wfn.org | CCM reclaiming church, Williamson says

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

Note #7069 from PCUSA NEWS to PRESBYNEWS:

26-February-2002
02080

CCM reclaiming church, Williamson says

Layman editor calls PC(USA) 'the dry bones of a dying ecclesiastical structure'

by Jerry L. Van Marter

ATLANTA - The Confessing Church Movement (CCM) is "reclaiming not only the church's faith, it is reclaiming the church," the Rev. Parker T. Williamson, executive editor of The Presbyterian Layman, told an adoring crowd of 800 during the CCM's national celebration here on Feb. 25.

Williamson, a frequent and strident critic of the leadership of the Presbyterian Church (USA), was introduced as "a good friend of the Confessing Church Movement." He pulled no punches in excoriating denominational leaders and offices as "the dry bones of a dying ecclesiastical structure."

Williamson blamed "the organization" of the church for its membership losses over the last 40 years; said the PC(USA) stated clerk, the Rev. Clifton Kirkpatrick, "appears more exercised over those who choose not to pay per-capita  than over those who openly defy the church's faith and morals"; and charged that the General Assembly "does not know who Jesus is."

Nevertheless, Williamson urged his listeners to "not abandon the body that introduced us to the Lord Jesus Christ," but to "be the Church in all of its integrity, right where we are."

"Let us seek God's leading for this burgeoning new life that is emerging among us," he said, "and we will pursue a faithful response together."

If PC(USA) leaders "wish to travel that road with us, let them find our warmest welcome," he said - and if they don't, "The programs that they spawn will die from neglect as we move on with the work that God is calling us to do."

Williamson said the CCM is not going to be "yet another top-down structure of which we Presbyterians have an abundance already." 

"We do not need elitists at the top to confess the faith for us," he said. "Confession is our responsibility, the people's responsibility, and we cannot refer it to others."

He urged CCM supporters to develop regional fellowships and become active in presbyteries, which he called "the place where the locus of change for our denomination must occur."

Williamson told his listeners that candidates for ministry in the PC(USA) must be vigorously examined, and advised them not to assume "that a graduate of a Presbyterian seminary is committed to the Gospel." He said presbytery nominating committees "must seek out leaders who stand on the solid rock of Reformed faith," and judicial commissions "must be willing to discipline those who are unfaithful to their vows."

When his own strength flags, he said, he is lifted up by the example of Simon Peter, who "long ago confessed to Jesus, 'You are the Christ, the son of the living God.'

"My confidence," he said, "is rooted in Jesus's response: 'On this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.'" 
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