Unity, diversity and schism
August 1, 1999
In 1983, the year the former southern and northern Presbyterian churches reunited following more than a century of separation, General Assembly commissioners adopted a report titled “Historic Principles, Conscience and Church Government” (Minutes, pp. 141-158).
That document, which has not been superseded by subsequent Assembly action, makes significant statements about the unity and diversity of the Presbyterian Church (USA). It also talks frankly about schism.
The report declares, “Divisiveness and schism are most likely to occur when the church does not follow its own procedures carefully. … When a congregation, for example, ignores the presbytery or the constitutional provisions for its election procedures, the result is almost always detrimental to its own health. When the presbytery neglects its role by failing to exercise one of its constitutional functions, the other parts of the church suffer.”
In these observations, “Historic Principles” has proved prophetic. Less than two decades after reunion, Northern New England Presbytery has told one of its congregations that it need not obey a portion of the constitution that it finds troubling. First Presbyterian Church of Stamford, Conn., has voted to install an elder in flagrant violation of specific Book of Order language forbidding such an installation. And West Jersey Presbytery has taken under care as a candidate for the Ministry of Word and Sacrament an individual whose ordination would violate the constitution. In coming under care, the individual declared that the denomination must change to suit his lifestyle preferences.
Technically, such actions constitute schism, a breaking away of one part of the denomination from another. When a congregation or presbytery pridefully determines that it may exempt itself from specific Book of Order mandates, it has by that action broken away from the PCUSA and chosen to live by its own rules and regulations.
Unless decisive action is taken to end such divisive activities, more and more congregations and presbyteries are likely to declare their functional autonomy from the PCUSA. As the number of autonomous governing bodies grows, the possibility of denominational unity will quickly recede to the vanishing point.
In this regard, one other paragraph of “Historic Principles” is particularly noteworthy: “The basis of Presbyterian polity is theological. Our polity is not just a convenient way of getting things done; it is rather the ordering of our corporate life which expresses what we believe. The connection between faith and order is inseparable. At its heart, the polity of the church expresses our Reformed theology. What we do and the way we do it is an expression of how we understand our faith.”
If faith and order are indeed inseparable, and if some Presbyterian governing bodies no longer agree to live under the same order, the inescapable conclusion is that some in the PCUSA no longer share the same faith that makes the majority of Presbyterians one in Christ Jesus.
As presbyteries and sessions prepare to discuss “The Nature of the Unity We Seek in Our Diversity” (see story), not merely unity and diversity but also schism, actual as well as potential, will no doubt weigh heavily on the minds of participants.
For an expanded version of this editorial, click here.