With little talk about problems, regional leaders seek new tack By John H. Adams The Layman Online Thursday, September 28, 2006 LOUISVILLE, Ky. – The General Assembly Council spent much of its time this week introducing presbytery and synod executives to "an appreciative inquiry," "a new way for a new day," meditative labyrinth walks and creating the "eschatological church." During three sessions, the middle governing body leaders compared their "faith journeys," interviewed each other, and envisioned a future focused on the positive. They also retrieved stones immersed in water to take home with them as reminders of their baptism, and posted hand-scrawled newsprint lists on the walls – some artistically drawn. There were no harsh words, no bickering over such turmoil as the General Assembly's authoritative interpretation that allows the ordination of practicing homosexuals, and no pleas for legal advice or for explaining what the denomination's lawyers counseled in their privileged and confidential documents that ordered presbyteries to crack down on congregations that want to leave the denomination with their property. The written questions by the middle governing body leaders were muted and few so that Linda Valentine, the rookie executive director of the General Assembly Council, had only four lobs to answer, including one about communication, to which she responded: "We're preparing a Power Point." The GAC's purpose of holding its first-ever joint meeting with 119 middle governing body executives was defined as building relationships and connection. The buzzwords were the oft-recurring diversity, reconciliation, dialogue, relationships and synergy. "We're excited about affirmative accountability," declared one participant, a comment that drew a smattering of applause. But an occasional barb slipped through the genteel chat. Explaining what was discussed at her table, one presbytery executive said participants considered "what would happen if. …" Her favorite, she added, was, "What would happen if no one spent their energy reading The Layman." Graham Hart of Peace River Presbytery introduced the notion of "appreciative inquiry." He used Winston Churchill, the comic character Pooh and the Apostle Paul to illustrate "appreciative inquiry." The short definition is such a process focuses on positives (what the execs recalled as good) and delves into ways they can be reproduced in a denomination torn by acrimony. Clark Cowden, the executive in the San Diego Presbytery, did slip in a couple of suggestions, one wry and the other more serious. Reporting on what occurred at his roundtable discussion, Cowden called for a positive PR campaign that might include TV ads featuring two Presbyterian notables: actor-comedian Robin Roberts of Good Morning America and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. That drew moans – perhaps mostly because he included Rice, whose allegiance to Republican President George W. Bush keeps her off the denomination's elite list among the liberals. Cowden's other suggestion was to fix the General Assembly, which, he said, provides more negative fodder during its biennial meeting than anything else. The General Assembly "sets people up in opposing camps" and the rift continues long after the assembly's adjournment. "We can change that week, so that at the end of the week, we have positive news that goes out to a positive denomination," he said. He did not explain how. But the report from another table was less confident: "By the year 2010, our table envisions that there will be more chaos, not less." The 10-hour exercise in table-talk and group-think included a sermon by Paul Hooker, the executive in St. Augustine Presbytery. Hooker preached about the prophet Jeremiah (32:1ff), who, shortly before the fall of Jerusalem to Babylon in 587 B.C., was told by God to buy a piece of property. It was a terrible time to buy land, Hooker said. Judah was under siege. Jeremiah would be thrown in prison and accused of treason. The worst happened: The Babylonians destroyed Jerusalem, sacked and stripped the temple and took Judah's best and brightest into exile. Hooker called Jeremiah's purchase of the property "an eschatalogical act … a commitment to radical faith … an investment in hope." But "even the uncertainty of his own life could not prevent him from entrusting himself to God. He put his money where his eschatalogical claim was. He bought a field for the future." Thus, Hooker declared, "That is what God is calling on us to do: Put our money into an ecclesiastical grubstake, to a church that is not here. I believe God is calling us to buy a field for the future." But Hooker did not press the analogy to note that Judah was destroyed and would not be restored for a generation. "Our conversations about the church are riddled with worries … we practice the ecclesiology of anxiety. There is another ecclesiology -- an ecclesiology based on the foundation of hope," he said. Hooker called on creating a "church for a new reality. Does it ordain gays for office? I haven't a clue. Is it evangelical or liberal? I dunno. I'm not sure any opinion of mine makes any real difference. What I do know is that the future of this church belongs to God and not to any of us, and I know that future of that reality belongs to us." The virtue of the "new reality," he said, is reconciliation and a church no longer dominated by divisions. "Our divisions are not permanent, but temporary. It's now easy to be a member of the Presbyterian Coalition or the Covenant Network, or the New Wineskins or the Witherspoon Society. The great strength of our identity means we are forced to reconcile with one another." "These are tough times to be the church," Hooker said. "All the more reason I think it's time to dream a new dream … envision church not from who we have been but who we have yet to become."

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