As years go, I’m glad for this one to be gone. Not that it was a bad year. It just was a difficult one. And a nervous one. And, for many in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), a disappointing and frustrating one.
While enjoying the afterglow of having just extracted the “fidelity-chastity” clause from our ordination standards, marriage equality advocates set their sights on gaining the approval to perform same-gender marriages. A variety of proposals to July’s General Assembly (GA) fell a few votes short of passage.
Traditional marriage advocates, reeling from the loss of the “fidelity-chastity” ordination requirement, interpreted the narrow vote against same-gender marriage not as a victory but, at best, as a temporary delay, a last stand against the tides of inevitable defeat.
Advocates for Palestinian Christians hoped the Presbyterians would do what the Lutherans and Episcopalians had failed to do: take a strong stand against injustices being perpetrated by discriminatory Israeli policies in order to fuel a fledgling “anti-apartheid” movement. They fell two votes short at the GA.
Advocates for Israel’s right to defend itself, happy to have defeated the pro-Palestinian efforts, soon were reeling when Gradye Parsons, the PC(USA)’s stated clerk, joined other Christian leaders in pleading with Congress to investigate whether Israel had violated U.S. policies on providing aid to countries with human rights violations.
Leaders of ECO: A Covenant Order of Evangelical Presbyterians set out to build their new denomination as a close cousin of the PC(USA), minimizing rancor and strengthening the ties that bind our hearts in Christian love. But the Permanent Judicial Commission (PJC) of the Synod of Southern California and Hawaii ruled that the Presbytery of Santa Barbara couldn’t form a union presbytery with ECO, declaring that ECO exists “beyond the boundaries of what is understood to be Reformed.”
After the Special Offerings Task Force had poured two years of effort into preparing a new approach to promoting Presbyterians’ support of global missions and other causes, the GA rejected all the task force’s recommendations, leaving us with the status quo.
So, too, the Mid Councils Commission proposed inventive ways to experiment with reconfigurations of our connectionalism that could have reflected the various spiritual giftings and ministry visions proliferating in the church – and create space for some theological minorities. Shot dead on arrival.
And while many presbyteries strove to follow the GA’s urgings to develop gracious dismissal policies for departing congregations, a recent General Assembly PJC ruling has upped the ante, requiring “due diligence” in considering the financial value of property, and not letting congregations go without taking that into account.
For many, it has been a difficult, disappointing year.
Then again, we did enjoy some positive moments.
The launch of the 1,001 New Worshiping Communities initiative generated enthusiasm at the start, and continues to build strength in points of light and ministry creativity popping up across the map.
The decision to strengthen funding and recruitment for the Young Adult Volunteers program and the uptick in sending mission co-workers overseas lifted our vision for fulfilling the Great Commission.
And, more than anything, Presbyterian Christians got themselves out of bed on Sunday mornings, presented themselves as living sacrifices to God in Lord’s Day worship, participated in church school classes, prayed for and offered support to the sick, taught in public schools, welcomed the homeless, fed the hungry, confronted injustice, rescued the imperiled, and extended the hand of caring to strangers.
So while the year brought anxiety and some difficult, disappointing experiences, it was among and around such times that the grace of the Lord Jesus did work in the everyday activities of believers strangely warmed by the love of God and empowered by the communing presence of the Holy Spirit.
May this next year bring more of that to all.
