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Holy Week resources and reflections

Recommendations: Joy, needed work for change

In 1984, along with twenty other people, I was appointed by J. Randolph Taylor, Moderator of the recently reunited Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), to serve on the committee that drafted the Brief Statement of Faith as directed by the Plan of Reunion. Our experience together over the next five years mirrors in many ways that of the Task Force on Peace, Unity, and Purity. One of the chief reasons is that members of both groups were appointed to serve because they were representative of the diverse theological points of view and backgrounds reflected in the membership of the PCUSA. 

One of my most vivid memories from that important time in the life of the church has to do with an informal conversation another committee member and I had one summer day during General Assembly week.  As we stood chatting in the corridor of the vast Convention Center, a number of people came up to speak to my friend, who was and still is strongly identified with the conservative, evangelical wing of the denomination. I, on the other hand, have usually been identified with the more liberal part of the church. He graciously introduced me to them all.  "My goodness," I finally said.  "What is going on with all these people?"  They had been very gracious to me, but I had never met any of them before.  

He answered, "They want to meet you. My friends are always asking me what you really believe."

"What do you tell them?"  I asked.

"I tell them that you love Jesus just as much as they do."

In 1984, along with twenty other people, I was appointed by J. Randolph Taylor, Moderator of the recently reunited Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), to serve on the committee that drafted the Brief Statement of Faith as directed by the Plan of Reunion. Our experience together over the next five years mirrors in many ways that of the Task Force on Peace, Unity, and Purity. One of the chief reasons is that members of both groups were appointed to serve because they were representative of the diverse theological points of view and backgrounds reflected in the membership of the PCUSA. 

One of my most vivid memories from that important time in the life of the church has to do with an informal conversation another committee member and I had one summer day during General Assembly week.  As we stood chatting in the corridor of the vast Convention Center, a number of people came up to speak to my friend, who was and still is strongly identified with the conservative, evangelical wing of the denomination. I, on the other hand, have usually been identified with the more liberal part of the church. He graciously introduced me to them all.  “My goodness,” I finally said.  “What is going on with all these people?”  They had been very gracious to me, but I had never met any of them before.  

He answered, “They want to meet you. My friends are always asking me what you really believe.”

“What do you tell them?”  I asked.

“I tell them that you love Jesus just as much as they do.”

From what I can gather from reading their report, members of the Peace, Unity, and Purity Task Force learned similarly important things about one another as they engaged in their four-year process of spiritual and theological discernment. I commend them for demonstrating Christian character in its most compelling form. I commend them for reminding the church that Christ truly is our peace and that “in his flesh he has made both groups into one and has broken down the dividing wall, that is, the hostility between us.”  (Ephesians 2:14)   Along with Presbyterians all across the theological and ecclesiastical spectrum, I fervently pray that their labors will serve to build up that part of the body of Christ that is the PCUSA. I can think of nothing more desperately needed in the midst of this especially fractious and troubled chapter in the life of our beloved church.

Let me share a few reactions to the Task Force Report: 

The first is genuine, heart-felt gratitude. The writing itself reflects the intellectual rigor and spiritual excellence that one associates with the Reformed tradition at its best. The report is thoroughly grounded in Scripture and the Confessions, in Reformed and ecumenical Christian theology. In reading it, I learned things I hadn’t known about the history of the American Presbyterian Church. What a helpful backdrop the historical material provides as we find our way through our current controversies. In 1729, for example, the synod, the highest judicatory at the time adopted the Westminster standards and required all ministers to subscribe to them.  Then, it went on to allow for conflicts of conscience by granting ministers and, later, candidates for the ministry  “to declare disagreements (‘scruples’) with particular articles of the Westminster standards.”  It seems that American Presbyterians have, for a long time, tried to hold together “essential and necessary beliefs and practices while also respecting freedom in non essential matters … “I also found it illuminating to be reminded of the difference in the  traditions of the PCUS and the UPCUSA,  especially  with regard to the rights of sessions and presbyteries.

The second reaction evoked by the Report was a sense of cautious hope.  If those twenty people could travel together over the rough terrain they have traveled these past four years and arrive at their destination more convinced than ever of their basic unity in Christ and more committed than ever to demonstrate a “transformed way of living” in a conflicted world, then maybe such things are possible for the larger church.

My third reaction was one of personal repentance. I was exposed and convicted by the candidness manifested by members of the Task Force in acknowledging their initial tendency to blame others for the church’s troubles. I have had to confess before God my own tendencies in this direction. I can never again forget that whenever I dismiss disrespectfully anyone with whom I disagree, as important as the substance of the disagreement might be, I am acting in a way that is antithetical to the gospel, hurtful to others, and damaging to the church.

My fourth reaction was a sigh of recognition. There is a reality we can’t get away from: faithful people who honor the Bible and “embrace it as ‘the unique and authoritative witness to Jesus Christ in the Church universal'” (Book of Order, G-14.0207[b] ) can and do come to  different conclusions. This is especially true about the most divisive matters before the church, such as ordination, sexuality, and same gender covenantal relationships. I certainly did not expect to read otherwise, but I am weary, as I am sure many other Presbyterians are, of having the same Scriptural disputes over and over again. I took heart, however, in the conviction expressed so well in the Report: The Task Force is convinced that Scripture has the power to shape and transform us as the community of faith. Let it be so, Lord. Let it be so. 

My final response was one of disappointment, laced with more than a little bit of sadness. This was a feeling that emerged only as I came to the end of the list of seven recommendations. I applaud the first five and pledge myself to support them in every way that I can. For a long time, I have believed with all my heart that we are called “to hold together,” and I cannot imagine how anyone could read the Task Force Report and reject its eloquent argument against division and in favor of living in harmony in the midst of our diversity. I am all for the broader church’s study of the Task Force’s Theological Reflection. I support duplicating the process the Task Force followed in its fine work of community building and discernment.  I agree entirely with the recommendation to pursue alternatives to win/lose dispute resolution at all levels of church government.  I will not second–guess the Task Force on its complicated but probably necessary recommendation calling for an authoritative interpretation of G.6.0108, the portion of the Book of Order that has to do with the responsibilities of presbyteries and sessions in applying the ordination standards of the church. So much confusion and conflict swirl around these matters that, at least in the immediate future, an authoritative interpretation might constructively serve the church. It is certainly worth a try. 

My disappointment comes in reaction to the sixth recommendation of the Task Force, which “strongly encourages the 217th General Assembly to adopt no additional authoritative interpretations, to remove no existing authoritative interpretations, and to send to presbyteries no proposed constitutional amendments that would have the effect of changing denominational policy … “ The report pointedly states that this recommendation “seems advisable to all the task force members, whatever their personal positions on issues … “  I understand this recommendation but  respectfully disagree with it. In the months and years ahead, I will continue to work for the unity of the church and do whatever I can to build bridges of understanding, but I will also give all I’ve got to work for the day when all whom God calls to ordained service in the PC(USA) will be constitutionally permitted to answer that call, regardless of sexual orientation.  I do not believe that our current policies reflect the spirit of Christ or the will of God, as revealed in Scripture. I know too many people who continue to be excluded, damaged, and given no choice except to leave the church they love because of what our Constitution now stipulates.

There are moments when the heart and the mind will simply not let one let go of the vision of a church in which all those who are baptized are treated with the respect they deserve in the household of God. This is such a moment for me.  I remember talking to a Roman Catholic friend who devoted much of her energies toward the ordination of women to the priesthood in the Catholic Church. I asked her one day, “Sister Joan, how in the world do you do what you do? I can’t imagine anything more frustrating.” She smiled. “It will happen one day. When it happens is in God’s hand, but I can’t imagine not doing my part while I have the chance.”  

I cannot imagine it either.

Among the many reasons I am thankful to be a Presbyterian, none is more important to me than the confidence that God is continually reforming, reshaping, and enlightening the mind of the church so that the church can, in its life and witness, more clearly reflect the mind of God. I commend the Task Force for its openness to the Spirit of God and for its faithful work. I trust that the same Spirit who so lovingly showed them the way forward will do the same for the rest of us now. 

 

Joanna Adams is pastor of Morningside Church in Atlanta, Ga. and former co-Moderator of the Covenant Network.

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