wfn.org | Kirkpatrick responds to questions about re-election bid

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

Note #5938 from PCUSA NEWS to PRESBYNEWS:

15-June-2000
00235

	Kirkpatrick responds to questions about re-election bid

	Stated clerk hopes greater unity will be his legacy

	by Alexa Smith

(Editor's Note: After the Stated Clerk Review/Nomination Committee nominated
the
Rev. Clifton Kirkpatrick for a second term as the denomination's top
ecclesiastical officer, the Presbyterian News Service questioned him about
his decision to seek re-election at the upcoming General Assembly in Long
Beach, Calif.)

Q.  What has compelled you to not be a one-term clerk?  Was it a difficult
decision to stand for election again?

	Nothing compelled me to do this.  Instead, I feel called and privileged to
stand for re-election as Stated Clerk of the General Assembly.  Five years
ago I received a call by the Stated Clerk Review and Nomination committee, 
and I sensed a call by God to serve as Stated Clerk.  I had a tremendous
affirmation of this call by the church at the 208th General Assembly, and
have been extraordinarily grateful for the prayers and support of so many
Presbyterians for my ministry as Stated Clerk over the last four years.  I
do feel that, in some small way, my gifts have been good for the church.  If
the Assembly would like me to continue in this ministry, I feel a strong
sense of call and a great eagerness to do it.

	In many ways this first term has been about planting seeds that I believe
will bear real fruit in the years ahead.  With the kind of work the stated
clerk does, I do not think you should stay in the job forever, but one term
is probably not enough to make the optimal contribution to the church.  We
have begun processes over the last four years of focusing on what unites
Presbyterians, promoting the Great Ends of the Church, building a new
culture of partnership among General Assembly agencies and governing bodies,
calling the church to a fresh commitment to the essential tenets of the
Reformed faith – all of which will bear real fruit in the years ahead.

Q.  What about the state of the wider church has changed positively during
the last four years? Where do you see the Spirit at work?

	Several things.  The most dramatic is the relationship between the agencies
of the General Assembly.  We've gone from a situation of huge tension and
conflict to a sense of all being vital parts of one church.  In the wider
church, while we have not resolved some of our fundamental conflicts, we
have a much better ability to find our unity in the midst of diversity.  The
issues stay there.  But the quality of being community together is stronger
among Presbyterians.

	Stewardship is also better.  We are reaching out to the world that has
literally come to our doorsteps with new immigrant congregations.

       There's a sense of mission involvement among Presbyterians.  There
are a multitude of healthy congregations that are the front line of our
ministry.

	And there is real and important ecumenical progress.  The Lutheran/Reformed
Full Communion Agreement has set a model that enables us to move toward
Christian unity in the 21st Century.  I believe the same will be true for
Churches United in Christ, the agreement for full communion with nine major
Protestant and Anglican churches just approved by our presbyteries.

Q.  What has deteriorated?

	Interest group politics and "party spirit" are stronger, and at times, are
more negative than they were.  It is not that people shouldn't be involved
with special interest groups, it is just that, at times, they are, for far
too many people, the primary contact beyond the local church.  We need to
work on restoring the governing body system.

	Also, we ought to be growing, increasing in members and I am concerned we
are not.  And we're facing a shortage of pastors that needs to be addressed
far more vigorously by the whole church.  A positive counterpoint to this
problem is the commissioned lay pastor movement, which is proving to be a
real blessing to countless numbers of our smaller congregations.

Q.  There are those who say that special interest groups are running the
church.  Is that true, in your opinion?  What do you see as the role of
those groups in the next decade?

	 No, I don't think they are running the church.  I worry about the amount
of money, time and energy that some of these groups expend.  It feels like
too much of a parallel to the American political process.  General Assembly
commissioners are elected people who are called to study and pray together
to discern the mind of Christ, not respond to lobbying efforts.  I am
grateful that in spite of efforts to the contrary, that vision of the
General Assembly seems to be an increasing reality among us.

	On the positive side, interest groups have passion for causes that really
matter.  Groups like the Outreach Foundation, the Medical Benevolence
Foundation, and the Presbyterian Frontier Fellowship have a passion to share
the gospel with all the world, and nothing could be more important than
this.  Such passionate commitments are a real strength of the Presbyterian
Church (U.S.A.).

	I think interest groups will continue, and I hope they will seek to play
their best role of calling the whole church to the central callings of the
gospel in a spirit of love and mutual respect.  At the same time, one of the
crucial issues of the next decade is how we can renew the middle governing
bodies as nurturing, worshiping and missionary communities -- all of which
exist to serve the local congregation as the primary agent of Christ's
mission in the world.  That is why [General Assembly Council executive
director] John Detterick and I have launched a process of consultations in
which we will visit all of our [combined] 189 synods and presbyteries over
the next three years in an effort to rebuild a sense of trust, community and
common mission among all the governing bodies of the church.

Q.  What is your message right now to the two polarized -- left- and
right-wing -- sides?

	There's much more that unites Presbyterians than divides us.  And we dare
not split this church.  It will drain energy off from the common mission to
which Christ has called us all.

Q.  With renewed hostility toward the National Council of Churches, what do
you see as the future of the organization?  How does the increasing
popularity of bilateral agreements influence the NCC's role?  What about the
fate of the World Council of Churches ... since 330 of the world's churches
is a minority nowadays?

	The NCC has gotten itself into serious organizational and financial
difficulty. And I am glad Presbyterians have taken leadership to bring about
the necessary changes in its staff, procedure and structure.  We need to
work to fix the Council, not destroy it, because it provides a valuable
witness to the nation and the world.  It is hard to imagine a faithful
Presbyterian witness without things like our ecumenical response to
disasters and refugee crises, the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible,
the common efforts to proclaim Christ through the mass media, the seeking of
Christian unity among Protestant, Orthodox and Anglican churches, and the
common witness of the churches for justice and reconciliation in the face of
horrors like the burning of black churches -- all forms of Christian witness
that are made possible by the National Council of Churches.

	In five years, I hope we'll not have the NCC as we know it today.  I dream
(as does the National Council of Churches) for a much broader form of
ecumenical organization that includes the Roman Catholic Church and the
evangelical and Pentecostal churches.  Widening and deepening the ecumenical
movement  is of paramount importance, and our full communion agreements
(like those with Lutheran and Reformed churches) give us encouragement that
this wider and deeper unity in Christ can become a reality in North America.

	The WCC is an outstanding organization that is extremely well-run.  It is
the most-promising ecumenical agency to which we're related anywhere in the
world.  It is so vital to remind us that the unity we seek is not only with
other Americans of different denominations but with all of God's people
around the world - some of whom witness to the gospel in extremely difficult
circumstances.

Q.  Do you have any proposed alternative to Amendment F [the restructuring
proposal rejected by the presbyteries]?  If so, what do you believe needs to
happen structurally for the church's administrative and ecclesiastical arms
to work more efficiently?

	No, for a variety of reasons.  Clearly the presbyteries have spoken.
There's consensus that we don't need further restructuring at the General
Assembly to achieve the coordinated ministry that was the goal of Amendment
F.   Indeed, without Amendment F there is more cooperation among the
agencies of the General Assembly than anyone would have dreamed possible
three years ago when this proposal was first offered.  Two times a year the
chairs and the executives of the General Assembly agencies are meeting and
building a strong sense of community in common service to the church.  The
same is true for the growing sense of fellowship and common ministry among
the Expanded Staff Leadership Team.

	The challenge is for us to find and create among ourselves a sense of
accountability to the whole church and to one another at the General
Assembly level.  The whole church and the General Assembly expects its
agencies to support one another in the common ministry of the denomination,
and I believe that is happening.

Q.  How do you understand reported increases in giving?  Is it a legitimate
change in attitude by givers toward the church or a reflection of a strong
economy?

	Both.  Presbyterians have probably benefitted as much as anyone from the
strong economy.  But our increases in giving are well above the
proportionate annual increase in income.  One of the 10 great themes of the
Reformed faith identified in the second chapter of the "Book of Order" is
stewardship, and I am glad it is alive and well among Presbyterians.  While
we can and must do more, I am pleased that giving seems to be up at every
level in the life of the church.  Beyond the outstanding stewardship being
exercised in congregations, the work of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)
Foundation is a true blessing to us all in our faithful stewardship.

Q.  In the aftermath of spend-down plans [of accumulated reserves], how does
the denomination avoid having programs competing against each other for
money?

	Many people talk about this as the "cliff" problem, and that makes me
nervous.  The obvious concern is with what happens when the expendable
restricted funds that mission organizations have been spending down at an
accelerated level the last few years are totally exhausted.  Obviously,
vital mission work will then have to be discontinued unless new funding
sources can be found . While there will undoubtedly be some dislocation, we
have more than enough money among Presbyterians to support the mission of
the church.  I am encouraged with the recent increases in giving to General
Assembly mission and with the outstanding investment performance of the
Presbyterian Foundation -- both of which should assist us in maintaining a
vital mission outreach once some of the funds now being spent down are gone.

Q.  What do you expect to accomplish with this latest round of consultations
between synods, presbyteries and the Office of the General Assembly and the
General Assembly Council?

	This is one of the major things that excites me about a second term.  I
think these consultations offer huge promise in building a new sense of
trust, community and common mission for the church in the 21st century. 
John Detterick and I, with the wonderful staff leadership of Gary Torrens
[coordinator of middle governing body relations], are committed to invest a
great portion of our time and energy in meeting with all 16 synods and 173
presbyteries over the next three years to build a new covenant together to
be partners in Christ's mission.  We're identifying together with our
governing-body partners our gifts and needs, the role of each governing body
and, most importantly, where God is at work among us.

	We are in a situation much like that of the church in the Book of Acts.  We
live in a world where all the old assumptions are gone, where the world is
literally at our doorstep, where unity in diversity is the reality of the
church, and where there is a huge spiritual hunger among our people.  It was
in that context that the Holy Spirit "joined and knit" the New Testament
church together to be the body of Christ and "to turn the world upside-down
for the gospel."  It is our prayer that such can happen to the PCUSA in the
21st century, and we believe these consultations will play a major role in
enabling our church to be the body of Christ in our time.

Q.  How would you change the structure and content of current General
Assemblies?  You've talked about increasing time for spiritual formation,
education and mission promotion.  What would that look like?  What has
changed so far?

	We've been doing that the last couple of years:
	* transforming the Assembly from business meetings and political gatherings
to become spiritual communities focused on discerning the mind of Christ,
	* strengthening our worship life, 
	* taking the clutter of routine business and putting it on the consent
agenda.
	* holding educational events that remind us of our unity in diversity in
Christ
	* engaging in bible studies, and
	* doing business decently and in order, but good-naturedly.

	We have also reinstated the General Assembly breakfast to set a tone for
the whole Assembly.  Last year Martin Marty was superb as our speaker and
this year we are looking forward to a message from Ambassador Andrew Young.

	All of this seems to be bearing some fruit. I was struck with the
assessments filled out by commissioners and advisory delegates at the end of
Assembly last year in Fort Worth.  Whereas often in the past when
participants were asked what is the most important thing that happened at
the assembly, they listed particular issues acted on by the body.  In Fort
Worth the two items deemed most important were the worship and the building
of community with Presbyterians who are different than us.  While issues are
very important, they are never more important than the worship of God and
the building of Christian community.  I am glad that our assemblies are
moving in this direction and hope we will see the same in Long Beach.

Q.  Are you a believer in biennial Assemblies?

	"Believer" is not the right word.  I would be open to biennial assemblies,
but  I don't realistically expect them to happen in my tenure. With trust at
a premium, General Assemblies give the whole church a greater chance to
participate in decisions about the life and witness of the church and to
build community across some of the lines that divide us.  What we need to
focus on is how to carry out our assemblies as frugally as possible with a
real commitment to doing our work decently and in order and in a way that
brings glory to God and reconciliation among us.

Q.  What would you like your legacy to be as Stated Clerk?

	At the end of my time as Stated Clerk, I'd like to see a spirit of unity
and reconciliation that enables Presbyterians to truly believe that the
things that unite us are more important than what divides us.  That's not an
end in itself, but like Jesus' high priestly prayer, a yearning that we
might "all be one, that the world might believe." We are called to be united
in Christ that the mission of Christ might reach out to a hurting and hungry
world -- to be a living expression of the Great Ends of the Church.  
Leadership in that direction is what I would hope would be my legacy.

Q.  The PC(USA) doesn't seem to have a mission related to mass media,
especially electronic mass media, such as radio and television.  Is there
any move afoot to be less low-key about promotion?

	My concern is for more than the mass media.  I worry that technology is
changing the way we communicate and relate to each other, and we as a church
need to be finding fresh ways to communicate with one another and the
broader culture through the new media that are reshaping our culture.  We
have taken major new efforts in this direction through a new Office on
Communication and Technology in the Office of the General Assembly, and the
General Assembly Council has taken similar initiatives on their side.  I am
also impressed with the work we are able to do through the National
Interfaith Cable Coalition and the National Council of Churches to reach the
broader culture with the gospel.  These are positive directions, but we have
only begun to scratch the surface in this important arena.

Q.  The church has purposefully reached out to African-Americans for 30
years.  Why has it not been more successful?  What else might be tried?

	Many would argue we've not purposefully enough attacked racism, and I agree
with that assessment.  While we've done important things, this is not an
area where we can pat ourselves on the back.  On the other hand, I am
grateful for the strong contributions so many African-Americans make to the
life of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.).
	One piece of good news this past year is that statistically the
racial-ethnic population of the PCUSA has grown by over 12,000 people in
1999.  That's the largest growth we've seen in many years.  We're moving
toward our goal of 10 percent of our members being racial-ethnic by 2005
(now it is about seven percent), and I am glad to see it.  We as a church
are called to be serious in our commitment to evangelism among the
racial-ethnic communities, to being a church open to all people, and to
standing firm against racism in all of its forms.

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