wfn.org | "Unity and Diversity" Study Materials Mailed Out

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

20-October-1999 
99355 
 
    "Unity and Diversity" Study Materials Mailed Out 
 
    General Assembly Asked Presbyterians to Discuss 
    Unity in Christ for Two Years 
 
    by Alexa Smith 
 
LOUISVILLE, Ky.-A bible study and discussion guide on what unites 
Presbyterians - despite their differences - is available now through the 
Office of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). 
 
    The first copies of the resource, "Unity in the Midst of Diversity," 
were mailed this week to commissioners to the 211th General Assembly, 
middle governing body staff and special interest groups within the church. 
 
    It is also available on the denomination's website: 
<http://www.pcusa.org>.  The resource may be ordered free from Presbyterian 
Distribution Services (PDA), order number: OGA-99-031. The telephone number 
for PDA is (502) 569-8030. 
 
    "This is a core issue," PC(USA) Stated Clerk, the Rev. Cliff 
Kirkpatrick, told members of the Committee on the Office of the General 
Assembly (COGA) here last week, as he distributed initial copies of the 
resource.  "One thing is certain for the Presbyterian Church over the next 
10 to 15 years.  We will be more diverse than we are now. 
 
    "And if that is the case, we need to find ways to model our diversity 
without dividing ourselves." 
 
    Commissioners at the General Assembly in Fort Worth last June ordered 
the clerk's office to develop the "Unity in the Midst of Diversity" 
resource and asked congregations, presbyteries and synods to engage in 
dialogue on matters of ongoing controversy within the denomination.  The 
12-page booklet includes models for dialogue, suggested bible texts, a list 
of other resources and an order form. 
 
    OGA staff told the Presbyterian News Service that an expanded resource 
list will be posted on the website shortly. 
 
    Development of the resource was authorized after debate on a 
controversial provision of the denomination's constitution that forbids 
unmarried church officers to be sexually active.  That provision - 
G-6.0106b of "The Book of Order" - was affirmed by a majority of the 
denomination's presbyteries in back-to-back votes between 1996 and 1998. 
Instead of asking for another constitutional vote, this year's Assembly 
asked that dialogues be held within the denomination for the next two years 
on the unity the church finds in Jesus Christ. 
 
    Included in the resource is the sermon on Ephesians 4: 1-6 that former 
moderator the Rev. Douglas W. Oldenburg preached at the opening worship of 
the 1999 General Assembly.  He urged commissioners to "move beyond the 
`we/they,' `winner/loser' mentality, to soften up a bit, to hold ... 
convictions with humility and to avoid the incivility and stridency that 
seem to be growing in our country and perhaps even in our own church." 
 
    Oldenburg said, "If I haven't said anything else to the church this 
year, I have begged all of us - conservative and liberal alike, however one 
votes on various issues - to hold our convictions with humility.  The only 
way to avoid religious fanaticism, on the one hand, and religious 
relativism, on the other hand, is to hold our Christian convictions with 
humility, always remembering that only God is God, that all of us are 
sinful, fallible human beings, and that history is filled with evidence 
that conscientious, Bible-believing, praying, devout Christians have 
sometimes been dead wrong." 
 
    A questionnaire is included in the resource so that OGA may monitor the 
numbers of Presbyterians participating in the study. 
 
    "The year 1999 has brought signs of hope that an era of suspicion and 
sniping in the church is giving way to a time of renewed encounter, respect 
and the possibility of reconciliation," Kirkpatrick wrote in the 
introduction to the new resource. " It is my prayer that conversations 
among Presbyterians of many viewpoints may open us to that Spirit of 
patience, forbearance and love described in Ephesians 4: 1-3, leaving us 
"eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace." 

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