What
happened here? Some thoughts on
the amazing actions of the 2001 General Assembly
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This was the Assembly that
many have been waiting for. It made a number of important decisions by
comfortable voting margins and with a consistency suggesting that these
commissioners knew what they were doing. More about the details in a
moment!
But it couldn't have been done without cooperation and
organization on the part of those working for a more just and more
inclusive church. "Liberals" or "progressives" or
whatever you prefer to call them are a notoriously hard bunch to
organize. But a wide variety of groups and individuals worked together
to provide clear and helpful information, especially in Committee 6
(Ordination Standards) but in all the other committees, too. Members of
many advocacy organizations worked very hard toward shared goals, and it
made a difference.
Witherspoon Society and Semper Reformanda leaders
arrived on Thursday afternoon to look ahead to the Assembly and discuss
final details on the proposed merger of the two organizations.
Friday was a busy day. Semper
Reformanda held a well-attended pre-Assembly theological
conversation. David Bos spoke about the Auburn Affirmation and the
new Affirmation--2001; Aurelia Fulé about interfaith dialogue; Joseph
Small on how the PC(USA) does theology; and Hal Porter on the three
idolatries of heterosexism, Biblicism, and institutionalism. Then came
the Covenant Network's convocation dinner, where former moderators Freda
Gardner and Douglas Oldenburg stated their hopes for the Assembly.
Immediately after this, Witherspoon held its annual Commissioner
Orientation. Prof. Charles "Buzz" Meyers spoke on the relation
of biblical texts to our concerns about sexuality and an inclusive
church; Celeste Lasich, a TSAD two years ago, offered helpful
suggestions to first-time commissioners. Then the commissioners met at
tables with other members of the committees on which they would be
serving.
At the Witherspoon
Society luncheon on Sunday, June 10, past President Robb Gwaltney
presented the Whole Gospel Congregation Award to the Central
Presbyterian Church of Louisville, in grateful recognition of its
commitment to community service, its advocacy of racial justice, and its
demonstration of full inclusiveness as a More Light Congregation. Then
he introduced William Thomas Gregory, who was released from prison after
DNA testing proved that he could not have committed the crime; Gregory
presented the Andrew Murray Award to George and Jean Edwards, leaders in
that campaign.
We asked two knowledgeable people to address the
current state of the PC(USA). Jane Dempsey Douglass challenged the
church to engage questions of economic and environmental justice,
highlighting the 1997 call of the World Alliance of Reformed Churches
for a processus confessionis that would deal with the
disparities between the world's "North" and "South."
James Hudnut-Beumler emphasized that polity cannot create a just church.
Denominational processes, he said, "have become exercises in
control when we doubt our ability to convince." The result is
"a kind of legality that Jesus sought to overturn again and
again." He went on to say, "It is more important that a
principle live than that it be written."
At our annual meeting the members approved a
Memorandum of Agreement under which the Witherspoon Society and Semper
Reformanda will merge, with one board and budget; Witherspoon will be
the name of the organization, while the Semper name and tradition will
be kept alive through a number of continuing activities and events.
At the dinner
of Semper Reformanda on Tuesday evening the merger was completed and
three persons -- Barbara Kellam-Scott, José
Olagues and Ken Smith -- were elected to the Executive Committee of the
Witherspoon Society. Elenora Giddings Ivory, director of the Washington
Office, introduced Jenny Lin, who will serve as the first intern in the
Washington Office to be funded by Semper Reformanda's program in honor
of Robert J. Stone. Stone, one of the initial organizers of Semper
Reformanda, served as its first moderator from 1995 to 1997.
The Robert J. Stone Social Justice Lecture was given
by the Rev. Herbert Valentine, who adopted Eric Hoffer's theme of
"True Believers." The true believer, he suggested, cannot
endure uncertainty or tolerance of opposing views. As he drew his
address to a conclusion Valentine said, "Whenever ideas cease to be
exchanged, history tells us that blood flows."
Finally, we should report that the annual Dance and
Party was unusually successful. The deejay was much appreciated, and we
hope to bring him to Columbus during next year's General Assembly.
Election
of the Moderator
The election of the
Moderator on Saturday night provided some indicators about the
issues of concern to the commissioners and the ability of the candidates
to respond to them. The vote, as usual, depended on platform
performance. Jack Rogers, who has observed many General Assemblies while
teaching his annual course to seminarians, seemed relaxed and competent.
Perhaps his most quotable line was in response to a question about the
need for "boundaries." He recalled that a member of a class on
the confessions once pointed out that both a birdcage and a birdbath
have "boundaries," but the birdcage confines, while the
birdbath frees.
The surprise was that, out of a field of four
candidates, Rogers was elected on the first ballot with a vote of 55%.
Nancy Maffett received 24%; Anderson Sale, 13%; and Sandra Hawley, 9%.
Rogers appointed as Vice-Moderator the Rev. Janet Arbesman, a
third-generation Asian American who was a commissioner this year from
Grand Canyon Presbytery and made the nominating speech for Rogers.
Most observers felt that Rogers' election was a sign
that this would be a relatively progressive Assembly. But that was all
that could be said. In relation to the major issues facing the Assembly
it was not clear whether the commissioners, in voting for Rogers, were
voting for repeal of "Amendment B" (to which he had publicly
committed himself) or for what many viewed as an alternative to such an
action, namely the appointment of a "theological commission"
to discuss the questions dividing the church and report back in four
years' time. As it turned out, the Assembly refused to see these as
alternatives and eventually voted for both of them. But such an outcome
was not at all evident at the beginning of the Assembly, least of all,
probably, to the commissioners themselves. A crucial factor for many of
them was the oral testimony they heard in the committees from people
like themselves.
How To Be a Confessional
Church
One thing on which all the candidates seemed to be in
agreement was criticism of the Confessing Church Movement. Rogers was
especially outspoken; but none of the candidates had much that was
positive to say about it.
The Confessing Church
Movement, promoted by the Presbyterian Layman, now claims
more than 400 churches pushing three "affirmations": Jesus
Christ as the sole means of salvation, the infallibility of the Bible,
and marriage as the only appropriate context for sexual relations.
Critics accuse them of trying to impose a new "three
fundamentals" upon the church, in the divisive manner of the
fundamentalists in the 1920s.
As Moderator, Rogers seized the confessional idea and
turned it in a positive direction. Starting with the Apostles' Creed and
moving on through the Book of Confessions, passages were projected on
the screens in the Assembly hall so that all could join in reciting them
in "an act of affirmation and worship." He told commissioners
he wanted to be known as "the confessing moderator."
The issues about confessing the faith were turned over
to Committee 10 (Theological Issues). Inexplicably, Moderator Syngman
Rhee had appointed the Rev. Jerry Andrews, President of the Coalition,
to be moderator of this committee.
| Enlarging
our perspective!
The Rev. Hugh Nevin
has commented that this statement should be balanced with
another: A commissioner who served on the Theological Issues
committee under the leadership of the Rev. Jerry Andrews - and
whose convictions are quite at odds with his - felt that Andrews
"did a first-rate job as committee moderator, listening
carefully and running the committee fairly." This
commissioner noted, too, that this appointment seemed to
exemplify Moderator Syngman Rhee's efforts at balance, as he had
named a Covenant Network person to moderate another committee.
Thanks for the well-taken addition!! |
The committee dealt with the overtures from
Beaver-Butler, San Diego, and San Joaquin, all of which requested an
unequivocal declaration that salvation is only through Christ, by
thanking them for their concerns and requesting the Office of Theology
and Worship to prepare study and worship materials that would help
congregations better understand the richness of the lordship of Christ
as presented in the Book of Confessions.
A minority report was signed by Committee moderator
Jerry Andrews and six others, asserting revelation of the Trinity
through Jesus Christ, "singular" salvation through Jesus
Christ, and putting Jesus first in the lives of all people. This was
viewed by many commissioners as a "piecemeal" kind of theology
that takes a few ideas out of their context in the Book of
Confessions and throws them at others as a litmus test, with the
implication that any reluctance in assenting to them is proof that one
is not ready to confess anything. The issue,
they said, is that these would function as a new confession without
going through the constitutional procedures for approving a confessional
statement.
On the floor, there was a complex sequence of
responses. (If commissioners returning home from the 213th General
Assembly seem unusually sophisticated about parliamentary procedure,
this will be one reason for it.)
