The idea seemed logical enough: find a third way. It was proposed initially in November 2000 by a gathering of presbytery executives. Like members of Congress, the executives speak into the life of the national church. Unlike the elected representatives, the executives spend 95% of their time back home, in one of 173 congressional districts, er uh, presbyteries.
Their primary task is to care for, keep connected with, and build up the local churches, pastors, officers, and members.
When local churches struggle to reconcile warring factions, to launch a new outreach, or to find pastoral leadership, many executives engage those issues directly. Most also invest themselves into supporting inquirers and candidates as they pursue God’s call to vocational service in the church and mission field.
It was out of their engagement with such churches, leaders, and candidates that so many of them called for a third way. They all understood — and some supported — the first way: holding to the traditional view of “fidelity in marriage, chastity in singleness” as requirements for ordained service. They all understood — and some supported — the second way: opening the doors of ordination to gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered individuals.
They felt the anguish of the traditionalist members and leaders for whom such a policy change sounds like an abandonment of the faith once delivered. They felt the anguish of inclusivist members and leaders for whom the existing policy feels like an abandonment of grace, love, and mercy.
Regardless of their own convictions, they wanted their church to explore a different way to address such issues. So they wrote an open letter to the rest of us, asking us to search for a third way.
The then-moderator of the General Assembly, Syngman Rhee, broadcast their appeal, elevating the language by calling for “a more excellent way.” The Presbytery of John Calvin threw in its support, adopting an overture that called for the 2001 General Assembly to form a “commission” to seek to find a third way. The Assembly gave its thumbs-up.
Many traditionalists cried, “Foul.” Some had invested enormous time, money, and heart to preserve the existing standards. Such initiatives will likely lead to compromise, they warned, and you can’t compromise the truth.
Many inclusivists volunteered to support the initiative. Efforts to change the “policy of exclusion,” as it was often termed, had come up short. Maybe a more gradual approach, they said, might open doors.
Five years later the commission — actually “task force” as it was more aptly labeled — completed its deliberations and put forth proposals, and the 2006 General Assembly adopted them, some by a wide margin, others by a closer division of the house.
Now the church’s highest court, the General Assembly Permanent Judicial Commission (GAPJC) has issued a ruling that affirms most of the report but circumscribes the application of the adopted “third way” by specifying that the fidelity-chastity ordination requirements are still subjected to the first way rules. No exceptions allowed.
“Them’s fightin’ words,” or so it sounds in the blogosphere.
This is sad, because we do not fight well.
Over these past half-dozen years the mere existence of the task force quelled efforts to write new legislation and to exercise ecclesiastical defiance. Instead, many self-described conservatives and liberals broke out of their categories long enough to get to know each others’ hearts and faith. They met around tables, not in boxing rings. Friendships were forged.
But now the Task Force is no more. The season of open, polarizing warfare is back upon us … unless we all do something about it. You see, the obligation to find and implement a third way falls upon rank and file Presbyterians, for as we all know, the call to implement a more excellent way — in all of life — comes not from a PC(USA) governing body but from holy Scripture.
That is the ultimate requirement for us Presbyterians: to build friendships across ideological lines; to humbly listen to the hearts and faith of those with whom we disagree on the hottest issues of our day; to love one another because of the One who loves us.
Pursuing a third way, a more excellent way, may not be the most logical thing to do, but it is the God-thing to do. For all of us to do.
–JHH
Note: I speak of the work of the Theological Task Force on Peace, Unity and Purity of the Church as one who served on it. I was called as Outlook editor as the Task Force was nearing the end of its work.
