The Assembly this year will go down in the annals of the Kirk, as the first time a woman occupied the Moderatorial Chair. Though press coverage concentrated on Dr. Elliot's gender, equally significant was the fact that for the first time for more than four hundred years, an elder was called to this high office. For some time now there has been ever increasing media pressure on the Church to elect a woman Moderator.
LOUISVILLE -- It wasn't a big-fireworks meeting -- but the General Assembly Council of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), meeting in Kentucky Sept. 22-25, kept the concerns of the world close at hand.
It approved a resolution calling for support of members of the U.S. military.
It learned that Forman Christian College in Pakistan has received a major $5 million grant from U.S. AID. "We cannot tell you what a big deal this is," said Will Browne of the Worldwide Ministries Division.
And it is trying to find ways for Presbyterians from the U.S. to help protect the life and the human-rights work of Presbyterians in Colombia, who have watched their colleagues in human rights work being assassinated and imprisoned one-by-one.
LOUISVILLE -- It wasn't a big-fireworks meeting -- but the General Assembly Council of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), meeting in Kentucky Sept. 22-25, kept the concerns of the world close at hand.
LOUISVILLE -- The first wave has hit hard -- intense criticism of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) for considering selective divestment in some companies doing business in Israel, as a way to protest Israel's treatment of the Palestinian people.
But now the PC(USA) is trying to figure out where to go from here, deciding not just when and whether to divest, but also searching for ways to deal with the ripples of reaction.
Church leaders are trying first to explain what the assembly has done so that people really understand -- there has been a boatload of misunderstanding ("So many people are operating on the basis of what they think we did, not what we did," said Manley Olson, a General Assembly Council member from Minnesota.)
But they also want to cultivate support from the ecumenical community in the divestment effort -- there are signs that may be starting to happen -- and to renew discussions with Jewish leaders in a way that acknowledges the deep pain and sense of betrayal the divestment issue has caused the Jewish community, but which also doesn't dilute the Presbyterian commitment to justice for the Palestinians or duck the hard issues embedded in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
LOUISVILLE -- Here's the bad news. The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) has lost about 24 percent of its membership in the last 20 years.
Here's some news that's a little better. Some Presbyterian congregations are growing, are taking risks, are taking evangelism seriously. And there's research available on what growing congregations are doing -- research which often shows a gap between what many Presbyterians expect will make a church grow, and what really does.
The General Assembly Council, meeting this week in Louisville, has been talking about how to implement its Mission Work Plan for 2005-2006, and spent part of that time thinking about what the PC(USA) does well, and not so well, in evangelism. Deborah Bruce, of the denomination's Office of Research Services, shared some of the findings that she and colleague Cynthia Woolever have mined from the U.S. Congregational Life Survey -- a study of more than 300,000 people in the U.S. who attended worship one weekend in April 2001, involving more than 2,200 congregations from more than 50 faith groups.
LOUISVILLE -- Not wanting to say too much, but maybe not comfortable with keeping silent either, members of the General Assembly Council are struggling with what to do about the most incendiary issue the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) faces: the intensely controversial vote of the General Assembly a few months ago to begin a process of selective, phased divestment in some companies doing business in Israel.
Church officials now say that no divestiture can take place before 2006, when the next General Assembly meets. There have been questions raised about whether the Presbyterian Foundation or the Board of Pensions are willing to consider divestiture or will feel compelled to act to protect the financial interests of those whose money is invested in their portfolios.
Trying to calm the waters, key PC(USA) leaders have scheduled two meetings with top-level Jewish leaders, one in New York on Sept. 28 and one in October.
But the council, meeting this week in Louisville, is trying to determine whether to have denominational leaders issue some kind of "clarifying statement" about the divestiture action, perhaps one that would be sent to all Presbyterian congregations, acknowledging the anger this action has provoked among many Jews, aware that e-mails and letters and phone calls have been pouring in by the hundreds, and that some Presbyterian congregations are feeling the heat close to home.
Over and over, Rick Ufford-Chase talks about the value of international connections, about things the church in the United States can learn from the church around the world.
The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) is just starting its second round of the Interfaith Listening Project, in which teams from 10 countries in Africa, the Middle East and Asia -- usually made up of one Christian and one Muslim who already know and work with each other at home -- have come to the United States to visit churches and communities, to have conversations with people at the grassroots.
Ufford-Chase, who's moderator of the church's 216th General Assembly, said that in the three months since he was elected he's had the chance to meet with international representatives at the Youth Triennium in Indiana, at the Peacemaking Conference in Seattle, and now at the General Assembly Council meeting this week in Louisville, where the interfaith listening teams made a presentation and participated in opening worship. Ufford-Chase said he's come away from each of these encounters more convinced about the "opportunity they offer our church for transformation."
The idea goes something like this.
A small congregation, in need of a new pastor, looks at new seminary graduates -- a pastor seeking a first call would be just fine with them.
A student, eager to dive into ministry, is delighted with the idea too.
The congregation needs a pastor; the pastor needs a job.
A match is made.
Everybody's happy.
Except here's the problem: a lot of the time, it doesn't work like that at all.
People familiar with the system say there are multiple, serious problems with the path that students take during and after seminary -- problems that are often frustrating for students and churches alike.
Some students don't move into the inquirer and candidacy process quickly enough, or don't pass their ordination examinations, so when they graduate they're not ready to take a call to a church.
More than a few people go to seminary, but don't want to go into parish ministry, or don't want to serve the kinds of churches that have the most vacancies -- small congregations in rural areas or little towns.
Loren Mead presented the challenge well: “In all the denominations, by whatever names we call it, we badly need a better functioning system by which local churches, clergy, and laity are strengthened and encouraged into their ministries. The old system of oversight approaches collapse”(Mead 1991. 55).
In March, a letter came from the Editor and CEO of The Layman, Parker Williamson, requesting that The Presbyterian Outlook “publish corrections and apologies for erroneous statements made in two of our editorials, titled “Ministry of Fear” (January 26, 2004) by John Sniffen, former Associate Editor of the Outlook, and the editorial, “Addressing the Issues” (March 22, 2004) by Interim Editor O. Benjamin Sparks.
Due to the mid-August to early September publishing hiatus at the Outlook, the Uniform Lesson Helps for Sunday, September 5 were not printed. We are posting it on our web site for immediate use.
September 5 Bible Study (Uniform Lesson)
UNIT I “Created for a Purpose"
"From the Dust of the Ground"
Background Scripture and Lesson Focus: Genesis 2:4b-7, 15-24
LOUISVILLE - Nagy Tawfik, the long-time corporate controller for the Presbyterian Church (USA) was fired September 2 for "errors in judgment" surrounding the open bidding process for the external auditing of the church's financial books."
There is no evidence that PC(USA) funds have been misused," said General Assembly Council executive director John Detterick September 2 in announcing Tawfik's termination
The World Alliance of Reformed Churches has issued a potent denunciation of economic disparities in the world and the capitalist systems that foster them – saying in a confession on economic injustice that “we reject the current world economic order of global neo-liberal capitalism” and that “global economic justice is essential to the integrity of our faith in God and our discipleship as Christians.”
Without doubt, the most heated plenary debate at the 216th General Assembly was the debate about whether to discard the Authoritative Interpretations on homosexuality. The tactic of the majority report, to abandon the A.I., was keenly designed to attract votes from the theological center. Instead of saying that this would make gay ordination a local option (although this was the claim of a Witherspoon Fellowship newsletter), the majority report sought more “moderate” grounds: that the language of A.I. was “antiquated” and “offensive,” thus it should be eliminated.
Martha Skelton, a veteran church journalist, has been named associate editor
of THE OUTLOOK effective Aug. 2.
A freelance journalist with extensive experience in religious publishing,
she has spent most of the last 20 years employed by the Southern Baptist
Church, and was director of the European Baptist Press Service for four
years.
American Clifton Kirkpatrick admits there is "more than irony" in his election as president of the World Alliance of Reformed Churches (WARC) August 9 at their meeting in Accra, Ghana. He will serve the next seven years.
Kirkpatrick, the stated clerk of the Presbyterian Church USA, was elected president in a unanimous vote Monday to spontaneous applause from 400 delegates from around the world. "I had real questions about this (coming from the US)," he said following the election.
DALLAS – Well, it was 97 degrees in Dallas, but the Theological Task Force on the Peace, Unity and Purity of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) didn’t bare much skin.
For those who had hoped the task force would unbutton its defenses and begin to discuss publicly what the PC(USA) should do about ordaining gays and lesbians, that didn’t happen. The task force did talk about homosexuality – that was front-and-center on its agenda during the Aug. 3-6 meeting – but the most substantive parts of that conversation came during two long, closed-door sessions in which task force members cleared the room of all observers and spoke from their hearts, explaining their own views and sharing stories from their lives that have shaped those views, in an exchange that task force member Joan Kelley Merritt described during a worship service as powerful and courageous.
DALLAS – Think of this like an episode of your favorite TV show. You’re going to have to tune in later to find out what happens.
The Theological Task Force on the Peace, Unity and Purity of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) did talk about homosexuality during its Aug. 3-6 meeting, although nearly all behind closed doors, in more than seven hours of private discussions.
DALLAS – Where do homosexuals fit in the Christian church?
In what ways are gays and lesbians part of the great narrative of the gospel drama?
What does it mean for a gay or lesbian who’s in a committed, monogamous relationship to be created in the image of God, like everyone else; to be in need of reconciliation, like everyone else; and to be redeemed in Jesus Christ through the power of the Holy Spirit?
DALLAS — About to start discussing one of its most difficult topics, the Theological Task Force on the Peace, Unity and Purity of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) has voted to go into closed session.
The task force voted 16-1, with two abstentions, to close a portion of its meeting regarding homosexuality and ordination — a session described on the agenda as “Exploring God’s presence in our encounters with homosexuality.”
Some might consider Donegal Presbytery in Pennsylvania to be exactly the sort of place where financial revolt could be launched. It’s in the heart of conservative Presbyterianism, where a lot of folks think the denomination has gone way off track and where the last thing they want is to give more money to the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) to spend on whatever the national church chooses.
But the numbers show something different.
Our moderator, Rick Ufford-Chase, is urging the church to take risks, to "get in the boat with Jesus." One of the risks he encouraged sent chills down the spines of some seminary presidents. He called for sacrifice. He believes pastors are paid too much, and that we need to learn, alongside Hebrew and Greek, a living language such as Spanish or Korean.
One of the "holy moments" on the floor of the 216th General Assembly came when the minority report on Authoritative Interpretation became the majority vote by only four votes. There was a spontaneous moment of silence, prompted by the sadness of those who had prayed and worked for the majority report which would have invalidated the 1970s authoritative Assembly statements. There was also the humble recognition by everyone present who saw how deeply divided our church remains on the issue of ordination.
The Committee on the Office of the General Assembly will conduct an investigation involving concerns that the process used in the stated clerk’s election on July 2 might not have been fair.
And that investigation is likely to lead to a bigger conversation in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) about whether more specific rules should be adopted for electing a stated clerk — now there basically are no rules governing campaigning for that office — and about whether the behind-the-scenes efforts to influence commissioners at General Assembly are acceptable or sometimes go too far.
RICHMOND, Va. — For people with profound disagreements, they were mighty polite.
Next year, for the first time in forever, the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) will not meet. It’ll be a year off, and it’ll be a year following an Assembly that didn’t do anything wild and crazy, did not threaten schism, intentionally didn’t rock the boat.
RICHMOND, Va. — The 216th General Assembly "did the math" Saturday morning and approved mission and per capita budgets for the coming two years based on the actions of the Assembly during the week concluded.
The Assembly approved a 2005 mission budget with revenues of $114,891,603 and expenditures of $114,387,431. The mission budget for 2006 was set at $115,048,841.
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