PCUSA theological task force includes both ends of spectrum
By John H. Adams, The Layman Online, November 27, 2001
A 21-member theological task force established by the 2001 General Assembly will meet for the first time Dec. 6-8 in Dallas. Its purpose between now and 2004 is to find, if possible, common ground for maintaining the peace, purity and unity of the Presbyterian Church (USA).
One of the questions assigned to the task force is to address the denomination’s ordination issues – even as presbyteries are overwhelmingly voting against ending the requirement that single officers remain chaste and that married officers remain faithful to their husbands or wives. The tally as of Nov. 26 was 22-2 against Amendment 01-A, and votes cast by written ballots were running more than 70 percent against the proposal.
Before the 2001 General Assembly, some former moderators and high-ranking staff members recommended the task force as an alternative to a bitter debate on ordination standards, fearing that the commissioners might not call for yet another national referendum on the issue. But the commissioners approved Amendment 01-A , which, besides removing the “fidelity/chastity” standard, would invalidate previous theological statements that described homosexual activity as sinful.
The people appointed by General Assembly Moderator Jack B. Rogers and his two immediate predecessors – Syngman Rhee (2000) and Freda Gardner (1999) – represent views that are all over the spectrum on the ordination question, Biblical interpretation, the Lordship of Christ and other matters that have been hotly debated.
Confessing Church pastors
Two pastors of Confessing Church congregations – a movement that Rogers has bitterly denounced – are on the task force: Gary Demarest of Glenkirk Presbyterian Church in Glendora, Calif., and John B. “Mike” Loudon of First Presbyterian Church in Lakeland, Fla.
Likewise, Jack Haberer of Clear Lake Presbyterian Church in Houston is pastor of a congregation whose session has adopted a resolution that agrees point-by-point with those adopted by Confessing Churches. But the Clear Lake session has shunned being part of the Confessing Church Movement “because of its possible divisive impact on the denomination.”
One of the tenets of the Confessing Church Movement bears directly on the ordination issue: A call to Biblical holiness that does not recognize homosexual activity – or adultery – as appropriate for Christians.
Demarest, who is co-moderator of the task force, Loudon and Haberer have some theological colleagues on the panel – perhaps most notably theologian Elizabeth Achtemeier, retired adjunct professor of Bible and homiletics at Union Theological Seminary in Virginia. Achtemeier is an evangelical scholar whose preaching, teaching and writings uphold traditional Biblical and Reformed views.
But the task force also has a number of people who are at the other end of the theological spectrum. They include Barbara Wheeler, president of Auburn Theological Seminary; Scott D. Anderson, former co-moderator of Presbyterian Lesbian and Gay Concerns (which became More Light Presbyterians); and Dr. John Wilkinson, pastor of Third Presbyterian Church of Rochester, N.Y., a More Light congregation.
Wheeler may be the most high profile of the three on the left theological flank.
Instigator of firestorm
In 1999, she created a firestorm in the PCUSA with a paper published by the Covenant Network that called for liberals to solidify their control of the denomination. Fearing that evangelicals were gaining strength, she said liberal control required defiance of church laws or “perhaps quietly subverting them, tactics that weigh heavily on the conscience because they require – at least for the time being – countenancing actions that are wrong and possibly also making statements that are untrue.”
Wheeler, who strongly objected when Presbyterian observers boiled her language down to “defy or lie,” also favors a liberal view of Scripture that allows readers to interpret passages in ways that differ markedly from the Reformed tradition.
Anderson, an elder who is executive director of the California Council of Churches, has been outspoken on homosexual issues – once declaring that “holy unions [of same-gender couples] in no way diminish the importance or value of Christian marriage.”
Another high-profile Presbyterian on the panel is Dr. William Stacy Johnson, an associate professor of systematic theology at Princeton Theological Seminary. Johnson wrote controversial opinion pieces for The Presbyterian Outlook that opposed the Confessing Church Movement and favored allowing Presbyterian pastors to bless same-sex couples.
Louisville retiree is co-moderator
The co-moderator, with Demarest, of the task force is elder Jean S. “Jenny” Stoner, a former staff member at the Louisville, Ky., headquarters of the denomination. Before her retirement, Stoner served as interim coordinator of the Office of Global Education and International Leadership Development, Worldwide Ministries Division.
Stoner was chair of the General Assembly’s Committee on Peace, Purity and Unity of the Church, which recommended the creation of a task force to the Louisville Assembly.
Other members of the task force are:
- Barbara Everitt Bryant, research scientist, University of Michigan Business School, and, from 1989-1993, director of the U.S. Bureau of the Census.
- Milton J Coalter, professor of bibliography and research and director of library and information technology services at Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary.
- Victoria G. Curtiss, co-pastor of Collegiate Presbyterian Church in Ames, Iowa.
- Frances Taylor Gench, professor of New Testament at Union Theological Seminary and the Presbyterian School of Christian Education in Richmond, Va.
- Elder Mary Ellen Lawson, the stated clerk and associate for administration in Redstone Presbytery.
- Jong Hyeong Lee, pastor of Hanmee Presbyterian Church, Itasca, Ill., and former professor of church history at Presbyterian Theological Seminary in Seoul, South Korea.
- Sue Mallory, executive director of the Leadership Training Network and the founding director of the office of Lay Ministries at Brentwood Presbyterian Church in Los Angeles.
- Elder Joan Kelley Merritt, a former high school science teacher and moderator-elect of the Presbytery of Seattle.
- Lonnie J. Oliver, pastor of New Life Presbyterian Church and adjunct professor of evangelism and missiology at Johnson C. Smith Seminary/Interdenomational Theological Center in Atlanta.
- Martha D. Sadongei , a member of the Kiowa tribe of Oklahoma and part-time stated supply serving Central Presbyterian Church in Phoenix.
- Elder Sarah Grace Sanderson, a student at McCormick Theological Seminary and a candidate for ministry under care in the Presbytery of Muskingum Valley.
- José Luis Torres-Milán, pastor of Tercera Iglesia Presbiteriana (Third Presbyterian Church) in Aguadilla, Puerto Rico.