According to a Fellowship PC(USA) www.fellowship-pcusa.org news release
issued May 20 in Edina, Minn., Detterman will continue as executive director
of Presbyterians for Renewal (PFR) www.pfrenewal.org while also serving as
administrative consultant for the ministry of the Fellowship PC(USA) for at least one
year.
The Fellowship announcement says his work for that group will include helping
coordinate communications, preparing for a gathering the Fellowship has scheduled
for August 25-26 in Minneapolis and implementing plans developed at that meeting.
According to the two organizations’ Web sites, Fellowship PC(USA) seeks to
lessen the “rancorous, draining internal disputes that paralyze our common life and
ministry,” while Presbyterians for Renewal works to reinvigorate the denomination.
Earlier this year, the Fellowship group published a letter proclaiming the
denomination to be “deathly ill” and inviting Presbyterians to attend the August
meeting in Minneapolis to seek a new approach, which could include forming an
evangelical fellowship outside the PC(USA). The letter was signed by a seven-
member steering committee and 38 concurring pastors.
A PFR board statement says the current trajectory of the Fellowship “resonates with
PFR’s continuing commitment to find a way forward for our denomination that is both
biblically faithful and missionally focused. We clearly sense the Holy Spirit’s work in
the Fellowship proposal, and we continue to look forward to the next steps.”
A minister since 1990, Detterman previously served congregations in Ohio, Kansas,
and Kentucky. He has also on the denomination’s national staff as associate for
worship in the Office of Theology and Worship.
Leaders of the Fellowship say Detterman is committed to their group’s vision
and goals. They say he also brings experience of ministry in small-membership
congregations in the PC(USA) and an extensive network of relationships and contacts
within and beyond the denomination.
