wfn.org | [PCUSANEWS] COGA wants church to 'reclaim' its constitution

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Note #7479 from PCUSA NEWS to PRESBYNEWS:

COGA wants church to 'reclaim' its constitution
02408
October 16, 2002

COGA wants church to 'reclaim' its constitution

Confessions, Great Ends need greater attention,' stated clerk says

by Jerry L. Van Marter

LOUISVILLE - The Committee on the Office of the General Assembly (COGA) has
given the go-ahead to a long-term project intended to revitalize the mission
and polity of the Presbyterian Church (USA) by reemphasizing the Book of
Confessions and the first four chapters of the Book of Order, which together
comprise the denomination's constitution.
	
The project, called "Common Faith, Common Mission," envisions four or five
years of study and discussion of the "core values" of the PC(USA), possibly
resulting in revisions to the Book of Order.
	
The major components of the project - first proposed by the Rev. Clifton
Kirkpatrick, stated clerk of the General Assembly in a speech at Columbia
Theological Seminary in April 2002 - include a churchwide study of the Book
of Confessions over the next several years and the adoption of the first four
chapters of the Book of Order as what Kirkpatrick calls "our covenant as a
church."
	
Those chapters contain foundational statements about the principles,
confessions, mission and unity of the church. The first chapter includes the
six Great Ends of the Church, which Kirkpatrick has often called "the mission
statement for the PC(USA)."
	
The six Great Ends, found in section G-1.0200, are "the proclamation of the
gospel for the salvation of humankind; the shelter, nurture and spiritual
fellowship of the children of God; the maintenance of divine worship; the
preservation of the truth; the promotion of social righteousness; and the
exhibition of the Kingdom of heaven to the world."
	
Although he has repeatedly called the church's attention to the Book of
Confessions and key parts of the Book of Order during his six years as stated
clerk , Kirkpatrick told COGA during its meeting here earlier this month that
those foundational documents "are not as much a part of the mainstream as
they should be in the PC(USA)."
	
The first four Book of Order chapters, he said, "are the lens through which
we should be living together."

"Our polity theology is there," he said, "and I hope they'll become our
covenant as a church, our consensus core values as a denomination."
	
The project is getting under way at a time when the church's makers of polity
are caught between demands for "enforcement" of the constitution against
those who "defy" some parts of it - notably section G-6.0106b, the so-called
"fidelity and chastity" clause - and complaints that PC(USA) mission is
hamstrung by too much regulation.
	
"We must reclaim the constitution before we try to revise it," Kirkpatrick
said.
	
The Rev. John Bartholomew, a COGA member who recently retired as executive of
the Synod of South Atlantic, acknowledged that some who attended the Columbia
Seminary event interpreted Kirkpatrick's proposal as an "end-run around the
Presbyterian Coalition's enforcement agenda," and others saw the greater
flexibility Kirkpatrick envisions as a threat to Presbyterian order.
	
"I believe this project is a triumph of the important over the urgent,"
Bartholmew said, "with a much greater impact on the church's mission over the
long run."
	
COGA member Stephen Grace, of Midland, MI, said Presbyterians might be able
to agree on "broad headings," but disputes may arise over "the details that
come under the headings."
	
Katherine Cunningham, a COGA member from Ridgewood, NJ, said the project must
be seen in the context of church efforts - spearheaded by Kirkpatrick and
John Detterick, executive director of the General Assembly Council - to
strengthen genuine partnerships among PC(USA) governing bodies. "Our current
legislative style forces our governing bodies to be rigid rather than
responsive," Cunningham said, "and that too often sabotages mission, rather
than enables it."
	
Streamlining church polity to make it more responsive to the needs of
racial-ethnic and immigrant Presbyterians is especially important, said
Kyung-Il Ghymn, a committee member from Reno, NV. "This project gives me
tears from my heart of joy," he said. "This represents the possibility of
change that can lead to future growth and development, particularly in
racial-ethnic churches and communities. We have a beautiful tradition, but
things are changing."

Noting that previous attempts to "streamline" the Book of Order have failed
to win General Assembly approval, the Rev. Jim Collie, a COGA member who
serves as executive presbyter in Santa Fe Presbytery, said the project must
focus on mission, not polity. "If we can reestablish mission, not
maintenance, as the focus of the church, the rest will fall into place pretty
quickly," he said. "If we start with polity, it's going to be a hard push
uphill."

The stated clerk of Arkansas Presbytery, the Rev. Catherine Ulrich, urged
COGA to "go ahead" with the project. "We may not wind up with many changes in
the Book of Order," she said, "but we may well find many changes in what we
mean by - and how we do - mission."

The timeline COGA set for the project calls for consultations with a variety
of groups between now and the start of the 2003 General Assembly next May,
with a possible pre-Assembly conference in Denver on the Great Ends of the
Church. Churchwide study and dialogue would continue at least through 2004,
with any proposals for constitutional revisions coming before the GA no
sooner than 2005.

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