday, January 16, 2006 The stated intention of Gary Demarest to recommend that the members of the Theological Task Force on Peace, Unity and Purity not close any of their sessions during their final, three-day meeting in Atlanta last week never materialized. Demarest, co-moderator of the task force, told The Layman Online during a telephone interview a few days before the Jan. 11-13 meeting, "I personally am advocating that we don't do any executive sessions. But I don't know what might be proposed." What was proposed was a two-hour executive session on Wednesday night to talk about "sensitive theological issues." It was approved without dissent, and Demarest offered no suggestion to have the discussion open to the public and the media. Asked why not, he said without further explanation, "I changed my mind." Another task force member was asked whether closing that session was necessary. He silently mouthed an earthy, two-syllable word that could be translated "not at all." The 215th General Assembly in 2003 voted 276-219 to exempt the task force from the denomination's open-meetings requirements for purposes of discussing personal views. Since then, the task force has barred the press and public from substantial portions of its meetings. Most of the final report was shaped during the closed-door sessions, and no votes were taken publicly on any of the portions until the completed report was presented last August. The vote was unanimous then. It was one of the group's few votes since its first meeting in December 2001. Demarest called that three-day meeting a "love-in." The task force members have emphasized that their unanimity was a product of their bonding during a process that was largely unobserved by Presbyterians. They also have extolled their "discernment" model for reaching decisions by consensus without publicly debating or voting on the issues. Marianne Wolfe, the author of a PCUSA pamphlet titled "Parliamentary Procedures in the Presbyterian Church (USA)," argues that "consensus is a manipulative system that can use group pressure to dominate the minority."

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