GAC chair tells Covenant Network about
new checks on conferences
by Doug King
11-8-00
update,
11-15-00
General Assembly Council chair Peter
Pizor has announced he will delay his plan to appoint a
conference-planning-review task force
More
background on Pizor's decision: Congregational
Ministries Division objected to control over conference speakers.
In an apparent effort to calm concerns about GAC
Executive Director John Detterick's statement to the recent meeting of
the Presbyterian Coalition, the chair of the General Assembly Council,
Peter Pizor, stopped in at the Covenant Network gathering in Pittsburgh
on Friday, Nov. 3.
In a brief statement from the lectern, Pizor began by
justifying the recent GAC effort to "prioritize" the church's
programs in terms of how well they serve the two major goals of
discipleship and evangelism. This is necessary, he explained, because
the growth in needs in the world around us are not matched by growth in
the church's resources.
He hastened to add that the new ranking of programs
will probably not mean any reduction in staff. Rather, the new
priorities will give more focus to their work. He said nothing about
whether some programs might or might not be reduced or eliminated.
Pizor then addressed one of the issues most discussed
in conversations during the conference: the controversy growing out of
the talk given at last summer's Peacemaking Conference, and John
Detterick's recent statement to the Coalition. Affirming that the letter
issued by the GAC Executive Committee had proclaimed "our proud
faith" in the Lordship of Christ, he said he will soon appoint a
task force "on how we conduct our conferences -- not to examine a
particular conference, but to learn how to do it better."
He went on to insist that "this is not a witch
hunt," and assured the gathering that "we must maintain a safe
space" for debate, and for conversations that will include many
voices. He said nothing about how such a safe space might be protected
from the growing pressure for conformity to someone's notions of
orthodoxy.
Pizor closed by noting that the PC(USA) must continue
its support of the National Council of Churches during these
"difficult times." Their budget, he asserted, is "out of
control," but the new General Secretary of the NCC is making
progress on that front. We must continue to support them, he said,
because "we believe we are not the whole church."
Pizor's statement was greeted with a rather notable
silence by the audience.
