wfn.org | General Assembly will focus on theology

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

Note #7140 from PCUSA NEWS to PRESBYNEWS:

23-April-2002
02157

General Assembly will focus on theology

Overtures seek clarification of PC(USA) view of salvation

by Jerry L. Van Marter

LOUISVILLE - The 214th General Assembly (GA) of the Presbyterian Church (USA) will address several theological issues of bedrock importance to members of the 2.5-million-member denomination and to Christians in general.

Conspicuously absent from the agenda is any effort to change the ordination standards of the PC(USA) by overturning constitutional provisions forbidding the ordination of gay and lesbian Presbyterians - an issue that has provoked nearly annual battles in the denomination.

But some of the most fundamental theological issues, including the church's understanding of salvation through Jesus Christ, have been almost as divisive in recent years.

This year's eight-day Assembly, the annual national legislative gathering of the PC(USA), will get under way on June 15, in Columbus, OH.

A variety of overtures (resolutions) have been submitted that would articulate the denomination's understanding of Christ's saving grace. The current debate on the issue began two years ago when a speaker at a Presbyterian Peacemaking Conference suggested that God might make salvation available by means other than profession of faith in Jesus Christ. 

A statement adopted by last year's GA, declaring that Jesus is "uniquely Savior," was considered too weak by some conservative Presbyterians. Several of this year's overtures urge commissioners to adopt a paper a statement on the issue, "Hope in the Lord Jesus Christ," prepared after last year's GA by the PC(USA)'s Office of Theology, Worship and Discipleship.

Several overtures, apparently intended to prevent the kind of dissension that has characterized the debate over ordination standards, would make it harder to amend the church's Book of Order by requiring a two-thirds vote of the Assembly and the presbyteries rather than the current requirement of a simple majority.

The GA will elect a moderator, as it does every year. They will choose among three candidates - the Rev. Laird Stuart, of San Francisco, CA; the Rev. Jerry Tankersley, of Laguna Beach, CA; and the Rev. Fahed Abu-Akel, of Atlanta, GA. The Assembly also will be asked to confirm the reelection of John Detterick to a second four-year term as executive director of the General Assembly Council - the top programmatic office of the denomination.

The always-controversial issue of abortion will reappear on the GA agenda. The 554 commissioners will receive a report clarifying the denomination's policy on late-term abortions, and a number of other overtures would impose restrictions on medical coverage for such procedures.

The GA also will adopt mission and per-capita budgets for coming years, and will consider a proposal to schedule Assemblies only every other year. Numerous previous efforts to make that change have failed.
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