wfn.org | GA Commissioners challenged to abandon "win-lose" approach to issues

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Note #6570 from PCUSA NEWS to PRESBYNEWS:

9-June-2001
GA01014

GA Commissioners challenged to abandon "win-lose" approach to issues

by Nancy D. Borst

LOUISVILLE, June 9 – The 558 commissioners to the 213th General
Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) were challenged Saturday
afternoon to "break the pattern" of a "regulatory" approach to issues and
instead "turn the world upside down for the Gospel."

The challenge came during the opening business session at the Kentucky
International Convention Center. It was issued by the Rev. Clifton
Kirkpatrick, Stated Clerk of the General Assembly, and Elder John Detterick,
Executive Director of the General Assembly Council.

The General Assembly is the annual business meeting of the 2.5
million-member denomination.

Kirkpatrick and Detterick said that in the past year they had begun an
"ambitious" venture to visit every synod and presbytery, to listen and
rebuild a sense of trust throughout the church.

In consultation with 15 of the denomination’s 173 presbyteries and 14
of its 16 synods in the past year, the common message received was this: it
is time to do the business of the church differently.

"We heard a firm 'enough'," Detterick said. "The regulatory approach is not
working."

The hopes sent for the 213th General Assembly, he said, were to move beyond
rancor and a "win-lose" approach to an approach of mutual respect, that this
Assembly would "respond to that deep-felt hunger to be the church at its
best."

This comes as the Assembly prepares to deal with, among other topics, the
issue of sexual-conduct standards for ordination, which are up for
discussion after a two-year moratorium.

The two leaders urged commissioners to act "rooted and grounded in love,"
referring to Paul's words in I Cor. 13. They posed a question of whether it
was time for the church to engage in a "deep probing" of the Book of
Confessions, as it seeks to be faithful to Christ's calling "to turn the
world upside down for the Gospel."

They echoed a phrase also expressed by the Rev. Syngman Rhee, Moderator of
the 212th General Assembly, who told commissioners the church is called to
seek a "more excellent way." Rhee has suggested formation of a special
commission "to consider the spiritual condition of the church and to make
proposals which may promote purity, unity, peace and progress."

Rhee cited precedence when in 1925, facing a critical time in the
denomination, the Assembly appointed such a commission.

"I believe we are at another such time in our life together when the focused
and timely work of such a 'commission' could help us seek a more excellent
way, a way guided by the Spirit of Christ seeking mutual understanding and
enabling us to speak the truth in love," Rhee said.

Rhee completed his term as moderator Saturday, and offered a brief
retrospect of his year in office that saw him travel throughout the
denomination as well as to eight foreign countries, including his native
Korea. He attended a common worship service of 25 Presbyterian denominations
in Korea in openness to reconciliation among Presbyterian Koreans. A
ministry of reconciliation was one of Rhee’s goals for his term.

The Presbyterian Church of Korea presented the PC(USA) with 5,000 copies of
the denomination’s new study of the catechism translated into Korean,
for the nurture of Korean-American congregations.

Jung Sik Park, Moderator of the Presbyterian Church of Korea, made the gift
to Rhee. In return, Rhee gave plaques of recognition and thanks to
representatives of the Korean denomination.

The opening session also included reports from the General Assembly Council
and the Committee on the Office of the General Assembly, as well as a
multimedia welcome from the Committee on Local Arrangements for the
Assembly.

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