wfn.org | New Perspectives on constitutional, faith issues

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Note #7095 from PCUSA NEWS to PRESBYNEWS:

18-March-2002
02108

New Perspectives on constitutional, faith issues

OGA's online journal provides direct channel between leaders, church

by John Filiatreau

LOUISVILLE - The Rev. Clifton Kirkpatrick, stated clerk of the Presbyterian Church (USA), says the Office of the General Assembly (OGA) created its new online publication, Perspectives, in response to "a hunger, at least among some people in our church, for deeper reflection on matters relating to the essentials of our faith and the constitution."

Kerry Clements, OGA's director of communication and technology, who serves as editor of the "electronic magazine," says it will provide "good, hard background information" and "thought-provoking material" on issues facing the PC(USA), as well as information about OGA that church members "wouldn't normally come across" in other denominational publications.

Perspectives also provides a direct channel for Kirkpatrick and the moderator of the General Assembly, currently the Rev. Jack Rogers, to use to communicate with leaders and members of the denomination. Each issue of the monthly publication - whose address is www.pcusa.org/oga/perspectives - will include an article by one or the other.

On the opening page of the magazine, OGA says Perspectives is "designed to examine Presbyterian Church life with new eyes" and "to engage the Bible and our theology in exploring the issues facing the church." Each issue, it says, will include three or four "thought-provoking" articles that will "utilize a constitutional and confessional framework for appreciating the ambiguities we face."

OGA will soon hire an editor to manage Perspectives and other OGA communications, Clements says, adding that the magazine will remain a work in progress until that person "gets on board and gets his feet wet."

Kirkpatrick is essentially the magazine's publisher ("It goes out pretty much under his name," says Clements), and for now Clements puts it together.

Clements says one factor in the creation of Perspectives was the fact that so much of what Kirkpatrick does and says is reported "in little snippets, with no context."

"He's taking control of the words he's putting down," he says of Kirkpatrick.

The first issue has four stories: An article on the modernist-traditionalist controversy in the Presbyterian Church of the 1920s, by Dr. Bradley J. Longfield of Dubuque Theological Seminary (reprinted from the Spring 2000 issue of The Journal of Presbyterian History); a "theological contemplation" called "Bearing with One Another: The Pastoral Task in Times of Struggle," by Sheldon Sorge (originally published as part of a church-issues series by the Office of Theology and Worship); a news feature about the inauguration of the ecumenical group Churches Uniting in Christ (CUIC), by Theo J. Gill Jr., a World Council of Churches editor who was formerly of OGA's Department of Ecumenical and Agency Relations; and "What is Church?", in which Rogers reflects on the dual identity of the church as an "ark of salvation" and "an agent of social change in a sinful world."

Articles that may make the second issue: "Following the Prince of Peace in a Violent World," in which Kirkpatrick urges Christians to "speak out on behalf of peace"; a report on a dialogue between representatives of the World Alliance of Reformed Churches and leaders of Pentecostal churches; reflections on the promise of CUIC, by Michael Kinnamon, general secretary of its predecessor organization, the Consultation on Church Union (COCU); a commentary on the historic "Joint Declaration on Justification" between the Roman Catholic Church and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, by Anna Case-Winters of McCormick Theological Seminary; and the text of a sermon, "I Am Ecumenical; Therefore I Am Evangelical," made by Gill during a meeting of the PC(USA)'s Committee on Ecumenical Relations.

Although these appear to be theme issues on church unity and ecumenism - two of Kirkpatrick's priorities - Clements says that's mostly accidental. "We decided right away that it wouldn't necessarily always be thematic," he says. 

According to Clements, the publication will probably be tweaked to include "some kind of interactive way for people to provide feedback," an "electronic version of letters to the editor."

Kirkpatrick says Perspectives was launched in part to deflect too-frequent requests that he write articles for PC(USA) publications and organizations. The online periodical enables him to write one story and make it available to any group or publication that wants to reprint it. 

Clements says Kirkpatrick is "inundated with requests" for articles, and cannot accommodate all of them, although he does "occasionally write articles for different Presbyterian Church publications." He added that both Kirkpatrick and Rogers "enjoy writing."

Kirkpatrick says it was "the gift of new technology" that made it possible to launch the new publication, because it's much less expensive to produce than an on-paper product. "It gives us the potential to reach a lot more people," he says.

Clements and Kirkpatrick say the early response to Perspectives has been positive.

"In fact, all of it has been positive," Clements adds, "inside the (Presbyterian Center) and across the church." He says early surveys indicate that the magazine is already one of the most popular of all of the OGA Web pages.

"All age groups pretty much are using the Internet," he says. "Even as our church ages, that seems to hold true. ... This is the new technology as we head into the 21st century, and we've decided to embrace that."  
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