wfn.org | NAE to Reconsider Its Inclusive Stance

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Note #6418 from PCUSA NEWS to PRESBYNEWS:

8-March-2001
01090

NAE to Reconsider Its Inclusive Stance

Presbyterian Church in America objects to any NCC ties

by Adelle M. Banks
Religion News Service

DALLAS -- The National Association of Evangelicals has decided to reconsider
its recent membership rule permitting church bodies of the more
theologically liberal National Council of Churches to hold dual membership
with the evangelical organization.

	Bishop Kevin Mannoia, NAE president, said that on March 5 the board of the
organization asked its bylaws committee to restudy the issue after a
representative of the Presbyterian Church in America made a motion that the
new rule be rescinded.

	"The position of the NAE remains unchanged as it relates to membership,"
Mannoia told reporters at a news conference after the closed board meeting.
"But we will probably be going back and making sure that that's the position
that we mean to take."

	The Rev. Roy Taylor, clerk of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian
Church in America, told Religion News Service his denomination views the
NAE's move as "inconsistent with the unique nature" of the evangelical
organization.

	"The uniqueness of the NAE in its founding was to be an evangelical
association in contrast to the more theologically diverse and pluralistic
NCC mainline denominations," he said.

	Taylor said the PCA assembly, held last June, directed its interchurch
relations committee to request that NAE reverse its action.

	He said other reasons for the request included concerns about "doctrinal
integrity" and the possible departure of some denominational members of NAE
if member denominations of the NCC join the evangelical umbrella
organization.

	"This does not seem to us to be a clear witness in our post-modern culture
where the emphasis is on relativism rather than our standing very clearly
for the uniqueness of the Christian faith," Taylor said.

	The Presbyterian Church in America began in 1973, splitting over
theological differences from the Presbyterian Church in the United States,
one of the precursor denominations that make up the current, more liberal
Presbyterian Church (USA).

	The PC(USA) is an NCC member.

	"For us to go back into a situation where we would be related again to the
National Council of Churches is disconcerting," Taylor said.

	The bylaws change, approved at the 2000 meeting of the evangelical
organization, allows for denominations that are members of other
ecclesiastical bodies, including the National Council of Churches, to be
able to hold membership with the NAE. Any denomination that joins would have
to adhere to the NAE’s statement of faith.

	"Evangelicals know who they are," Mannoia said, defending the change in the
bylaws. "We don't have to define ourselves based on who we're not. ... We
are committed to the statement of faith that has been forged over 60 years.
We are committed to the identity of the evangelical witness."

	Mannoia said the restudy will occur to "honor one of our own," but he does
not expect it will result in the deletion of the bylaws from the NAE’s
books.

	"The chances are not great that it would be altered," he said, noting the
process to change the bylaws began over two years ago and involved
discussion by NAE committees and its board before more than a 2/3 majority
of the board approved the move.

	The bylaws committee is expected to report on its study of the matter at
next year's meeting of the association, which currently has 51 member
denominations. This year's meeting concluded March 7.

	Asked if the PCA might leave the NAE if the bylaws remain unchanged, Taylor
said: "It's a possibility — certainly not a threat — but we would make the
decision based on whatever changes are made or not made."

	In response to questions raised by some of its members, the NAE board
passed a resolution March 5 clarifying its views on ecumenism.

	"We shall not seek out or respond to any overture of any body that would
seek to subsume the NAE into the contemporary ecumenical movement, while
continuing to partner with groups as appropriate to advance singular social
issues," reads the resolution, described as a "sense of the association."

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