By Jerry Andrews, The Presbyterian Outlook.
We meet separately now.
I did not want this. I had worked and prayed that it would not be so. I had valued the shared evangelical witness within the PCUSA. I thought it held promise — the promise that an evangelical witness gladly offered to and received by the PCUSA would prove salutary both to the communion and the evangelical movement within it. The witness was not received; the movement separated.
This year, for the first time, ECO: A Covenant Order of Presbyterians and the Fellowship Community, the continuing evangelical witness within the PCUSA, met separately. For nearly five years we have met as one under the banner of the Fellowship of Presbyterians, discerning a way forward both for those congregations who could no longer imagine living with integrity within the PCUSA and for those who could.
The Fellowship Community met in August. ECO, with its own constitution and the full blessing and burden of a new freedom to call it as it sees it, will gather for its national synod meeting in January 2016. Though there is reasonable hope, articulated often, of meeting together again, the simple fact is: We meet separately now.
Hope of regathering
Though some rejoice while others lament this departure of the way, none should be surprised. Many remember stories of the formation of the Orthodox Presbyterian Church (OPC) in the early part of the century. When I was in seminary, the formation of the Presbyterian Church in America (PCA) was still newsworthy. Shortly after I graduated, the Evangelical Presbyterian Church (EPC) was formed. My home church, one of its flagships, continues to bless my ministry in the PCUSA. My parents’ Sunday school class still lovingly prays for me nearly 50 after they first began, when I was a high school student and they were encouraging me to consider ordained ministry.
We have lived our ecclesial lives apart all these years. There is no surprise in its repetition now, neither is there any joy.
But there is hope — hope that will not disappoint. And surprisingly, it is characterized as regathering, reconnecting and recommitting. (Evangelicals love “re-” words.)
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In todays rapidly changing world, we need to be united not divided. There are too many forces out there waiting to destroy us. The Body of Christ must be united. United we stand divided we fall.
You know what the real tragedy is? If a small group of people hadn’t demanded that we denomination codify their differences in belief and interpretation of scripture, and if this same small group hadn’t insisted that every church codify their view of social change in the world, if churches had been allowed to handle things as their members and staff believed, we would still be united as one under PCUSA. But with the edicts and rules & regs set down in the 2012 and 2014 GA conferences, that has become impossible. The disintegration of this denomination from PCUSA to splinter groups is completely at the feet of the GA attendees who insisted that their way was the only way of belief and implementation of those beliefs. We were doing just fine. Shame on those people and shame on those who will make it worse this June in the next GA. If they only hadn’t insisted on forcing everyone to do as they felt was best and as they saw scripture (although I have my doubts if they all read the book) none of this would be happening now. None of it. Why couldn’t we all just have said no?
robert wright: “There are too many forces out there waiting to destroy us”
Yeah like the last GA!
Well done.
Hey, if the Church of Rome is authorized by God to revise and rewrite The Holy Bible, then why not the PCUSA General Assembly? After all, both serve the same authority.
You all look so cute in your school uniforms, who’s to guess the extent to which we are all being played by the central authorities, who would break down own mortality, all the while remaining strict and aloof, and, buying up the store.
We need a revival, a return to Protestant freedom, accountability, and personal relationship with the Savior, not a medium, much less an occult or pagan medium. We need a return to the days of Wesley and Knox, sin and salvation, repentance and baptism. What we are getting is a New World Order, read those three words carefully and reflect on the meaning of each word.
Robert there can be no Body of Christ or unity without obedience to Christ and that is through obedience to Scripture (the Word of God speaking to us) When Denominations today (which are not a Scriptural based entities) put forth the idea they have the same standing and authority as the original transcribers of Scripture 2000 yrs ago and change the interpretation or meaning of Scripture to meet today’s social moors and desires it naturally divides. It is the Wheat and Tares issue as described in Scripture. There can be no meaningful unity if one party is no longer in the Body of Christ, and to unify for the sake of worldly power is a sin.
Amen, Amen, Amen!!!!!
We hear the Word of God in scripture speaking to us – it is why we are reforming our practices. You say we are hearing “today’s social mores” – I say we are hearing the Spirit guiding us through the scripture – what makes you more right than the many brothers and sisters in the PCUSA who listened for the Word and voted in sessions, presbyteries, and at GA to adopt these changes?
DONNA – you really do not understand how Presbyterians make decisions – please refrain from commenting on things you clearly do not understand. Decisions are not made by “small groups” – overtures come up from sessions and presbyteries – voted on by GA and then must be ratified by a majority of presbyteries. Just come out and say what your issues are – per chance issues related to “sexuality”??
If God is for us–Who can be against us.
The Fellowship, and Rev. Andrews’ well written piece, reminds me of a blazing camp fire. When the logs and embers stay close together it
Is warm and burning brightly for all to enjoy. But separate those logs and scatter those embers and the fire diminishes and goes out.
So, what happens when the fellowship members leave the encouraging setting and return to divided church members and sessions.
What happens when they face the hard hearts of Presbyteries?
Many Presbyteries have turned the corner and rejected Scripture, the confessions, and the global Christian church by going along with the GA edicts. That is a major change and reality.
Some will say, “this issue” is not a reason to separate from the mother denomination. “This issue” is of course sexual immorality and change in the definition of marriage. However, there are serious theological and mission drifting from Scripture that are problematic. It is deeper than the
more apparent “issue” and will affect every church that remains in the PCUSA. For now the Fellowship may provide some warmth, but the tendency to compromise and go along with the direction of the PCUSA will be strong.
The question for the Fellowship is “What voice will you give in the arena of Presbytery and the GA going forward that can change the trajectory of this denomination? How will you teach your churche members when you must speak against the trajectory of the Denomination you have alliegence to? Can you in good conscience invite new converts to Jesus into membership and identification with the PCUSA?”
Sometimes God tries to get our attention through circumstances…..almost like big neon signs. The events and decisions of the last GA, going back to PUP, have been the signs that it maybe time to move out of the PCUSA?
Each in their hearts must and are making that decision and it needs to be part of the discussion at The Fellowship?
If the identification and vision coming out of OGA and presented at the next GA is adverse to the voice of the Fellowship and to Scripture, then that may be a further sign of hardened hearts toward God.
For now, keep the fires burning, dear Fellowship members. We are praying for you!
I meant this to go under the main article and not a response to Pres.
Yet more revisionist history from the Layman crowd.
“if this same small group hadn’t insisted that every church codify their view of social change in the world, if churches had been allowed to handle things as their members and staff believed, we would still be united as one under PCUSA.”
It was so-called conservatives and who insisted that every church codify their views through the passage of G6.0106b. If they had allowed “local option”, 30 years of fighting over ordination would have been, at the very least, much more civil.
It is ironic that the same folks who derided local option as “Congregationalist” a decade ago when things were going their way, are now begging for it today now that they’re not.
Ah, Robert, this is the question, isn’t it. “IF God is for us?” I pray you consider for a moment a corollary question. What if God is, in fact, NOT for us BUT against us? What if God has given us over to our sin and rebellion, and has abandoned us to a sure and certain judgment?
Religious people throughout history have tended to assume that God was on their side, and would protect them from any kind of serious harm. The apostate Jewish leaders of Jesus’ day certainly thought this, claiming as they did that “Abraham is our father.” (cf: John 8:38)
Jesus’ perspective was quite different, of course, and we know that within a few decades of his crucifixion God used the hated Romans to bring down a devastating judgment on the temple, Jerusalem and the Jewish nation. They shouted Gott mit uns, aber Gott war nicht mit ihnen.
Would it not be a good thing for contemporary Christians, Presbyterians in particular, to ask ourselves the most difficult of all questions with which religious people must wrestle? Is God, in fact, with us? Or, having turned against him in so many ways, is God against us?