Greg Wiest presents his case
A proposal to allow churches to choose their presbyteries, and presbyteries their synods, was resoundingly rejected by the Committee on Church Polity Saturday.
Proponents had said the overture (05-23) would have offered welcome flexibility, allowing churches that share a common sense of mission or particular beliefs to work more closely together. ‘We don’t make individual members choose their church based on where they live”; they can join the church ‘where they’re comfortable,’ said overture advocate Greg Wiest, minister of Glade River United Presbyterian Church in Valencia, Penn. Churches should have a similar flexibility in terms of the presbyteries they join, he said.
The Advisory Committee on the Constitution recommended disapproval. ‘This is not a small change, it’s a seismic and fundamental change,’ said its chair, Margy Wentz. ‘At stake here is our concept of ecclesiology and whether we are called into the Presbyterian Church — God calls all of us with our differences — or whether we selected to be a part of a particular part of the church.’
In open hearings Friday, Camille Cook, a candidate under care of Twin Cities Area Presbytery, voiced a similar concern: ‘We are a relational and connectional church, but we are not a church that picks and chooses our relations and our connections. God picks and God chooses.’
