LOUISVILLE — While acknowledging that the first four chapters of the Book of Order are beloved by many in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), the Form of Government Task Force is recommending that the church replace those chapters with a new statement it has written called “The Foundations of Presbyterian Polity.”
It could have gone a safer route, holding on to language in the church’s constitution that in some quarters is already accepted and loved.
But “we do need to be bold,” said task force co-moderator Sharon Davison, an elder from New York City. In what the task force is recommending, “we’ve basically turned the polity of the church on its head.”
The nine-member task force is coming close to the end of an immense task: trying to rewrite the Form of Government to make it more concise, easier to use, and more focused on the mission of the church.
The task force, meeting here August 16-18, will make its report to the church in September, encouraging people to offer comments and concerns in the months to come, and will respond to what it hears at its next meeting, from Nov. 29-Dec. 1.
“I’m grateful for what you’ve done and I’m amazed you’ve done so much,” PC(USA) Stated Clerk Clifton Kirkpatrick, told the group. “The church needs a missional revolution and it needs a revolution of polity.”
Kirkpatrick stressed, however, that the task force needs to use the next few months to spread the word of what it’s trying to do using, for example, a video that’s in the works (it was being taped at this meeting) to address “frequently asked questions” about what it’s proposing and why.
Kirkpatrick predicted “the group that’s probably going to be most nervous about this is probably going to be stated clerks, who operate by rules and procedures.” He encouraged task force members to attend upcoming meetings in the church, such as the General Assembly Council and the fall polity conference, and to offer to speak to presbyteries.
“Help people catch a vision of this,” Kirkpatrick said, warning that otherwise “people don’t read it and they’re dealing with the perceptions more than the substance.”
Paul K. Hooker, a task force member and the executive presbyter of St. Augustine presbytery, pointed out during the task force’s meeting this week that nearly all of the elements of the first four chapters of the current Book of Order, and much of the actual language from those chapters, still exists in the Foundations statement, although the content has been reorganized.
“We have not omitted that content,” Hooker said. And he said he favors the new approach “because I think it’s the essential theological forward to the missional polity we’re trying to create, and without it, something significant is missing. It starts with an affirmation … of the mission of the church,” instead of leaving that for later.
“And that affirmation starts with God’s activity in the world and then it talks about Christ’s Lordship of the church,” Hooker said.
The task force will present its report to the General Assembly in San Jose in 2008 — and it’s understood there will be some opposition to what it’s recommending.
Task force member James H. Y. Kim, a pastor from Texas, said he’s concerned about “how much change people will be able to tolerate.” Kim said he’s already heard rumblings from some evangelicals who basically said: “Don’t mess with our four chapters.”
The task force also is trying to build support for other changes it considers significant, including dropping the language of “governing bodies” and using “councils” instead.
Some of those changes are being made in response to concerns raised in part by Joseph Small, director of Theology, Worship and Education Ministries for the PC(USA), who spoke to the task force about theological issues that his staff sees embedded in their work.
If the task force can preserve the content of the first four chapters but present them more clearly, “people will probably stand up and salute you,” Small told the group.
Small suggested they “deep-six” the phrase “governing bodies” and use “councils” instead, at various levels of the church, “councils big and small.”
The idea of councils is a centuries’ old term and “if you let it percolate, you’ll come to love it,” Small told the task force. Using councils “would be of incalculable value in ecumenical conversation,” he said, because it’s easily understood in comparison to church structures in other denominations that use bishops.
Small also encouraged the task force to return to using the language of “teaching elders,” meaning ministers of the Word and Sacrament, and “ruling elders,” and to speak of the ordered ministry of teaching elders, ruling elders, and deacons.
“We believe the basic ministry is the ministry of the whole people of God,” Small said. But within that, certain ministries are ordered — given particular shape and form
The work of deacons and elders is vital, Small said; the idea of ordered ministry is “the genius of the Reformed tradition,” and “the words clergy and lay should never escape the lips of a Presbyterian.”
