From, The Layman, Volume 41, Number 2
PUP report biggest issue facing the PCUSA
Posted Monday, Apr 14, 2008
The ongoing ramifications of the report by the Theological Task Force on Peace, Unity and Purity are the biggest issue facing the Presbyterian Church (USA), one of the newest members of the Board of Directors of the Presbyterian Lay Committee says.
That report, approved by the 217th General Assembly in 2006, keeps the current ordination standards in the PCUSA’s Constitution, but allows those who choose not to obey them to declare them to be non-essential.
“As are many, I am very concerned about the PUP report and the negative impact it is having on the denomination,” said Lee H. Gery of Bonita Springs, Fla.
“I feel that the Lord is putting our denomination through all this pain for good reason, which some day He will reveal to us,” he said.
Gery, who retired as director of Worldwide Info Systems at Eli Lilly and Company in Indianapolis, said he came to the faith at a later age than many people.
“I committed my life to Jesus Christ at age 35,” he said. “At that time, I enrolled in Bible Study Fellowship and, after attending three sessions, I got down on my knees and prayed that the Lord would come into my life.
“I have stayed committed since that time,” Gery said, “walked with the Lord and tried my best to live my life as Jesus would want me to. I have been truly blessed since this event and shudder to think what I might be like today if I had not done so.”
That commitment has led to an active involvement in his local church. “I have taken on the Great Banquet (Cursillo) as the major mission of my discipleship,” he said. “My wife, Ellis, and I attended the Great Banquet in 1994 (after I had retired) and started the Indianapolis Great Banquet in 1996, which is alive and well and has hosted more than 2,500 guests.”
Gery said he resigned as Community Lay Director of the project in 2001. Now living in Florida, he and his wife founded the Great Banquet of Southwest Florida in Bonita Springs, “of which I am currently Co-Community Lay Director.”
An elder at First Presbyterian Church in Bonita Springs, he is active in the Men’s Fellowship, Human Resources Committee and Christian Speakers Forum, as well as the Bonita Springs Prayer Breakfast.
Gery said he has been aware of the work of the Lay Committee for many years.
“As an elder at Second Presbyterian Church in Indianapolis,” which he termed a centrist church, Gery said he “found that the committee was not at all embraced. Being a ‘right of center’ person, I had great difficulty with this. At First Presbyterian Church in Bonita Springs, I have come to appreciate the committee and its efforts. I never dreamed of becoming involved with the committee, let alone being considered as a board member.”
He said he has not had “a lot of exposure to Presbyterian politics at the national level,” but, instead, has “focused my efforts in the Great Banquet ministry. My passion is for the renewal of the local congregation.”
As a goal, Gery said, “I would like to preserve the heritage and Reformed tradition of the PCUSA. I feel that we as Christians should focus on our local church and its many missions, making sure we are following the Lord, and let the dust settle at the national level.”
He and his wife have a daughter, Shawn, 41, and a son, Jim, 39, and two grandchildren who all reside in the Chicago area.