Confessing Church?

The "Confessing Church Movement"

Lay Committee launches a movement to define essentials of faith for the whole church

For early reports and comments, click here.

Here are updates on this report:

A Confessing Church view of stewardship

[8-29-02]

James Tuckett, a.k.a. The Old Gray Dog, has posted on the Confessing Church website "seven principles of Christian financial stewardship taught in the New Testament." [Underlining is Mr. Tuckett's.]

You might find it interesting. Your WebWeaver notes just a few points:

1. Women may be pleased to discover that by citing the King James Version of all the NT passages, you're relieved of all stewardship obligations. This seems to be a matter for men only!

2. Principle 4 states: "Giving money to the Lord's work is a matter of personal choice." The explication of this principle implies that things like per capita payments are coercive, and therefore "legalistic and/or carnal."

3. In a "Special Message for the Congregations of the Confessing Church Movement," the Old Gray Dog advises their congregations to "Stop all undesignated giving. How can your stewardship be personal, purposeful, and thoughtful if you do not know where the money is going, how it will be spent, or what, specifically, it will be used for? This would include all denominational giving. (e.g., Special Offerings, "mission" giving, per capita)."

4. So how will a good Christian man know where to designate his bountiful offerings? Old Gray Dog recommends "The Outreach Foundation and the Presbyterian Frontier Fellowship." [Emphasis in the original.]

Tucson church divided by Confessing Church movement [5-27-02]

Sixty members of Tucson's largest Presbyterian Church (USA) congregation, St. Andrew's, have resigned their memberships because they say a culture of secrecy and homophobia has taken over their once tight-knit congregation.

After the session voted last June to join the "Confessing Church Movement," a number of members urged a reconsideration, partly because the action had been taken without the congregation's being informed.

The session has now voted to withdraw from the Confessing Church movement, but a number of members have said it's too late: their trust in the pastors and the session's leadership has been so badly damaged that they feel compelled to seek new church homes.

Diana Logan, one of the leaders in the effort to have the CCM decision reconsidered, comments:

"At long last, our session has reversed its CCM decision. Too bad it had to happen after the church has become so divisive it was impossible for many of us to stay. Perhaps those who are staying will continue to ask the questions we have been asking for a year."

	Check out the report in the Arizona Daily Star
	You may also be interested in an earlier report of another congregation that reconsidered their support of the Confessing Church movement.

Berry Craig's recent essay comparing the Confessing Church movement to the Puritans of the 17^th century has attracted lots of interest ... and criticism.

You can check out all the notes we've received so far, but please feel free to add your own voice to the conversation! [5-29-02]

Confessing the faith in our time means being respectful and open and just

Witherspoon Issues Analyst Gene TeSelle sends this thought as we look toward the 214^th General Assembly.

[5-6-02]

We have been hearing a lot this year about the "Confessing Church Movement." One of the most recent declarations in our Book of Confessions is the Confession of 1967. In four successive paragraphs (C-9.44-47) it states that

those who "exclude, dominate, or patronize" on the basis of race bring "contempt on the faith which they profess";
a church that identifies any one nation or way of life with the cause of God "betrays its calling";
a church that condones enslaving poverty in a world of abundance "makes a mockery of reconciliation and offers no acceptable worship to God"; and
the church "comes under the judgment of God and invites rejection by society ["man" in the original]" when it withholds the compassion of Christ or fails to lead men and women into the fullness of life.

As the commissioners to the 214^th General Assembly consider how to confess the faith in our time, we hope that they will give serious and prayerful consideration to these statements, which remind us that we must be concerned not only about the content of our faith, but about the ways we give testimony to it in all aspects of life.

Baptists do it. Buddhists do it. Even followers of Muhammad do it.

"Breaking up's not hard to do."

[3-13-02]

A story in the Dallas Morning News looks at conflict in various religious bodies, and concludes that religious splits - no matter what the religious rhetoric - are most often really about "Who makes the rules?"

This essay focuses on the Southern Baptists (after all, it is Dallas!). Do you think the writer could say the same things about Presbyterians? Take a look, and send us your thoughts!

Speaking of splits -- here's a thought from one Witherspooner about not leaving the church.

The Permanent Judicial Commission of Central Florida Presbytery has ordered the Session of First Presbyterian Church of Sebastian to rescind their "Confessing Church" statement [2-28-02]

The real roots of the "Confessing Church Movement" -- a protest not against Nazi tyranny, but against the abolition of slavery
[1-22-02]

Prof. Stephen Haynes of Rhodes College explores the historic antecedents of the "Confessing Church Movement," which he finds not in the Confessing Church of Germany, risking its existence to protest a tyrannous regime, but in a movement started 140 years ago in August, Georgia, "for the purpose of salvaging the sanctity of the church. The time had come, they believed, to repudiate an apostate denomination, one that had fatally mingled the gospel with politics and that was determined to ignore the clear witness of Scripture. These men called their movement the Presbyterian Church in the Confederate States of America."

Presbyterian Paranoia? [1-21-02]

It may help us to understand the current tensions in the Presbyterian Church if we see some conservative efforts as reflecting the larger picture of "the paranoid style in American politics." Witherspooner Berry Craig offers these reflections. He is an associate professor of history at Paducah Community College, and a member of Mayfield, Ky., First Presbyterian Church.

Split seems possible, say GA leaders
Stated Clerk Clifton Kirkpatrick and Moderator Jack Rogers spoke at the opening of the Committee on the Office of the General Assembly on October 10, 2001, acknowledging that some conservatives in the PC(USA) seem to be laying the groundwork for a possible split in the church. [10-22-01]

Church leaders refute Presbyterian Layman charges. In a strongly worded letter to the board of directors of the Presbyterian Lay Committee, the moderator and stated clerk of the General Assembly have asked the conservative group to "reconsider" its accusation in the July issue of The Presbyterian Layman that the 213th General Assembly was "apostate." [8-8-01]

Jonathan Justice is skeptical of the Layman's charges. [8-15-01]

Background on the meaning of apostasy: Early in June, the Rev. Dr. Joe Small, Coordinator for Theology & Worship on the General Assembly staff, sent a brief message clarifying the significance of the term "apostasy." [8-8-01]

Eastern Virginia Presbytery sends "an open letter to a confessing church," which affirms the whole church [7-23-01]

The Confessing Church Movement seems to be experiencing some strains along with its apparent gains in support. Here's a brief update from your WebWeaver and others. [7-4-01]

What does the Church need to learn from Albert Einstein?

Peter Sawtell, Executive Director of Eco-Justice Ministries, National Council of Churches, poses this question, and suggests that we might learn from that "frizzy-haired scientific genius" to seek new and more expansive answers to the new and expanding questions of our time. [8-2-01]

"The Problematic of Belief"
The Rev. Byron Bangert, who lives in Bloomington, Indiana, has been moved by the current emphasis on right belief in certain parts of the Presbyterian Church to ponder what it means to believe something. He explores three basic theses:
1) For the most part, we do not choose to believe what we believe.
2) However necessary beliefs may be, they invariably tend to be divisive.
3) Although Christian faith surely involves beliefs about certain matters (e.g., God, Jesus Christ, the Bible, salvation), faith is fundamentally a matter of trusting relationship rather than cognitive consent. [7-3-01]

A visitor to this site is trying to think through the implications of his church's joining the "confessing church movement." He asks for help from others who have considered the possibility. Please take a minute to read more, and respond if you can. [7-2-01]

Witherspoon president Jane Hanna raises the question of what we should really be "confessing" -- absolutes of belief, or our failures to do justice and to love our neighbors? [5-11-01]

Presbyterian News Service reports on the "movement" being fueled by the Lay Committee to encourage congregations to make "confessional statements," and perhaps "loyalty oaths" for PC(USA) staff. Comments are included from the Lay Committee's Parker Williamson, Vice-Moderator Rebecca McElroy, Joe Rightmyer of Presbyterians for Renewal, and Joseph Small of the Department of Theology and Worship. [4-14-01]

Click here for comments on this proposal.

[4-2-01]

Early reports and comments follow below

The Presbyterian Lay Committee has announced its support of what they are calling a "Confessing Church Movement," one early expression of which was the declaration by Summit Presbyterian Church in Pennsylvania, which was then endorsed by Beaver-Butler Presbytery.

The Lay Committee has sent letters to "more than 23,000 congregational leaders" urging sessions to "identify with the Confessing Church Movement in three assertions:

	That Jesus Christ alone is Lord of all and the way of salvation.
	That holy Scripture is the Triune God's revealed Word, the Church's only infallible rule of faith and life.
	That God's people are called to holiness in all aspects of life. This includes honoring the sanctity of marriage between a man and a woman, the only relationship within which sexual activity is appropriate."

The Lay Committee's letter also urges the 2001 General Assembly to instruct the General Assembly Council to require that "all program personnel make written commitments to uphold these three confessions and ensure that they are reflected in all programs and policies" of the denomination.

The report carried by The Layman Online indicates that this "movement" will aim further at a clear rejection of the kind of openness to other faiths that was exemplified by Dirk Ficca in his presentation at the last summer's Peacemaking Conference. There will also be a demand for a clear affirmation of the authority of scripture, and particularly of the "Biblical texts that denounce homosexual activity."

The stated intent of this effort is to emulate the Barmen Declaration that was adopted by some courageous Protestants in Germany during the rise of Nazism in 1934. Parker Williamson is quoted in the article as saying, ""This is an opportunity for sessions and congregations to draw a line in the sand, just as did the evangelical church in Germany before World War II ..."

Do you have thoughts on this latest campaign by our sisters and brothers in the right wing of the Presbyterian Church? Please send a note, and we'll share it here.

Barbara Kellam-Scott offers a thoughtful critique.

And the Rev. Darlene Little comments:

Looking at the proposed statement of faith I would raise two questions.

What about the Jews--"one cannot have a relationship with God outside of Jesus."

Secondly, it seems to border on blasphemy of the Holy Spirit, to suggest that God is limited to acting in only one way.

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Another comment, received on 4-6-01 --

an insult to Barmen .....

an insult to the millions outside the Christian religion ....

an insult to those who work for the church in the requirement for written concurrence .... McCarthyism raises its ugly head.

never thought I would live to see this dimension of insult to the tenets of the gospel !

Rod Martin

Note: The author is a former president of the Witherspoon Society.

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Gene TeSelle comments on Mark Achtemeier's praise of the "Confessing Church Movement," noting that Achtemeier's yearning for a strong "teaching office" in the Presbyterian Church is rather foreign to our tradition, and that the early theologians who shaped Christian doctrine favored flexibility and exploration rather than rigidity. [4-7-01]

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German confessing church history 'turned upside down'

The Rev. Dennis Maher shares with us his letter to the Layman - one brief corrective response to all the talk about a "Confessing Church" [4-27-01]