Church leaders say split is a
possibility
Moderator Jack Rogers says conservatives
"magnifying" differences to justify schism
by Alexa Smith, Presbyterian News Service
[10-22-01]
LOUISVILLE - 15-October-2001 - Two leaders of the
Presbyterian Church (USA) have for the first time acknowledged the
possibility that long-standing political battles may cause the church to
split.
The Rev. Clifton Kirkpatrick, the denomination's
stated clerk, and the Rev. Jack Rogers, moderator of the General
Assembly, made their comments just before the opening of the Oct. 10
meeting of the Committee on the Office of the General Assembly (COGA).
Kirkpatrick, Rogers and the Rev. William Forbes, of
Westfield, NJ, this year's COGA moderator, spent about an hour in
conversation with committee members, discussing two questions: How might
the current time of crisis change our ministry as a church? And how
might current political and theological conflicts in the church change
the ministry of the Office of the General Assembly?"
It was an occasion for lamenting fractiousness in the
church and the political and military turmoil that have ensued since the
terror attacks on New York City and Washington, DC, on Sept. 11.
Rogers said his principal concern about friction in
the church is a pastoral one, that well-meaning Presbyterians are being
led astray by others not so well-meaning - namely the Presbyterian Lay
Committee (PLC), a conservative board of 24 members that has called the
actions of this year's General Assembly "apostate." Rogers'
said the Lay Committee has commandeered a growing coalition within the
church that calls itself the Confessing Church Movement (CCM)
"I feel bad for the hundreds of churches that are
getting (drawn) in ... not knowing what they're getting into," said
Rogers.
Rogers said the CCM's three "confessions" -
that Jesus Christ is the only Savior, that Scripture is infallible, and
that sexual behavior should be reserved for marriage - are stances that
virtually all Presbyterian churches already endorse.
He said he believes the Lay Committee and like-minded
groups are "magnifying" differences within the church to
justify separation. "I don't think we should allow that to
happen," he said.
"Schism is a sin," Rogers said, adding that
churches contemplating schism must be confronted with the seriousness of
that choice. He said representatives of OGA and the General Assembly
Council (GAC) should meet with those who are contemplating a split.
Kirkpatrick, too, spoke to the issue.
Kirkpatrick had just returned from the annual meeting
of the Presbyterian Coalition, an organization of evangelical and
conservative networks within the PC(USA), where about half of the 1,300
Presbyterians on hand voted to include "gracious separation"
from the denomination as an option if the wider church takes theological
and social positions that they find objectionable. The issue of most
concern for the moment is the ordination of sexually active homosexuals.
"Everything about my ministry (has been based on
the idea) that God wants the church to be united," said
Kirkpatrick, a noted ecumenist. But he said he came away from the
Coalition meeting with a sense that some Presbyterians feel "so
deeply alienated" that, with regard to the question of leaving the
PC(USA), "the question is not if but when."
"And that is painful," he said, pointing out
that the core calling of the church is not to let crisis or alienation
get in the way of its work.
Kirkpatrick had also met with New York City and New
Jersey pastors during the week after the Sept. 11 attacks on the World
Trade Center in lower Manhattan. "In the midst of that incredible
pain," he said, "I have rejoiced at the faithful and
sacrificial witness of so many Presbyterians in the New York
metropolitan area, as they have - often at great personal sacrifice -
been agents of the love of Christ in powerful ways." He said the
tragic events of that day have called the whole church to a "new
day in ministry."
Forbes, who pastors a church just 30 miles from the
city's financial district, struck a similar note.
"After the events of the last month, people that
haven't been sitting in our pews other than on Easter and Christmas ...
they're all there now," he said. "We have the attention of
folks we've not had ... in a long, long time. We have an opportunity to
affirm an eternal living Word for people so hungry for the basics."
Forbes said he worries that the internal struggles of
the national church may "turn off" potential converts.
He said he would like to see COGA engage in a dialogue
with Islam similar to the dialogue now under way with the Vatican - and
to consider dispatching its members to disaffected churches to talk
about why they ought not leave. "We have a responsibility to keep
the church together," he said.
Kirkpatrick said he'd like to see the national staff
and elected people do more than simply react to crisis. He'd like to see
the denomination "creatively" shape its ministry to make it
less expensive - for example, by holding its General Assemblies every
other year. "Maybe even more to the heart of the matter," he
said, "I'd like us to focus on being the church in the 21st Century
... a community of colleagues and disciples."
Rogers affirmed the work of PC(USA) staff on Sept. 11
and spoke of the confusion many North Americans are feeling in the wake
of the attacks. "We have to realize that there are people all over
the world who do not see us in the benign light that we see
ourselves," he said. "They are people who focus only on the
negative. And we have to face the fact that there are people like that
in our church - who focus only on the negative."
COGA member Allie Latimer, of Washington, DC, said she
would like to see COGA lead the church in reclaiming the prophetic role
it once played in the culture. She hearkened to the more prophetic days
of Eugene Carson Blake, a prominent Presbyterian who was pivotal in the
ecumenical movement. The Rev. Herb Christ, of San Diego, CA, COGA's
liaison to the GAC, said the council is "losing" its prophetic
voice while "bending over backwards to please everybody."
The Rev. Helen Cochrane, executive Presbyter of
Philadelphia Presbytery and a COGA member, said it's hard to listen to
talk about church conflict after the events of Sept. 11. "I want to
say: 'This is not important. We have to look at life differently now.
Everything has changed,'" Cochrane said. "It's not that it's
not important what we believe; but we've got to understand our neighbors
better .... Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus."
