wfn.org | Church leaders say split is a possibility

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Note #6902 from PCUSA NEWS to PRESBYNEWS:

15-October-2001
01385

Church leaders say split is a possibility

Rogers says conservatives "magnifying" differences to justify schism 

by Alexa Smith

LOUISVILLE - Two leaders of the Presbyterian Church (USA) have for the first
time acknowledged the possibility that long-standing political battles may
cause the church to split.

	The Rev. Clifton Kirkpatrick, the denomination's stated clerk, and the Rev.
Jack Rogers, moderator of the General Assembly, made their comments just
before the opening of the Oct. 10 meeting of the Committee on the Office of
the General Assembly (COGA).

	Kirkpatrick, Rogers and the Rev. William Forbes, of Westfield, NJ, this
year's COGA moderator, spent about an hour in conversation with committee
members, discussing two questions: How might the current time of crisis
change our ministry as a church? And how might current political and
theological conflicts in the church change the ministry of the Office of the
General Assembly?"

	It was an occasion for lamenting fractiousness in the church and the
political and military turmoil that have ensued since the terror attacks on
New York City and Washington, DC, on Sept. 11.

	Rogers said his principal concern about friction in the church is a
pastoral one, that well-meaning Presbyterians are being led astray by others
not so well-meaning - namely the Presbyterian Lay Committee (PLC), a
conservative board of 24 members that has called the actions of this year's
General Assembly "apostate." Rogers' said the Lay Committee has commandeered
a growing coalition within the church that calls itself the Confessing
Church Movement (CCM)

	"I feel bad for the hundreds of churches that are getting (drawn) in ...
not knowing what they're getting into," said Rogers.

	Rogers said the CCM's three "confessions" - that Jesus Christ is the only
Savior, that Scripture is infallible, and that sexual behavior should be
reserved for marriage - are stances that virtually all Presbyterian churches
already endorse.

	He said he believes the Lay Committee and like-minded groups are
"magnifying" differences within the church to justify separation. "I don't
think we should allow that to happen," he said.

	"Schism is a sin," Rogers said, adding that churches contemplating schism
must be confronted with the seriousness of that choice. He said
representatives of OGA and the General Assembly Council (GAC) should meet
with those who are contemplating a split.

	During the Oct. 12 meeting, COGA authorized a budget to be used to train a
team of former moderators to visit with churches who plan on joining the
CCM.

	Kirkpatrick, too, spoke to the issue.

	Kirkpatrick had just returned from the annual meeting of the Presbyterian
Coalition, an organization of evangelical and conservative networks within
the PC(USA), where about half of the 1,300 Presbyterians on hand voted to
include "gracious separation" from the denomination as an option if the
wider church takes theological and social positions that they find
objectionable. The issue of most concern for the moment is the ordination of
sexually active homosexuals.

	"Everything about my ministry (has been based on the idea) that God wants
the church to be united," said Kirkpatrick, a noted ecumenist.
But he said he came away from the Coalition meeting with a sense that some
Presbyterians feel "so deeply alienated" that, with regard to the question
of leaving the PC(USA), "the question is not if but when."

	"And that is painful," he said, pointing out that the core calling of the
church is not to let crisis or alienation get in the way of its work.

	Kirkpatrick had also met with New York City and New Jersey pastors during
the week after the Sept. 11 attacks on the World Trade Center in lower
Manhattan.  "In the midst of that incredible pain," he said, "I have
rejoiced at the faithful and sacrificial witness of so many Presbyterians in
the New York metropolitan area, as they have - often at great personal
sacrifice - been agents of the love of Christ in powerful ways." He said the
tragic events of that day have called the whole church to a "new day in
ministry."

	Forbes, who pastors a church just 30 miles from the city's financial
district, struck a similar note.

	"After the events of the last month, people that haven't been sitting in
our pews other than on Easter and Christmas ... they're all there now," he
said. "We have the attention of folks we've not had ... in a long, long
time. We have an opportunity to affirm an eternal living Word for people so
hungry for the basics."

	Forbes said he worries that the internal struggles of the national church
may "turn off" potential converts.

	He said he would like to see COGA engage in a dialogue with Islam similar
to the dialogue now under way with the Vatican - and to consider dispatching
its members to disaffected churches to talk about why they ought not leave.
"We have a responsibility to keep the church together," he said.

	Kirkpatrick said he'd like to see the national staff and elected people do
more than simply react to crisis. He'd like to see the denomination
"creatively" shape its ministry to make it less expensive - for example, by
holding its General Assemblies every other year. "Maybe even more to the
heart of the matter," he said, "I'd like us to focus on being the church in
the 21st Century ... a community of colleagues and disciples."

	Rogers affirmed the work of PC(USA) staff on Sept. 11 and spoke of the
confusion many North Americans are feeling in the wake of the attacks.
"We have to realize that there are people all over the world who do not see
us in the benign light that we see ourselves," he said. "They are people who
focus only on the negative. And we have to face the fact that there are
people like that in our church - who focus only on the negative."

	COGA member Allie Latimer, of Washington, DC, said she would like to see
COGA lead the church in reclaiming the prophetic role it once played in the
culture. She hearkened to the more prophetic days of Eugene Carson Blake, a
prominent Presbyterian who was pivotal in the ecumenical movement.  The Rev.
Herb Christ, of San Diego, CA, COGA's liaison to the GAC, said the council
is "losing" its prophetic voice while "bending over backwards to please
everybody."

	The Rev. Helen Cochrane, executive Presbyter of Philadelphia Presbytery and
a COGA member, said it's hard to listen to talk about church conflict after
the events of Sept. 11.
"I want to say: 'This is not important. We have to look at life differently
now. Everything has changed,'" Cochrane said. "It's not that it's not
important what we believe; but we've got to understand our neighbors better
.. Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus."
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