wfn.org | [PCUSANEWS] Task force says report can help create 'more faithful

[PCUSA NEWS <PCUSA.NEWS@ECUNET.ORG>]

Note #9062 from PCUSA NEWS to PRESBYNEWS:

06009
Jan. 12, 2006

Task force says report can help
create 'more faithful spirit' in PC(USA)

Group makes a distinction between
standards and 'essentials' of faith

by Jerry L. Van Marter

ATLANTA --  Gathering for the last time before it presents its report to next
summer's 217th General Assembly, the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)'s
Theological Task Force on Peace, Unity and Purity of the Church (TTF)
reaffirmed its belief that the recommendations in its report, if adopted,
will contribute to "a more faithful spirit" within the denomination.

	And although many Presbyterians -- especially those at both extremes
of the	theological/political spectrum -- have criticized the report, the
task force members don't think the report will produce a schism in the
2.3-million member church.

	"Reports don't cause schism; people cause schism,"said the Rev.
Milton "Joe" Coalter, a task force member from Union Theological
Seminary-Presbyterian School of Christian Education in Richmond, VA.

	The TTF unanimously approved its report to the Assembly. That in
itself was a feat, considering the wide theological diversity of its members.

	The TTF's recommendations appeal to the church to affirm its unity;
to engage in a process of spiritual discernment and theological reflection,
as the task force itself has done for the past five years; and to develop
decision-making models that "complement" the majority-rule parliamentary
model the PC(USA) has employed for more than 200 years.

	Most debate has focused on two recommendations: 

	·	passage of a proposed "authoritative interpretation" of the
PC(USA) constitution that would allow candidates for ordination to declare a
"scruple" (conscientious objection) in a matter of church doctrine or polity
and permit the ordaining body to determine whether the scruple is a
disqualifying departure from the "essentials of Reformed faith and polity";
and,

	·	a temporary moratorium on proposed amendments to the current
ordination standards

	Church groups opposing the ordination of non-celibate gays and
lesbians have said the proposed authoritative interpretation would in effect
open the door to the ordination of homosexuals. Groups supporting gay and
lesbian ordination have harshly criticized it for maintaining the current
ordination standards.

	Several proposals to delete section G-6.0106b of The Book of Order --
which restricts ordination to men and women who practice "fidelity within the
covenant of marriage between a man and a woman or chastity in singleness" --
have been submitted to the General Assembly, which convenes in Birmingham,
AL, on June 15. Assembly planners have said that the TTF's report will be
considered before proposed constitutional amendments.

	Coalter rejected the claim that the proposed authoritative
interpretation would open the door to wholesale ordination of non-celibate
gays and lesbians. "We are not calling for the abandonment of the current
standards for ordination," he said, "but Presbyterians have historically
distinguished between standards and essentials, and we are following that
historical heritage."

	"Scruples" have been part of Presbyterian polity since 1729, and the
discretionary power of ordaining bodies to decide whether a scruple involves
an essential of the faith has been explicit in The Book of Order since 1983.

	There is a difference between standards and essentials, Coalter told
the Presbyterian News Service. "It is instructive that no General Assembly
has ever adopted a list of essential tenets," he said. "And some Assemblies
have said it's not even appropriate to do so, even if we could agree." 

	But the church has always been willing to adopt standards. 

	"That says to me that there is an inherent difference between
standards and essentials," Coalter said. "Standards are aspirational and in
some respects negotiable. Essentials are not negotiable. That is not to say
standards are wishy-washy. It simply means that the desired qualities present
in a standard may be balanced by other gifts or graces. Essentials simply
cannot be departed from."

"There is no perfect set of rules and regulations that will make all people
good," said TTF member Mark Achtemeier, a professor at Dubuque Theological
Seminary. "So we are trying to propose a more faithful spirit within the
church, an ethos of trust and vulnerability that an endless spate of judicial
cases can't hope to honor."

	TTF member Frances Taylor Gench, a professor at Union-PSCE, said
trust is the crucial element. "In the end, we have to be honest that there is
a vulnerability here, because we can't force anyone to behave the way we hope
them to," she said. "We have to trust our brothers and sisters."

Coalter agreed. "We have to trust that others who we don't know are trying as
hard as we are to be faithful," he said. "The Book of Order clearly expresses
principles for honoring all parties, and that there's a cost and level of
vulnerability required to make this work."

	TTF member Barbara Wheeler, the president of Auburn Theological
Seminary in New York, said such trust could be enhanced in ordaining bodies
as they grapple with individual candidates' scruples. "Ordaining bodies are
going to have to do more work discerning essentials and non-essentials --
everyone will have to read the Book Of Confessions," she said.

	"We're asking that the bar be raised in all ordaining bodies," TTF
member Sarah Sanderson-Doughty added.

	Task force member William Stacy Johnson of Princeton Theological
Seminary concluded that the issue in the church is not the TTF report but
what level of theological diversity will be permissible in the PC(USA). "Our
polity approach (of allowing ordaining bodies to determine fitness for
office) is similar to the Presbyterian Church in America, where many of our
conservative critics are more comfortable theologically," he said. "But the
PCA has an ethos of uniformity that we don't have, so there's more trust in
and tolerance of ordaining bodies. We say that in a diverse church, tolerance
isn't enough, that we're called to embrace and embody a deeper koinonia
(Christian fellowship or communion with God andwith fellow Christians). What
concept of koinonia are our critics espousing?"

	Another way to look at the situation, said Wheeler, is to ask, "What
will happen if our report is not accepted?" The answer, she said, is a return
"to hand-to-hand combat over overtures and amendments for years to come." 

	Task force co-chair Gary Demarest called that outcome "insanity,"
which he defined as "doing the same thing over and over again but expecting a
different outcome." 

	In preparing for its pre-Assembly conference in Birmingham on the
morning of June 15, task force members are preparing to address the questions
it hears most often as it presents its report to groups of Presbyterians. So
far, members have met with 57 presbyteries, four synods, five seminaries and
many other groups and congregations, and have scheduled visits with another
56 presbyteries, six synods and two seminaries in coming months.

	Member Scott Anderson said he looks forward to those meetings. "We've
heard the predictable responses from the advocacy groups," he said. "I
continue to be eager to hear from the 80 percent of Presbyterians who are not
affiliated with any of these groups."

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