New Wineskins holds its first National Network (assembly)
By John H. Adams, The Layman Online, June 18, 2005
EDINA, Minn. – For 440 registered attendees and a host of observers from Africa, Asia, Latin America and across the United States, Friday, June 17 may be remembered as a historical moment in the Presbyterian Church. This was the day of the first annual national assembly of the fledgling New Wineskins alternative to mainline Presbyterianism.
The first assembly meeting was brief – three hours – and less than dramatic, except for the fact that it began with the delegates literally on their knees praying that their first step would be in accordance with God’s will.
190 voting delegates, representing 85 Affirming/Endorsing congregations worked their way through a business session in which New Wineskins Moderator David Henderson asked them to affirm in principle portions of the 48-page constitution, a document that would turn the Presbyterian Church (USA) upside down – from being a hierarchal structure to becoming a denomination that regarded the local congregation as primary.
There was discussion of many of he issues – including the theological essentials and the moral imperatives – and several suggestions that the language be tweaked, but without acrimony. Everything was approved by voice vote without nays.
The three-hour business meeting recessed at 5 p.m., the scheduled time, to be resumed Saturday morning for another three hours. The four-day New Wineskins Convocation was scheduled to conclude at noon Saturday – but not the movement.
For the record, the official nomenclature chosen for the first business meeting was not “assembly.” Rather, it was billed as the meeting of the National Network of the New Wineskins.
Neither was the meeting regarded as an alternative to the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church, which will meet next in June 2006. But there is hope among the New Wineskinners. They wish, through overtures submitted by one or more presbyteries, to get their restructuring plan before the 2006 General Assembly.
Doug PrattBefore Friday’s meeting began, the Rev. Doug Pratt of Bonita Springs, Fla., one of the architects of the New Wineskins proposal, spoke like a proud father to the delegates about the emergence of the movement.
“For some of us,” said Pratt, a veteran in the evangelical renewal movement, “the [PCUSA] system is part of the problem.” He said the New Wineskins proposals constituted a “lasting, substantive initiative for change.”
“Some people have branded me as disloyal because of my work with New Wineskins,” he added. “But I am profoundly loyal … by seeking to be loyal to the renewal of the church.”
Pratt told delegates that the New Wineskins vision represented a rallying point for evangelicals. “We have not always agreed on everything,” he said. “We have agreed on what we were against. At last, we have something positive that we can agree with.”
Pratt urged the delegates to be committed to the New Wineskins vision but moderate in their style. “Let’s not be offensive. Let’s just be faithful.”
To those who were concerned that the largest evangelical churches in the denomination were not involved in the New Wineskins effort, he added, “We will not wait for those larger churches to get in front of the parade. We will follow the leader of the parade. We can’t control what people say about our movement. We can only control the way we act. Let’s live out the life of our savior in our life together.”
The Rev. Dean Weaver, co-moderator of the New Wineskins, also gave the delegates a preliminary overview.
Dean Weaver“Where are we going now?” Weaver asked. “Everybody wants to know the rest of the story. Well, there are some things God hasn’t shown us yet. We have a saying: ‘God plays the music and the rest of us dance.'”
Without mentioning the possibility of a split in the denomination, Weaver said, “If you came here searching for an end to something, you may be disappointed. But if you came here searching for something, you may find it exciting.”
He urged the delegates to be patient and agree to work for “theological unity, missional faithfulness and structural effectiveness.”
Weaver laid out a legislative agenda that the New Wineskinners will support at the 2006 General Assembly, in addition to seeking support for its own proposal to dramatically restructure the denomination. They will work for repeal of the constitutional provision that says congregations hold their property in trust for the benefit of the denomination; the adoption of their constitution, including the essential tenets and moral imperatives; and their model of relationship-building and mission through networks beginning at the local level and continuing through the National Network.
Much has to be done, Weaver said. He and others described the New Wineskins constitution as being like wet cement that has not hardened.
Whatever happens in the days ahead, Weaver urged the delegates to stick together. “I believe it is incredibly important that whatever we do, wherever we go, that we do this together. I encourage you who already have one foot out the door and the other on the banana peel to be patient. Let’s see if there’s any possible way that God can pull an absolute miracle.”
Nonetheless, Weaver said there could be some critical issues – a “moral-theological compromise” – that could spawn a breaking point.
He identified those as 1) General Assembly repeal of the authoritative interpretation that undergirds the constitutional “fidelity/chastity” ordination standard; 2) repeal by presbyteries in a national referendum of that standard; and 3) a weakening of the denomination’s Christology.
“The core of this is our Christology,” he said. “We’ve got to raise the flag. That is the line in the sand for us.”
But Weaver did not personally see other Presbyterian denominations – particularly the Presbyterian Church in America and the Evangelical Presbyterian Church – as suitable alternatives.
The PCA does not allow women to serve as ordained officers and the EPC, which does, ordains very few women.
He said he could choose neither because he is “so committed to being with Anita Bell and Carmen Fowler,” two ministers who have been leaders in the evangelical renewal movement in the PCUSA.