Will there be a schism in 2006?
The Layman January-February 2006 Volume 39, Number 1, January 23, 2006
The New Year arrived with tremors across the Presbyterian Church (USA). Forebodings of a schism? The answer to that question lies in what occurs during eight days in Birmingham, where the 217th General Assembly will meet on June 15-22. Count on a scorcher, both inside the meeting halls and outdoors.
Temperatures are already rising. The Presbytery of San Diego is expected to vote soon on a contingency plan. If the General Assembly approves the recommendations of the Theological Task Force on Peace, Unity and Purity, San Diego is considering an exit strategy for congregations that no longer wish to be part of the PCUSA.
The Presbyterian Lay Committee has scheduled a pre-General Assembly national conference on June 8-11 at Grove City College in Grove City, Pa. The cover of the conference brochure asks pointedly, “Will 2006 be the year pluralism splits the PCUSA?”
The New Wineskins Initiative has scheduled a postmortem on the General Assembly at a second convocation on July 19-22 in Tulsa. The New Wineskins’ leaders have already indicated that changing the ordination standard could precipitate a breakup.
Fifteen former moderators of the General Assembly – loyal PCUSA institutionalists – are on the docket for a convocation focusing on the “turbulence” in the denomination on July 5-8 at the Montreat Conference Center in North Carolina. Clearly, the planners of the convocation are bracing for something other than a songfest.
Denominational institutionalists and self-described progressives probably will accuse the evangelicals of being “schismatic” for even talking – or thinking – about leaving the denomination. But keep three things in mind:
1. The PCUSA is already in schism. Since 1967, membership has plummeted at a rate of nearly 50,000 a year. Of the mainline Protestant denominations, only the United Church of Christ, which now sanctions same-sex marriages, has a higher attrition percentage.
2. The Reformation itself was not a church schism. It was essentially a great awakening to the timeless truths of Scripture and the recognition that the Roman Catholic Church had abandoned many of those truths. The Reformers did not choose to leave the mother church; they insisted they had been abandoned by un-Biblical teachings.
3. The schism instigators will be those who have promoted and approved practices and theology that abrogate the historical Reformed commitment to a Biblical faith and practice and the absolute conviction that Jesus Christ alone is the Way, the Truth and the Life, and no one is saved apart from his sacrificing his life as a ransom for all.
A church breakup, like a divorce, is a painful experience. But anti-Biblical pluralism that condones wrong beliefs and sinful practices is, as the prophets repeatedly said, an expression of spiritual adultery. And adultery, without sincere repentance and reconciliation, is a Biblically grounded justification for divorce.