Peace, Unity and Purity task force
gets under way
Group forges covenant for its work, opts for
consensus decision-making style
by Jerry L. Van Marter, Presbyterian News Service
Click
here for a report on the March, 2002 meeting of the Task
Force.
[posted 12-14-01]
DALLAS -- December 10, 2001 - Acutely aware of the
importance of its task and the close scrutiny its work will receive, the
Theological Task Force on the Peace, Unity and Purity of the Church took
firm but cautious steps at its first meeting, Dec. 6-8 here.
The 20-person task force -- reduced by one due to the
resignation for health reasons of Sue Mallory, an elder at Brentwood
Presbyterian Church in Pacific Presbytery in California -- spent much of
its first 48 hours together in prayer, worship and Bible study. Gathered
frequently in pairs or groups of three or four, task force members were
clearly intent on getting to know each other better before even thinking
about the issues they will be asked to try and lead the church through
in the next four years.
The group formally adopted a covenant for its work
together, agreed to use consensus decision-making "whenever
possible," and set as its main task for its next meeting "to
explore the meaning of the Lordship of Jesus Christ over all and in our
lives."
Task force members also agreed to work between
meetings in four sub-groups that will prepare to lead the group in
addressing four broad categories of issues: scriptural and theological
resources; historical and ecclesiastical resources; practices which are
conducive to discernment and community-building, including models from
the mission field; and consultation and communication with the larger
church.
The task force was authorized by the recent 213th
General Assembly and appointed by the current moderator, Jack Rogers,
and his two immediate predecessors, Syngman Rhee and Freda Gardner.
The charge to the task force is "to lead the
Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) in spiritual discernment of our Christian
identity in and for the 21st century …… seeking the peace, unity and
purity of the church." It is scheduled to make its final report to
the 2005 General Assembly.
The seriousness of the task was immediately apparent,
as the three moderators led an opening-night commissioning service for
the task force which included the laying on of hands and a prayer
repeated for each member: "Defend, O Lord, this your servant with
your heavenly grace, that he/she may continue yours forever and daily
increase in your Holy Spirit more and more until he/she comes into your
everlasting Kingdom."
Rogers likened the task force to "a congregation
doing a mission study before calling a pastor." Their job, he told
them, "is to ask who we are and how we can more serve Jesus Christ
with vitality into the 21st century and how to deal with hindrances…….Look
for the root causes behind our current turmoil and look for the
resources to guide us out."
In a Dec. 8 Bible study, task force co-moderator the
Rev. Gary Demarest -- a West Coast pastor and former director of
Presbyterian evangelism on the PC(USA) national staff -- said task force
members are "called to be experts on conflict management, though
none of us do it professionally."
Pointing to numerous New Testament passages, Demarest
said, "The church has always been in conflict -- that's a given --
otherwise we wouldn't have any letters from Paul. The task, therefore,
is not to resolve conflict but to manage it.
"We need to learn how to celebrate
conflict," he said. "God has created us so differently. It's
like a marriage -- with all its conflicts, it gets better as you
go."
The danger, Demarest continued, "is that we
equate conflict with combat and demonize those with whom we disagree.
The ultimate goal of combat is to eliminate or destroy. Conflict need
not be combat."
Pointing to Philippians 2, Demarest said, "I want
to bring to this task force the mind of Christ -- not something I
manufacture, but a gift of God." To do so, he said, "I must
not ask, 'What's in it for me?' or 'How can I win?' but 'How can I help
the church become what Christ is going to make it, with or without
me?'"
Referring to the four-year journey stretching out
before them, Demarest told task force members: "As we commit to
this journey -- reaching out to each other, remaining true to yourself
and to the crucified Christ -- I believe we will find we have already
arrived at the place where Christ will establish the home of God."
The Rev. Steve Yamaguchi of Long Beach, CA, invited by
the task force to lead a Dec. 6 Bible study, likened the journey of the
task force to the faith journeys of Moses and Paul. They were, he said,
bicultural leaders with one foot in each of two different worlds and
were called by God to bridge those two worlds: Moses between the
Egyptians and the Hebrews, Paul between the Romans and the Hebrews.
In a Presbyterian church so conflicted that some talk
openly of schism, the task force is called to be that same kind of
bridge, Yamaguchi said. "Many people in our church -- not just
those on ideological and theological divides, but women and racial
ethnic Presbyterians -- have long felt like they live in two
worlds." Yamaguchi, who vividly described his consternation as a
young boy in Los Angeles when Japanese-American friends and neighbors
were abruptly removed from his neighborhood and sent to internment camps
during World War II, said living in a foreign place -- like Moses and
Paul did -- "can produce understandings that are not possible for
tourists."
Four years on the task force, Yamaguchi said, gives
its members the "gift of grace to appreciate the different worlds
inhabited by Presbyterians these days." He urged task force members
to "live in, don't be a tourist." Such an attitude will model
for the church how to live with differences, he concluded.
Task force co-moderator Jenny Stoner, an elder from
Craftsbury Common, VT, who chaired the Assembly Committee that developed
the task force recommendation last summer, said the Assembly
"didn't want a committee to tell the church what the answers
are." She said the Assembly -- which authorized the task force by a
91-9 percent margin -- "wanted the task force to develop a process
of discernment for itself and for the church, to call the church to
prayer, to connect Presbyterians inside and outside the power structures
of the church so we can come together as Presbyterians to figure out how
we can be the body of Christ."
The task force may not have gotten very far in
determining what it will do, but several members seemed very sure what
it shouldn't do. "People have told me they don't want just another
study," said the Rev. Milton (Joe) Coalter, a professor at
Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary.
"There's no great value in another study,"
agreed the Rev. Jack Haberer, pastor of Clear Lake Presbyterian Church
in Houston. "It's about casting a vision."
The Rev. Elizabeth Achtemeier, a retired professor at
Union Theological Seminary in Richmond, VA, said, "If we start with
the issues, the process hardens and we won't get anywhere. We need to
determine the identity that sets us apart according to the
Scriptures."
Victoria Curtiss, co-pastor of Collegiate Presbyterian
Church in Ames, IA, agreed. "What is God seeking to say to us and
do with us? Study itself doesn't do it. Can modeling trust here be gift
we give to the church?"
Through restating the key themes of the PC(USA)'s
theological and constitutional heritage and evaluating both the causes
of dissension and sources of health in the church, the task force can
find ways for the church "to move forward , furthering its peace,
unity and purity," said Barbara Wheeler, president of Auburn
Theological Seminary in New York City. "We're going to move
anyway," she said. "Forward would be better."
Theological Task Force on the Peace, Unity
and Purity of the Church Covenant
We, the members of the Task Force, covenant together
that:
· We will be in prayer for each other and for our
work that we may faithfully serve God, follow Jesus Christ, the Head
of the Church, and be guided by the Holy Spirit;
· We will seek to be guided by Scripture and will
regularly study it together;
· We will worship whenever we gather, inviting all
who are present at our meetings to worship with us. With
authorization, we will celebrate the Lord's Supper at each meeting as
a sign that the peace, unity and purity we seek is God's gift to us in
Christ;
· We will speak the truth with love, expressing
ourselves with candor and humility;
· We will listen, endeavoring to understand each
other, especially those whose views seem to differ from our own,
maintaining a spirit of openness and vulnerability;
· We will carry out our work among this community
of believers, respecting confidences, showing faithfulness in our
relationships, and trusting each other's motivations and dedication;
· We will model a respectful, loving process of
discernment and dialogue, seeking to reach consensus whenever
possible, ever mindful of our responsibilities to all the members of
our beloved Church;
· We will communicate regularly and effectively
with the whole church on the work of the Task Force in order to
include them in the process;
· We will work in good faith within the
open-meeting policy of the General Assembly and welcome the press and
other observers present at our meetings, as we seek to discover new
and challenging ways to lead the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) in
spiritual discernment of our Christian identity in and for the 21st
century. We trust the press to perform its part of this responsibility
by reporting on our work in accordance with the published ethical
standards of the Associated Church Press and the Evangelical Press
Association.
We will each commit our best, with the help of the
Holy Spirit, to the task entrusted to us.
