PUP co-moderator comments on the willing and the arrogant
By John H. Adams, The Layman Online, January 4, 2006
The Theological Task Force on Peace, Unity and Purity will meet in Atlanta Jan. 11-13 to review presbyteries’ responses to its controversial final report and map plans for presenting the report to the commissioners of the 217th General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (USA).
The issue that has caused the most contention is the task force’s recommendation that sessions and presbyteries decide on their own whether to regard as essential for church officers the constitutional “fidelity/chastity” clause in the Book of Order, a standard that was approved by the denomination’s presbyteries in 1997 and reaffirmed by a two-thirds vote in 2001.
Gary DemarestIn a telephone interview with The Layman Online today, Gary Demarest, co-moderator of the task force, said he had been both encouraged and discouraged by the response to the task force’s report.
“The most encouraging thing is to discover a significant number of people in these presbyteries who really don’t want to keep the war going over this one issue and are willing to back off and study Scripture together,” he said. “The most discouraging has been the closed arrogant attitude on both ends of the spectrum by people who say, ‘I have made up my mind.'”
Demarest, a retired minister who lives in Pasadena, Calif., said the time allotted for task force members to make their presentations to the presbyteries has been an issue. “To me, the least satisfying is when I had one hour and no time to put them in discussion groups,” he said.
He now tries to get the presbytery to give him extra time over a two-day period. “Where we have had the most meaningful meetings is when we have had time for discussion groups. My emphasis has been to try to have settings where I make a presentation and then invite them to get together. I try to get the meetings set up with people on different sides of the issue.”
Since the beginning, the task force has commended its “process” even more than its report and recommendations, citing the close friendships that had developed among its members in spite of their theological differences. That process included developing personal relations, sharing about their families and experiences, having Bible studies and worship services – and rarely voting on issues.
It was only at the conclusion of its meeting in Dallas last August that the task force made public its entire report and unanimously and publicly approved it, including its proposal that the General Assembly adopt an authoritative interpretation that would give ordaining bodies the right to decide whether self-acknowledged, practicing homosexuals are eligible for ordination as ministers, elders and deacons.
On the other hand, the report also calls for keeping on the books the ordination standard, G-6.0106b in the Book of Order, and the current General Assembly authoritative interpretation that says men and women who are in homosexual relationships should not be ordained.
Sixteen presbyteries have already submitted overtures calling for the repeal of both. Several renewal groups are asking presbyteries to submit overtures calling on the General Assembly to modify the task force report.
Outnumbered almost three-to-one by task force members who opposed the denomination’s ordination standards, Demarest and other members who identified themselves as evangelicals made the final vote on the report unanimous.
Although Demarest championed having open meetings from the outset, members of the task force quickly grew uneasy over the press coverage. In 2003, the General Assembly gave them the authority to vote to close their meetings. Granted that authority, they did most of their work – and apparently made most of their major decisions by consensus – without the presence of reporters.
But Demarest said he has already recommended that the task force hold all of its meetings in Atlanta in open session. “I personally am advocating that we don’t do any executive sessions,” he said. “But I don’t know what might be proposed.”
As the tentative agenda stood today, Demarest said he knew of only one gathering – a time for “personal sharing” during the evening of Jan. 11 – that the task force might want to be closed to the public. But he said he did not believe personal sharing met the criterion established by the 2003 General Assembly, which authorized the task force to go into executive session to discuss “sensitive theological issues.”
Since their meeting in Dallas last August, Demarest and other task force members have crisscrossed the nation to promote the task force’s report at meetings of presbyteries and other gatherings.
Demarest said he had logged 10 presbytery meetings and one denominational polity meeting. After three weeks off the road since early December, he says he’ll be back on the circuit this month following the meeting in Atlanta.
He said he’s not going to make any recommendations about what kind of action will be taken by the 217th General Assembly during its meeting in Birmingham, Ala., on June 15-22. “But it does seem like a whole lot of people really want to change the way we do the work of the church.”
The General Assembly’s schedule has been designed to give the task force plenty of time to make its point. One entire meeting day is set aside for a presentation by the task force members – and, probably, personal sharing and discussion groups by the commissioners.