Conversation

GA day 1
Semper Reformanda conversation

Semper Reformanda conversation kicks off the week

A justice-oriented church in Brazil, and tensions in the PC(USA), form the themes of the discussion

[5-23-03]

Some 50 people gathered for a three-hour time of theological conversation on Friday afternoon. Two quite different topics were perhaps not totally unrelated.

The group heard first about the experience - and the commitments - of the United Presbyterian Church of Brazil (IPU), which emerged from the mission-founded Presbyterian Church of Brazil are that group moved to the political right in response to military control of the government and fundamentalist influence from Carl McIntyre.

The Rev. Ario Obispo, founder of IPU and current president of the board of ITEBA, the Institute for Theological Education in Bahia, spoke of how he and some colleagues were dismissed from teaching at the seminary of the Presbyterian Church of Brazil. Their "heresy" came with their growing understanding that the Christian faith involved more that "just preaching the Gospel to save souls," and their sense that salvation must involve the whole person, and not just the person's soul.

The mission of their seminary, which they moved to Bahia, in the poorest area of Brazil and one of the poorest in the world, includes helping people to understand and deal with the consequences of "so-called globalization," and to "turn the society upside down" as the only way of transforming an oppressive situation. The seminary students are themselves mostly poor, with many unable to pay the $7 per month tuition. Even so, they are challenged to live a simple life in solidarity with the poor.

The Rev. Bert Campbell then told of how the congregation he serves, First Presbyterian Church in Washington, PA, has become involved in building a network of North American churches to help provide basic financial support that might enable the seminary to continue its mission of bringing change to very poor communities.

An added insight about our GA guests from the United Presbyterian Church of Brazil [7-9-03]

The Rev. Lew Lancaster, recently retired from years of service on the national staff of the Presbyterian Church, adds a note to our report on presentations by Aureo Bispo dos Santos of the United Presbyterian Church of Brazil:

I write in response to your note that Aureo Bispo dos Santos was at the General Assembly. In 1968 (or thereabouts) the Board of National Missions in Atlanta invited several ministers from other countries to spend 3 months itinerating in the US in a program Tom Jones called "Mission Possible." One of those ministers was Aureo Bispos dos Santos from Brazil.

He spoke at a city-wide event at Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary, and in the middle of his sermon looked out over the all white assembly and said, "Where are the Blacks? I miss them so much!" With his body language as well as his tone emphasizing his point, it was an unforgettable moment.

Another anecdote from that same "Mission Possible" program: A team went to Charlotte, NC, and were given the VIP tour of the recently completed new building of one of the prominent churches. At the conclusion of the tour, the pastor responsible for the million dollar building stood back and asked, "What do you think?" Mario from Portugal said, "It's a scandal!" Maybe we still need voices from overseas.

Peace,

Lew Lancaster

The second half of the conversation featured two member of the Theological Task Force: the Rev. Jack Haberer, pastor of Clear Lake Presbyterian Church in Houston, TX, and current member of the Board for Presbyterians for Renewal; and Barbara Wheeler, President of Auburn Theological Seminary in New York City.

We'll provide a more complete report of their dialogue tomorrow; for now, here are a few general impressions:

Here were two people who clearly look at the world and the church from different perspectives, but who have come to respect one another without coming to agreement on some very important issues. Haberer spoke of his concern at the loss of the covenantal dimension of the Presbyterian church, and lamented the "spirit of meanness, rudeness, intolerance and bad manners" that he sees in the church.

Wheeler acknowledged, as she had stated in a paper given at Fuller Theological Seminary, that "I'm not in a very cheerful mood about how we're conducting ourselves in the Presbyterian Church these days." Yet she voiced her hopes for the church, too, including the hope that "our church would put the truth of God first. There is only one truth of God, and only God knows it all."

In response to a question about how diversity might in any way be "faithful to tradition," each of the speakers acknowledged something to be learned from the other side. Haberer said the "Jesus was radically inclusive, and to uphold diversity is faithful to the tradition. But I can tell you I'm a slow learner. My being in conversation with people who have a passion for justice has taught me a great deal." Wheeler said that in her sociological and ethnographic research, she has found that "the diversity picture isn't quite as clear as liberals would like to think." She finds that some conservative churches, including some of the large ones, have a fair amount of racial diversity, and even more class diversity.

So how did a discussion of a justice-oriented seminary in a very poor part of Brazil connect with two perspectives on our Presbyterian problems? From this listener's perspective, the story of the church in Brazil brought awareness that there is real risk in being faithful to the gospel; both Wheeler and Haberer reminded us that being faithful to a radically inclusive Christ can present challenges, can threaten our comfortable lives, and can transform us. We may seek comfort by going along with an oppressive regime, like many Presbyterians in Brazil. We may make questions of sexuality a little easier by treating them as purely personal issues, when they are in fact deeply social issues, demanding social change. Or we may think rather smugly of ourselves as practicing "diversity" just because we affirm at as a good thing, without really living it out in our own communities. In any case, faithfulness will require struggle, and (as the Brazilian experience reminds us) willingness to link our lives with those who are oppressed, marginalized, somehow left out of the fullness of life.

There was more good material for reflection and conversation. And tomorrow we'll try to bring it to you.