What an exciting, uplifting, heartbreaking, feisty year it has been! Is it appropriate to diagnose the PC(USA)-in-2006 as the year of denominational-manic-depressive disorder? I can certainly assess it to have been–for this editor–the year of unsmooth sailing.
Just one year ago, this pastor stepped outside the pulpit to enter the world of writing and editing. He felt overwhelmed by the trust placed in him by the board of directors that knew that their Presbyterian Outlook had long provided the denomination a ballast for stability, a rudder for setting direction, and a set of sails to promote forward movement. He also felt terribly perplexed–and admitted so–that his writer-editor duties were overlapping his tenure as member of a controversial task force.
In principle, such an overlap offered no conflict of interests: the Outlook long has been the independent publication that promotes the peace, unity and purity of the church. But after publication of the task force report, conflict and disunity erupted. In these Outlook pages, we presented the best arguments for and against those recommendations. We reported carefully the actions of the GA. We published analysis upon analysis to foster greater understanding of those decisions. We published letter upon letter, space-allowing in print and space-unlimited on our Web site, to provide a forum for good-hearted Presbyterians to offer their feedback.
Nevertheless, the church found itself being tossed on the seas of conflict, with every positive flow being countered by an ebb of backwash.
Other topics shared the ebb and flow.
We celebrated women’s ordination: 100 years as deacons, 75 years as elders, and 50 years as ministers of Word and Sacrament.
We challenged our government’s use of torture in dealing with alleged terrorists, and we urged our national leaders to work constructively for peace in Palestine-Israel.
We challenged our passive acceptance of re-segregation in schools and communities.
We promoted our efforts in Christian education.
We lauded the lives and work of our pastors.
We questioned premature reports of the denomination’s demise and cross-examined romantic, fictional flights of memory into the “good ol’ days.”
We cast vision for great new days ahead by telling about ministry initiatives being implemented in the church–from “purpose-driven” congregations to the Upward sports program, from the Company of New Pastors to the Presbyterian Global Fellowship.
We grieved the departing of James E. Andrews, William P. Thompson, William Sloane Coffin, Jr., Ben Lacy Rose and others.
We also grieved the loss of …, adjusted to the restructuring of …, and looked with anticipation to the new leadership in … our national staff.
We made the case for staying together.
We urged the cultivation of hearing hearts–to be attentive to the voice of the Savior.
Through all of these topics, we have tried earnestly to listen to and report a range of voices, reflecting the perilous reality that “there are truths and forms with respect to which [people] of good characters and principles may differ” (B.O.: G-1.0305). Life in the good ship PC(USA) would float along more smoothly if we could be relieved of such differences. But simple-mindedness would deprive the church of its prophetic imagination, its checks-and-balances. It would thin our experience of “the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that [we] may be filled with all the fullness of God” (Eph. 3: 18,19).
So, in the interest of promoting that breadth and length and height and depth and peace and unity and purity and love and peace and joy and lots of other graces from our Lord, we have sailed into the rough waters, riding high and low on the billows of denominational manic-depressive disorder through this exciting, uplifting, heartbreaking, feisty year.
May God fit us for effective sailing in the coming year.
— JHH
