Task force members tell how they feel about winding down
By John H. Adams, The Layman Online, January 11, 2006
ATLANTA – The Theological Task Force on Peace, Unity and Purity began the finale of four years of meetings Wednesday, with its members expressing sadness that their gatherings will conclude, weariness from their work, curiosity about how the 217th General Assembly will respond and hope that their primary message – “how to be the church” – will take hold.
The task force, which was authorized by the 213th General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (USA), opened its last meeting in Atlanta this morning to recap what has happened and plan its presentation for the June 15-22 meeting of the General Assembly in Birmingham.
As has been its custom, the task force used an icebreaker to open the meeting, with 20 task force members sharing their personal lives and responding to a request to tell how they “feel” about winding down. They were not asked to specifically talk about their completed report to the General Assembly or their presentations to presbyteries since their meeting last August, but most did.
Here’s what some of them said:
Barbara Everett Bryant, an elder, former director of the U.S. Bureau of Census and university researcher.
“I have made 11 presentations, eight to presbyteries. The overall response has been very positive.” In most audiences, she said she could identify “only one or two in the prohibition category.”
Gary Demarest of Pasadena, Calif., a retired minister and co-moderator of the task force.
He said he was reading Eugene Peterson’s Christ Plays in More Than 1,000 Places. “The experience and joyful journey as part of this marvelous, marvelous group prepared me for the insights that Eugene Peterson’s book brings.”
Frances Taylor Gench, a member of the faculty of Union Theological Seminary in Richmond, Va.
“As this journey comes to an end, I am sad about not seeing you again on a regular basis.”
Scott Anderson, executive director of the Minnesota Council of Churches and the only openly homosexual member of the task force.
“This has been a very important community for me the last four years. This fall has been kind of a strange journey personally with our report and the constituency I work with. Significant relationships in my life have shifted as a result of this work. I am intrigued to see what will happen. I feel like we did what we could do. I’m kind of glad to be able to hand it off and see what the church does.” Anderson added a personal note: “My significant other on Wednesday celebrated his first year without a cigarette.”
Lonnie J. Oliver, pastor of New Life Presbyterian Church in Atlanta.
“I have mixed feelings. It’s been an awesome experience. I’m hopeful that we have made an impact and will make an impact on the denomination.”
Joan Merritt, an elder at Newport Presbyterian Church in Bellevue, Wash.
“I’m still processing what this has meant, not just to me but to the church. I have found it a bit scary to go out to other presbyteries and talk about this. It takes me a long time to decide what the impact is of something in my life. I tend to protect myself from those shocks and hard knocks. I would have to say this was a wonderful, moving experience that I have had. I am very grateful for having been a part of this. I am hopeful this will be good for the church.”
Vicky Curtiss of Portland, Ore., a Presbyterian minister and director of Stirrings, a program for retreats and spiritual service.
“I feel like our work is done. I have been saying, and I think I will always say, this has been a highlight of my whole ministry. I think I should get a D.Min. out of it.”
Gradye Parsons, staff aide to the task force and associate General Assembly stated clerk.
“I have been reading Team of Rivals” – a best-selling history about Lincoln’s appointment of his major rivals to his Cabinet after his election in 1860. Parsons said the task force had likewise looked beyond rivalries. “It’s been a pretty good journey,” he said. “I’m really proud of you.”
William Stacy Johnson, a professor of systematic theology at Princeton Theological Seminary.
“I’m eager to see what the church does at G.A. but, more important, what the church does after G.A.”
Jack Haberer, former pastor of Clear Lake Presbyterian Church in Houston and recently named editor of The Presbyterian Outlook.
“What we have been doing here is ministry for the church. I hear that bad things, but in the relationships face-to-face and in our e-mail, there is a love much greater than particular disagreements. I am going to miss you all. This has been a real rich experience.” Later, Haberer referred the task force to an editorial he had written, saying he would take a hands-off approach to the issue in The Outlook until after the General Assembly. He added, however, “I certainly don’t want to distance myself from what we’ve done. I own that. I buy that.”
Barbara Wheeler, president of Auburn Theological Seminary in New York.
“With the exception of my Sunday mornings in my local church, I don’t know of a more profound spiritual experience than with this local group. I’ve never had an experience like this. It’s going to take an awfully lot, an awfully good church to fill in for what the task force has done. This will work; this is about the church. A lot of writers don’t seem to get it. I hope the report will be evaluated on what it says about how the church should be the church.”
Mark Achtemeier, a professor of systematic theology at Dubuque Theological Seminary.
“I am so grateful – and the task force has been a part of it – for deepening friendships. I have an overwhelming gratitude for whatever happens.” Through their service on the task force, he said, “God gives us a little glimpse of what the kingdom will be like … what a graceful thing it has been to be part of this group and this journey. Spiritually, my big struggle right now is against cynicism. Some of the portions of the church I’ve been accustomed to calling home have seemed so irresponsible. The response from the ‘regular folks’ does seem to get it. That’s been a struggle. I am afraid of the grief I will feel when we no longer get together, so I am in denial mode.”
Mary Ellen Lawson, long-time stated clerk of the Presbytery of Redstone.
“I have mixed feelings about the completion of the work and the fact we won’t be together as a group. Of my 22 years of service to the larger church, I found this to be a mostly wonderful period. The articles and books and resources we have been asked to read have just been a wonderful opportunity to grow. I have a sense of relief, but a sense of sadness, too.”
Sarah Sanderson-Doughty, the pastor of First Presbyterian Church of Lowville, N.Y.
She compared her anxiety over the task force’s final report with her personal anxieties about her church – “not knowing about my future, not knowing what will be born. I am immensely grateful, but also sad. I cannot think of a better way or better company.”
Jenny Stoner, co-moderator of the task force and an elder at East Craftsbury Presbyterian Church in East Craftsbury, Vt.
“Our time together has been extraordinarily rich and important in my faith journey. I feel very hopeful. At a number of places, life within our presbyteries has already been transformed by our work. We have made a gift to the church which many will receive. I feel extraordinarily privileged to have been a part of all this.”
John “Mike” Loudon, pastor of First Presbyterian Church in Lakeland, Fla.
“I have found the presbyteries to be rather positive. Some of them know very little about it. The affinity groups have been very tough. You feel like you’re on a roller coaster. I’ve really enjoyed this group and I’ve really enjoyed working. Another part of me, I’m tired. I’ve been to 10 places; I’ve got nine more to go.”
Jose Luis Torres-Milan, pastor of Tercera Iglesia Presbiteriana (Third Presbyterian Church) in Aguadilla, Puerto Rico.
“I have talked to a lot of pastors and friends in a very informal way. Three presbyteries have not made the time to talk to them. Some of them don’t know what it is about. Some don’t want to know. They don’t like what they have seen or heard. I have mixed feelings on what’s going on afterward. I think it is a beautiful report. I pray and I hope that we could stay together, stick together, knowing that we all have been called by God. I would say to you all, be patient, God is still working with us.”
John Wilkinson, pastor of Third Presbyterian Church in Rochester, N.Y.
“I think the issues that we were asked to wrestle with are important, but it’s all about the church. Our report is not about an issue, or that issue, but about what we offer the church as some resources to deal with that reality. Every presbytery is facing similar issues. I’m starting to read blogs about the emerging church; it’s really extraordinary. If what we hope happens, I think we’re going to have some interpretative, ambassadorial responsibilities after that. I am extraordinarily curious. The assembly is going to do something with this thing. What I realize is that the issues that we’ve been working on and thinking about aren’t going to disappear.”
Martha Sadongei, currently part-time stated supply at Central Presbyterian Church in Phoenix, Ariz., the only organized urban Indian congregation in the PCUSA.
“This work has paralleled what I have been going through in my own life. We’re coming to do that last little bit of tying up loose ends, making it just right. Then comes another transition for whatever happens with the report. It’s compared to giving up the old family traditions and creating them. I’m in complete denial because I know I don’t want to go there yet. It certainly has been joyful, and a journey.”