GAC affirms Lordship of Christ, defends
"open dialogue" in conferences
Council says it has no standing to discipline
speaker or make theology
by John Filiatreau, Presbyterian News Service
Louisville -- February 24, 2001 -- The General
Assembly Council (GAC), responding to a controversy over a conference
speaker's statements which some critics have alleged to be heretical, on
Feb. 24 approved a document that affirms "the Lordship of Jesus
Christ and our salvation through Christ," but also defends
"the propriety of open dialogue at GAC-sponsored conferences."
The controversy developed after the Rev. Dirk Ficca of
Chicago, a speaker at last summer's Presbyterian Peacemaking Conference
in Orange, Calif., suggested that an omnipotent and merciful God might
provide other avenues to salvation for Jews and Muslims and other
non-believers in Christ. Ficca is the director of the Chicago-based
Parliament of the World's Religions.
You can
read Ficca's address for yourself.
Twenty-one sessions of the Presbyterian Church (USA)
and one presbytery had called for the GAC to discipline Ficca or disavow
the views he expressed.
The GAC unanimously approved a motion put forward by
the Rev. Adelia Kelso of the Southern Louisiana Presbytery and Neal
Presa of the San Francisco Presbytery.
GAC Chair Peter Pizor said before the discussion that
the council lacks authority to take judicial action against Ficca or to
"make theological statements on behalf of the church."
Pizor said he had discovered, in his travels around
the church, that "women and men of good faith disagree on this
matter."
Kelso observed in presenting her motion that "the
presbytery has disciplinary jurisdiction over its minister
members," and that "the GAC does not initiate and cannot alter
the theological statements and beliefs of the PC(USA)."
Sara Lisherness, director of the Peacemaking Program,
responded to a council member's question by outlining the processes by
which church-wide conferences are planned and evaluated. She noted that
the group's 1999 conference was about the person and ministry of Jesus,
and said it was purposely scheduled that way to help Presbyterians
become more grounded in their faith before engaging in inter-religious
dialogue. She said that conference "was planned with the
understanding that Jesus Christ is our Lord and Savior."
The wording of the motion was changed slightly at the
suggestion of council members, but no one objected to its substance,
mounted an effort to materially change its meaning, or opposed it on the
floor.
Mike Gillespie, of the Cincinnati Presbytery, who
chairs the council's Education and Leader Development subcommittee, said
that in his opinion the Peacemaking Program's leaders do their work
"with theological competence and spiritual integrity." Presa
asked council members to refrain from "divisive assertions and
vitriol" and to "rise above the fray" between church
conservatives and liberals. After the vote, Paul Masquelier of the San
Jose Presbytery expressed satisfaction that the council had "raised
up this most important issue and affirmed the Lordship of Jesus
Christ," and thanked his fellow members for their "careful
consideration of this most important issue."
Parker Williamson of the Presbyterian Lay Committee
and The Presbyterian Layman, who had called for disciplinary
action against Ficca, distributed a
statement after the vote in which he charged that the council had
"violated its sacred trust and abandoned its fiduciary
responsibility" and asserted "its determination to showcase
ideologies that deny the Gospel," thereby demonstrating that it is
"no longer fit to lead" the PC(USA).
The
full text of the council's statement is available online.
