wfn.org | Gardner and Oldenburg address Covenant Network Convocation Dinner

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

Note #6560 from PCUSA NEWS to PRESBYNEWS:

9-June-2001
GA01003

Gardner and Oldenburg address 
Covenant Network Convocation Dinner

Two former moderators espouse healing and envision hope

by Emily Enders Odom 

LOUISVILLE, June 8 – "Do remember the Pentecost story," urged John
Wilkinson, pastor of Third Presbyterian Church, Rochester, NY, and an
original organizer of the Covenant Network of Presbyterians.  That set the
tone for the Covenant Network's Commissioner Convocation Dinner on the eve
of this 213th General Assembly, the annual meeting of the highest governing
body of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.).  Wilkinson’s introductory
remarks outlined the Covenant Network’s mission to work for a fully
inclusive church, and invoked the Holy Spirit through allusions to Holy
Scripture and the Brief Statement of Faith. At the conclusion of his remarks
the capacity crowd at the Hyatt Regency Ballroom enthusiastically welcomed
Covenant Network staff and board members. Freda Gardner, Moderator of the
211th General Assembly, and the first of the evening's two speakers,
followed these introductions.

	In impassioned tones and with characteristic candor and humor, Gardner
reflected on issues of exclusion, conflict, and reconciliation in the church
by wrestling with variations on the motto, "What would Jesus do?"
"What can we do," said Gardner, quoting a beloved hymn "'to hasten the time,
the time that shall surely be; when the earth will be filled with the glory
of God as the waters cover the sea’  I hope that we will put strong
arms around the wounded among us."

	"I hope," she continued, "that many of us will be given the strength to see
God's other frightened, manipulative, defensive children, and to let God's
love reveal them to us as our sisters and brothers.  It takes more courage
to love than it does to hate, and more grace.  I think it's what Jesus would
do and has done and can do with us."

	Following a standing ovation for Gardner, Douglas Oldenburg, Moderator of
the 210th General Assembly and the evening’s second speaker, took the
stage to address the related themes of the dangers of absolutism and the
fears aroused by diversity.  After stating and asserting the Protestant
principle, specifically "the insistence that no object of partial loyalty be
transformed into an object of loyalty, because God is sovereign," Oldenburg
advised his audience, many of whom were commissioners, or those who vote on
business at the Assembly, against "being too categorical or dogmatic or
arrogant about the place we stand or the vote we cast."  With powerful
insight and poignant examples, he advocated an "eagerness and willingness to
share our own convictions with others, but also an eagerness to listen to
others for correctives and insights that may come from the most unusual
sources."

	Concluding with words of hope for what he termed a "great sea change in the
Presbyterian Church," Oldenburg affirmed his belief in "miracles and cures
and healing wells, because we worship living, loving, Sovereign God."

	"A great sea change, healing" he prayed, "God, let it begin with this
General Assembly."

_______________________________________________
pcusaNews mailing list
pcusaNews@pcusa.org

To unsubscribe, go to this web address:
http://pcusa01.pcusa.org/mailman/listinfo/pcusanews