ORLANDO — The preachers talked a lot about trust in a sovereign God, even in difficult times, even when surrounded by “slippery theology,” as pastor David Swanson put it. Don’t lose hope. Don’t give up. Don’t lose sight of the truth.
But the political discussions at the Presbyterian Coalition’s national meeting Nov. 7-9 were mostly about how to keep bad things from happening at next summer’s General Assembly — and what to do if something terrible does happen, such as (from the Coalition’s point of view) the assembly approving the report of the Theological Task Force on the Peace, Unity and Purity of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.).
If that does happen, some contended, certain evangelical churches will be ready to leave the PC(USA).
There was also another theme subtly drifting through the conversations at the Coalition meeting, held at First Church in Orlando. Don’t just look at what’s wrong with the other side, evangelicals were told — take a look at yourselves too.
Andrew Purves, professor of pastoral theology at Pittsburgh Theological Seminary, preached during closing worship about the need for both truth and love — saying that a church with “shining orthodoxy” but without love “is no longer the church.”
Swanson, senior pastor of First Presbyterian in Orlando, did not stint on criticism of the PC(USA)’s misguided directions during his opening sermon, citing examples such as a declining number of missionaries, a Washington office that supports political causes, sessions or presbyteries that ordain lesbians and gays.
But when he spoke of Christians who are informed more by culture than the Bible, Swanson warned people not to conclude that he was talking about “those gosh-darn liberals … I’m talking about us. I’m talking about evangelicals” who perhaps spend too much energy on their causes and too much time “bickering and politicking behind the scenes about whose agenda is going to be lifted up.”
During a presentation on the task force report, Jim Berkley, interim director of Presbyterian Action for Faith and Freedom, the Presbyterian arm of the Institute on Religion and Democracy, urged evangelicals to “make this about God and not about us,” to demonstrate “a godly kind of tough love that cares enough to be frank.”
And most of all, “stick together. Stick together. Stick together,” Berkley beseeched, rather than succumbing to the pattern too often found in evangelical history of “petty little skirmishes among ourselves.”
There was, however, no absence of strategizing for how to prevail on issues many evangelicals consider vital to keeping the PC(USA) from straying from the path of faithfulness. High on the list was the task force report, but it wasn’t alone — other workshops were offered on a paper the assembly will consider on the doctrine of the Trinity, for example, and about Middle East policy.
Jerry Andrews, who’s a pastor from suburban Chicago and the Coalition’s co-moderator, asked people from each congregation represented to consider giving $500 to support the Coalition. It recently hired a new executive director, Terry Schlossberg, who formerly led Presbyterians Pro-Life. Don’t divert that money from other causes, Andrews asked. Dig deep, and give more.
NEW WINESKINS
In workshops presented by organizers from the New Wineskins movement https://www.newwineconvo.com/ , there was considerable discussion of what conservative churches would do if there were a “precipitating crisis” at the 2006 assembly in Birmingham — something congregations considered so against biblical teaching they couldn’t in conscience be part of it.
If the assembly passes the task force report, for some congregations “that would essentially constitute the end of their ability to stay within the PC(USA),” said David Henderson, a pastor from West Lafayette, Ind. and a New Wineskins leader. Those congregations would say “the line has been crossed,” and “I think there is a validity to that assessment, personally.”
Also, a number of presbyteries are sending overtures asking the assembly to remove from the PC(USA)’s constitution language restricting ordination to those who practice fidelity if they’re married or chastity if they’re single.
But “the bottom would fall out of the boat” if the PC(USA) decided to ordain sexually-active gays and lesbians, predicted David McKechnie, until recently the pastor of Grace Church in Houston.
In anticipation that something could happen to rock the evangelical boat, New Wineskins has scheduled a second national meeting July 19-22, 2006, to be ready if quick action seems necessary.
What would the New Wineskins congregations do? That’s very much open for discussion, but one option hot in the mix in Orlando was what the organizers call the “Supercede” model (as opposed to “Succeed,” winning the kind of change they believe the PC(USA) desperately needs, or “Secede,” leaving altogether.)
In the “Supercede” approach, congregations could put one foot in the New Wineskins plan while keeping the other in the PC(USA), Henderson said. Congregations could begin operating using New Wineskins approaches, preparing to go, but not leave entirely yet — buying themselves time try to resolve property and other issues.
Dean Weaver, a pastor from Buffalo, N.Y., who’s also involved in New Wineskins, told a workshop that he’s not so naïve as to think that “if everything blew up and went apocalyptic at the 2006 General Assembly” that New Wineskins would have everything figured out by then.
And Weaver said there’s a strategic advantage in having unhappy churches stick around for perhaps two to five years, until the number of protestors reached some critical mass. New Wineskins also talks of the “Concede” model — with evangelical congregations eventually conceding that the PC(USA) won’t change enough, so many of them will need to leave.
But there can be strategic approaches to doing that in a big wave, rather than trickling away, Weaver said. If 1,000 or 1,500 congregations approached PC(USA) leaders as a group, perhaps with the support of congregations from other countries, Weaver said that group would have more power in what he called “macro-negotiations” on issues such as participation in the Board of Pensions and whether the congregations could keep their property.
For now, “those who have one foot out the window have got to hang in there,” Weaver said. “We’ve got to.”
THEOLOGICAL TASK FORCE
But that would be difficult for some Presbyterians, who consider certain of the task force’s recommendations to be harmful to the PC(USA) and against biblical teaching.
Both evangelicals and progressives say that if the task force report passes, more gays and lesbians will be ordained in the PC(USA). That’s because candidates who disagree with the fidelity-and-chastity” standard could declare a “scruple” or objection to it. The session or presbytery involved in the ordination would have to decide whether that departure from the standard involved an “essential” of faith or practice — and if they decided it did not, the person could be ordained.
Both sides also say some ordinations of sexually-active gays and lesbians already take place in the PC(USA), although they disagree whether that’s a violation of the rules.
Tricia Dykers Koenig, national organizer for the Covenant Network of Presbyterians, contended during a workshop at that group’s meeting in Memphis in early November that the denomination’s constitution doesn’t prohibit that — chastity is not celibacy, Koenig said, adding that the Bible speaks of married people being chaste. She contends that ordinations of gays and lesbians in committed, same-sex partnerships are permitted under the current rules.
But many evangelicals say gays and lesbians are being ordained in violation of the constitution — and the task force recommendations would only make that easier to accomplish.
If the task force report is approved, ordinations of gays and lesbians that are now performed atypically — dishonestly and defiantly, as “bootleg local option” — would become commonplace, sanctioned and routine, Berkley said. Judicial challenges to those ordinations would be difficult to win, Berkley said, he said, and “we would see the balkanization of the PC(USA), the end of connectionalism.”
James Tony, a Chicago-area pastor, said he expects Chicago presbytery would ordain gays and lesbians — something the session of his congregation could not accept.
Tony said he sees the task force proposal as “fragmenting, atomizing the church into separate jurisdictions with separate ordinations.”.
And will it stop with ordaining homosexuals, asked Gordon Fish of Montclair, N.J. Presbyterians have already raised questions of whether the Nicene Creed is correct, or whether Jesus really was raised bodily from the dead. If orthodoxy isn’t required, Fish asked, “where does it go?”
