A collection of 24 Presbyterians, most of whom are middle-level bureaucrats, have dispatched a“Letter of Reconciliation” to Gradye Parsons, stated clerk of the Presbyterian Church (USA) and Jim Singleton, president of the Fellowship of Presbyterians (FOP).
The letter pleads for a middle-of-the-road compromise in the midst of what has become a rapidly fracturing denomination.
The letter’s emailed press release, signed by Paul Watermulder, pastor of First Presbyterian Church of Burlingame, Calif., said that those who signed the letter were “intent first on urging our General Assembly leadership to immediately become bridge-builders with those churches and leaders who out of conscience have become disaffected from our denomination.”
“The second intent was to urge all those who are talking about leaving or distancing themselves from the PCUSA to slow down and recognize that there are several viable signs of unity coming to the GA in Pittsburgh which are supported by a wide range of centrist leaders.”
“A significant number of PCUSA congregations have entered into a period of discernment, prayerfully considering how they can remain part of the PCUSA while also maintaining theological integrity. Their sense of increasing estrangement from the trajectory of the PCUSA reached a breaking point with the recent changes in ordination standards,” the two-page letter begins.
The letter states that these Presbyterian feel “betrayed by and alienated from this branch of the Church, believing that these recent legislative changes are symptomatic signals of other, deeper changes that have set the PCUSA on a course of unfaithfulness to the heart and will of God.”
Legislative changes cited in the letter include adoption of an amendment that removes all sexual behavior standards from the PCUSA constitution and a newly approved Form of Government that some feel favors a top-down way of governing the church.
The letter then cites the Fellowship of Presbyterians, a group that just concluded a three day Covenanting Conference in Orlando, Fla., that attracted more than 2,100 Presbyterians. During that meeting, the formation of a new denomination was announced: the Evangelical Covenant Order of Presbyterians (ECO). ECO was formerly known as the FOP’s “new Reformed body” a new Reformed denomination that congregations wishing to leave the PCUSA may join.
The letter mentions several alternative ideas that have been discussed by the FOP including, non-geographical presbyteries, allowing congregations to transfer presbytery membership, or forming dual Committees on Ministry and Committees on Preparation for Ministry in the same presbytery. These ideas were summarily dismissed by Parsons in “Constitutional Musing #25” posted on the denomination’s website while the FOP was conducting its Orlando meeting.
“To be honest, we are inclined to support and defend the existing structures, maintaining familiar patterns of operating. We fear that some proposals could unleash unintended consequences, not the least of which is the possibility of weakening the structures that tenuously hold us together even now,” the letter reads.
“However, we also know that the existing structures and patterns are already creating unintended consequences of their own – including a lack of respect for conscience based on Scripture, and a sense of violation, grief and/or despair among our sisters and brothers.”
The letter calls upon “all our fellow Presbyterians in ecclesial leadership positions … to redouble efforts to respect, listen to, dialogue and pray with those who are struggling to keep in fellowship with our body.”
It also call upon “those seeking to be faithful to Christ and Scripture and feeling disaffected to prayerfully engage these matters not only within congregations or subgroups, but also with leadership and various voices in presbyteries and elsewhere. We ask that we and others be included in discussions and discernment processes, demonstrating the love and grace of our Lord Jesus Christ to one another in such a way that the world will know that we indeed are Christ’s disciples.”
The letter includes the signatures of 14 middle governing body employees, five PCUSA pastors and the editor of an institutionally-oriented news organization.