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Note #8301 from PCUSA NEWS to PRESBYNEWS:

'Mutual love'
GA04011
June 26, 2004

'Mutual love'

Task force members say love of Jesus Christ is key to unity

by Jerry L. Van Marter

RICHMOND, June 26 -- "Do you really enjoy fighting?" William Stacy Johnson
asked the 400 General Assembly participants who attended a pre-Assembly
conference Saturday morning hosted by the Theological Task Force on Peace,
Unity and Purity of the Church (TTF).

Assuming that most Presbyterians would answer in the negative, Johnson, a
professor at Princeton Theological Seminary, joined several other members of
the 20-member TTF in outlining their efforts to lead the Presbyterian Church
(USA) in what member John Wilkinson called "doing church in a different way."

The mistake many contentious Presbyterians make, said TTF member P. Mark
Achtemeier, a professor at Dubuque Theological Seminary, is thinking "that
the search for unity is all about us."

Echoing the central affirmation of the group's preliminary report, Achtemeier
said Presbyterians cannot achieve peace, unity and purity on their own, but
"can only be held together because they all reside in Jesus Christ."

Reflecting on the Gospel of John, task force member Frances Taylor Gench, a
professor at Union Theological Seminary/Presbyterian School of Christian
Education, said its "primary language and only ethical commandment is love
for each other." Jesus's prayer in John 17, "that they all may be one,"
reflects the Gospel's assertion that "God is the source of unity" and our
"mutual experienced love of God in Christ calls us to mutual love for each
other," Gench said.

Showing that love "is the most difficult thing Jesus could have asked us to
do," she said, noting that this love is "more than a feeling or emotion - it
is something we do ... redefined by Jesus's own act of self-giving. We love
in spite of, not because of, our feelings for each other."

Recounting the group's experience, Gary Demarest, a task force co-moderator,
said the 20 members were "chosen because of our differences 3/4 it sure
wasn't a choice we'd have made on our own." So it is with the church, he
said: "God has chosen us; we don't choose who's to be in the family."
(AUDIOVISUAL CLIP GOES HERE.)

Conference participants were asked to discuss two questions:

*How can we continue to live together as a church in the face of our
differences?

*How would the life of the PC(USA) change if we saw the peace, unity and
purity of the church as a given, made available in Christ, rather than as
something we create ourselves?

The task force, in its interim report to the Assembly, is asking the whole
church to engage in dialogue just as it has. Its only recommendation is that
every session and presbytery "create intentional gatherings of Presbyterians
of varied theological views to covenant together to discuss the affirmations
in the task force's preliminary report, utilizing the resources being
developed by the task force."

"Our hope is not to produce an impressive report - to be faithful to Jesus
Christ cannot conclude with a report - but to address our disagreements in
such a way that our identity is affirmed, our mission is enhanced and our
witness is strengthened," said member Jack Haberer, the pastor of Clear Lake
Presbyterian Church in Houston, TX.

Haberer said the task force members "are more grateful for each other and for
the church than when we started - and for your prayers. Keep them coming."

This story and many others may have photos, media, video clips that can be
found at http://www.pcusa.org/ga216.htm.

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