wfn.org | Rev. James Forbes Offers Words of Hope for a Divided Church

[PCUSA NEWS <pcusa.news@ecunet.org>]

GA99072 
23-June-1999 
 
              Rev. James Forbes Offers Words of Hope 
                       for a Divided Church 
 
      
FORT WORTH-In the gentle yet powerful voice that is a hallmark of his 
eloquent speech, the Rev. James Forbes, senior minister of the Riverside 
Church, New York, N.Y., responded to the questions of an eager public, 
Wednesday, June 23. 
     In a news conference following the Ecumenical Service of Worship 
honoring the Jubilee Anniversary of the World Council of Churches, Forbes 
addressed a broad spectrum of issues from communications to race relations.   
     Responding to the question of what is most needed in the church today, 
Forbes emphasized both recovery of trust and the confidence that God is at 
work in the world.  "At the heart of human sinfulness," Forbes asserted, 
"is our unwillingness to accept the security which God offers."  What is 
called for, he continued, "is the confidence that God is at work in the 
world, so that we will be alert to where God's actions are manifested 
beyond even our ecclesiastical boundaries." 
     Following his passionate sermon stressing the work we must do and 
inviting action, Forbes enumerated the specific causes and actions he 
emphasizes and undertakes in his life and ministry.  Naming the elimination 
of poverty, the Jubilee Year of the World Council of Churches and the move 
toward forgiveness of Third World debt, welfare reform, and the issue of 
violence, Forbes elaborated on the latter, calling  for the "recovery of a 
paradigm of cooperation, of involvement, and mutual interdependence, [to] 
thereby reduce the kind of compulsive response in terms of violence." 
     "Given the aggression," Forbes said, "there has got to be space for a 
lot of forgiveness." 
     In his own life, Forbes acknowledged a search for greater balance. 
The more anthropocentric view he has held in the past has yielded to a 
broader sense of ecology, "that understands that we are all connected.  The 
various orders of creation," he stated, "have more to do with our 
fulfillment than we were aware of." Forbes confessed also, as one who had 
come from a Pentecostal background, to a new freedom to talk about the 
power of the Spirit.  "The social transformative ministry we all look 
forward to," he said, "will not take apart from inviting spiritual 
revitalization."  
     On the subject of race relations, Forbes dismissed the notion of "good 
old" race relations, stating that a paradigm shift was called for.  "Black 
folks," he said, "must be viewed by white people as Jesus," and vice versa. 
"And Latins and Hispanics and Asians have to come to see that God has 
buried the potential of our future development in the precincts of those 
from whom we have been alienated." 
     Finally, Forbes offered a word of hope for a divided church, calling 
the church to discover work situations in which those on both sides of the 
theological debate may serve together, such as AIDS and Habitat for 
Humanity .  Evoking the themes of his sermon entitled, "The Work We Are 
Sent to Do,"  Forbes advised those in the church to take the agenda of 
their deliberation from their adversaries, seeking out ways to work 
together.  "We should be experts on the things we must do with our 
enemies," Forbes observed.  "There should probably be work projects if we 
believe we should be reconciled in the God who has made us." 
 
Emily Enders Odom 

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