Knowing that the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) is about to confront once again the question of whether Presbyterian ministers should perform same-gender marriages – which is certain to be a heated point of discussion at next summer’s General Assembly – General Assembly moderator Neal Presa wants the church first to talk about confessional authority.
From Dec. 11-13, Presa has gathered a group of theologians to lead a discussion on differences and unity at Princeton Theological Seminary – the second such gathering on that topic he’s convened. The goal: to explore the role that the confessions and confessional authority play in the Reformed tradition, and specifically to consider how those perspectives might contribute to the PC(USA)’s ongoing discussion about marriage.
Here are a few highlights from the first day of that discussion.
Martha Moore-Keish: An associate professor of theology at Columbia Theological Seminary, Moore-Keish examined in her presentation Dec. 11 how the confessions and creeds shape and express belonging, behavior and belief.
Among the questions she raised: “What are the limits of acceptable diversity?” Another way to put it: “How much do we have to believe of this stuff and still be Presbyterian?” What is basic to Christian belief? What is essential?
Some who are leaving the PC(USA) for the new denomination ECO: A Covenant Order of Evangelical Presbyterians have voiced “a concern that the PC(USA) does not seem to have taken seriously at all the Book of Confessions,” Moore-Keish said.
A competing concern: “What happens when the confessional identity is defined too closely,” when narrow interpretations are used to define “who is in and who is out?”
She described the confessions as serving two functions – of expressing what the church believes at a particular time (the Apostles’ Creed, the Scots Confession of 1560); and, after they are written, of influencing and shaping a faith community. The Nicene Creed has been taught and sung; generations of confirmation classes memorized the questions in the Westminster Shorter Catechism.
Some may ask whether they can recite a creed honestly if they’re not sure they believe everything in it. Moore-Keish told of an orthodox priest who, when asked that question persistently by a student, finally responded: “It’s not your creed. You just say it until you believe it.” Some may have particular words they have qualms about, but find value in being part of a community that collectively affirms the creed. “To recite a creed is to place us in a community that is defined by it,” Moore-Keish said.
Teaching the confessions regularly or reciting from them in worship can be powerful ways to foster a deep sense of belonging to God. Such habits can provide a structure – fixed but with breathing room, like a set of monkey bars – to shape a living faith, she said.
Jay Wilkins, the general presbyter of the Presbytery of Sacramento, said people sometimes ask him why he stays in the PC(USA). “I say it’s a place where we welcome wrestling with the questions” – a behavior many have learned, he said, from studying the confessions.
Cynthia Rigby: a professor of theology at Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary, she considered how confessions and creeds serve as a community identification with the one holy, catholic and apostolic church.
Rigby said a friend recently asks why Presbyterians speak of confessing their faith rather than professing it. “When we confess what we believe, we’re professing it,” Rigby said. “To confess is not only to say what we believe, but to acknowledge that it has claimed us.”
By doing so, those who confess set boundaries – not to exclude others (“to say we’re right and they’re wrong”), but more in relation to themselves, she said. Confessing creates boundaries and limits – and those limits create possibilities for abundant life, a context for possibilities.
An example: when Gabriel tells Mary that she will bear a child, she accepts that instruction – essentially submits to it, Rigby said. By doing that, “she becomes a poet, she becomes an artist, she creates,” becoming an essential participant in God’s work of salvation. The limits “free us to participate in that which is impossible.”
People who confess what they believe become vulnerable, Rigby said. Through the confessions they acknowledge their treasure trove, their inheritance – including beautiful parts and parts with which they’re less thrilled.
She also asked whether there is a way to include the “invisible church” in confessional life – those who aren’t sure they believe what the confessions or creeds teach, but haven’t entirely walked away. One of the biggest questions facing the contemporary church, she said, is how to relate to those of other faiths and the “nones” – those with no religious preference.
The theologian John Calvin said essentially that “only God gets to decide who’s in and who’s out, so we should treat everyone as though they are elect,” Rigby said. Continue to confess and to welcome others, then “leave it up to God’s judgment.”
