PITTSBURGH, July 2, 2012 – Here’s where there seems to be consensus: The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) needs to be flexible, creative, innovative and more able to respond to congregations’ missional needs.
Here’s where there’s disagreement: whether allowing nongeographic presbyteries or eliminating synods as ecclesiastical bodies will help to make that happen.
On Monday, the General Assembly’s Mid Council Issues Committee heard from dozens of people with widely divergent views on those questions, as a prelude to the committee beginning its own debate on eight recommendations from the General Assembly Commission on Mid Councils, as well as on 18 other overtures. The committee spent part of the day in small-group discussion of the recommendations, as a mechanism for sorting through its own big-picture questions.
Concerns raised. The Advisory Committee on the Constitution has raised constitutional concerns about a number of the recommendations.
The Committee on the Office of the General Assembly (COGA) is recommending that the assembly refer a proposal to allow provisional nongeographic presbyteries to a newly created task force that would consider the ramifications and report back to the General Assembly in 2014.
John Wilkinson, a teaching elder from New York state who is chair of COGA, told the committee that “we love this report . . . We love its content and its vision,” yet have concerns about the recommendation to allow a season of experimentation in which nongeographic presbyteries would be permitted for particular missional purposes, within certain limitations.
Would allowing nongeographic presbyteries create like-minded presbyteries that would hurt the church’s witness of Christian unity?
Would a pattern of rich and poor presbyteries emerge, as wealthy congregations moved from one presbytery to another?
Are there theological as well as practical reasons for wanting congregations to be connected geographically?
COGA has raised all these questions. The proposal for nongeographic presbyteries “needs a little more bake time,” Wilkinson told the committee. “We’re not quite ready for a `Yes’ vote, at least on nongeographic presbyteries.”
And Daniel Saperstein, of the Advisory Committee on the Constitution, said the proposal for nongeographic presbyteries raises significant questions about the PC(USA)’s commitment to racial diversity and about power dynamics in the church. He also made mention of “wormhole” or “pass-through” presbyteries – possibly places to which congregations unhappy with their current presbytery might transfer before leaving the PC(USA) altogether.
But members of the Commission on Mid Councils, whose 21 members have worked for two years to craft their report, contend that the PC(USA) can work through the details while living into the season of experimentation. The proposal has an automatic “sunset clause,” with permission for the provisional nongeographic presbyteries expiring in 2021 unless a General Assembly were to take action to extend the authorization.
During a “season of reflective experimentation,” 10 or more congregations within an existing synod or contiguous synods could form a non-geographic presbytery “for particular missional purposes,” and with the concurrence of the existing presbyteries (those to which the affected congregations already belong).
How fast to move. Tod Bolsinger, a teaching elder from California and moderator of the commission, said the PC(USA) has been considering proposals for eliminating synods for decades now. Rather than needing more bake time, “we feel like we gave you an eight-year slow cook oven,” Bolsinger said.
John Vest, a teaching elder and commission member from Chicago, said the PC(USA) is doing ministry in a fast-changing, multi-ethnic, post-Christendom world. Half the congregations have fewer than 100 members; 44 percent can’t afford a full-time pastor.
The commission’s proposals create possibilities for creative collaboration, Bolsinger said. Synods would be dissolved as ecclesiastical bodies and replaced with five regional administrative commissions and with “the necessary number” of judicial commissions – an effort to flatten the hierarchy of the denomination. The idea of a season of experimentation with a designated end date means “there are belts and suspenders in this. It’s not reckless,” Bolsinger said.
Commissioners don’t have to agree with all the commission’s recommendations in order to pass its report, said commission member Warren Cooper, a ruling elder from Philadelphia who admitted that he still has concerns about the potential for divisiveness if nongeographic presbyteries are created. Passing the report, however, would send a series of proposed constitutional amendments to the 173 presbyteries for their approval, making space for a churchwide discussion on crucial issues, Cooper said.
Eliminating synods. The committee heard from a series of synod and presbytery executives, speaking during an open hearing, and during time for overture advocates to make presentations. Not surprisingly, they did not all agree.
Clark Cowden, executive presbyter of the Presbytery of San Diego, urged approval of the task force report. If the denomination waits two years, “we’ll be farther behind the curve than we are now,” Cowden said.
Kathy Goodrich, co-executive of Yellowstone Presbytery, said her presbytery is geographically dispersed (it takes 12 hours to drive across), and has learned how to use Skype and other forms of technology to stay in touch across a geographic expanse. “There are lots of ways to be community, if you decide to be community,” Goodrich said.
James Kennedy Jr., the stated clerk and presbytery administrator of Kendall Presbytery, described synods, when properly governed and staffed, as “the powerhouses of the denomination,” capable of generating resources for mission.
The executives of 15 of the 16 synods signed a letter asking the commission not to approve the recommendation dissolving synods as ecclesiastical entities. (The executive who did not sign, Terry Newland, executive of the Synod of Living Waters, is a member of the commission and so refrained from taking a position).
“We are on a journey together as a denomination,” said Samford Turner, executive presbyter of the Presbytery of South Alabama. If people really want to see big change, “we think synods are necessary for that to happen.”
