Response to state of PCUSA tops New Wineskins’ agenda
By Craig M. Kibler, February 5, 2007
After releasing a report Jan. 15 that recommends “the Biblical solution of separation from our present denomination,” the New Wineskins Association of Churches is planning to release what it has termed “a wide range of options” in response to the state of the Presbyterian Church (USA) during its winter convocation Feb. 8-9.
The convocation will be held at First Presbyterian Church in Orlando, with the Rev. Dr. Sameh Maurice as the preacher and teacher. More complete information is available on the Web site of the association.
Delegates to the convocation also will consider a proposal in the report that says the Evangelical Presbyterian Church will vote in June on establishing a transitional, non-geographic presbytery to receive those churches that disaffiliate from the Presbyterian Church (USA).
‘Serving the Kingdom of God’
“In order to fulfill the mission of the Church of serving the Kingdom of God by proclaiming and adhering to Biblical truth, which we believe obedience to Christ requires of His disciples,” the report’s authors say, “we are compelled to recommend the Biblical solution of separation from our present denomination.”
The report says this recommendation for “graceful disaffiliation” is due to historical, Biblical, spiritual, missional, congregational, legal and strategic reasons, and that, “It is time for those who are ready to realign with an evangelical, Reformed body that is more faithful to Christ, obedient to Scripture and seeks a missionally-focused partnership with us than what we presently experience in the PCUSA.”
The 155-page report offers a range of options – both for congregations that wish to stay within the PCUSA and those that wish to align with the EPC – and includes a “concrete and comprehensive” examination of Biblical, spiritual, missional, congregational, strategic and legal considerations, including the request for dismissal of a congregation from its presbytery.
“We believe that this report gives specific and strategic steps that a congregation can take, whether it prayerfully is called to remain or realign,” New Wineskins’ co-moderators D. Dean Weaver and Gerrit Scott Dawson wrote in a cover letter to the report.
“We believe it is time to implement the strategy our Lord has given us to transform the world. It is time for an Acts 1:8 Church!” they write. “It is time for a church whose members are being equipped as missionaries; sent by God to live and proclaim the Kingdom of the Lord Jesus Christ in their own world. It is time for a reproducing community of authentic disciples. It is time to be united with those who confess Biblical truth through a polity that serves Christ’s mission, which is the Great Commission.”
The PCUSA, the report says, “compromised its own confessions and constitution” at the 217th General Assembly in Birmingham by receiving a report on the Trinity and approving the report of the Task Force on Peace, Unity and Purity.
‘De facto confessional position’
By these actions, the PCUSA “embraced a de facto confessional position which encourages the worship of a god unknown in the Scriptures, a god of man’s own making whose names appeal to the sensibilities of contemporary philosophy, politics and a culture that asks the Church to validate rather than redeem that culture,” the report says, adding:
“It also adopted an authoritative interpretation of the Book of Order that, while affirming the existence of standards for ordination, takes the step of making the enforcement of those standards optional on the local level. This new reality allows local judicatories to determine that such departure from revealed truth is a non-essential for ordination.”
As they prepared to present their final report in Orlando, the strategy team called on Presbyterians to pray. “The potential for damage to the cause of Jesus Christ is very great. Please pray that the leadership of all concerned will come and reason together to peacefully resolve our many differences in accordance with Matthew 5:25, thus avoiding potentially devastating and costly waves of litigation.”
Worship, schedule
Worship during the convocation will be led by Maurice, the pastor of Kasr el Dobara Church in Cairo, Egypt, which event organizers describe as the largest Evangelical (Presbyterian) Church in the Middle East – 7,000 people regularly attend services and reach out to the city and region through multiple ministries and activities.
Convocation organizers also released a tentative schedule, titled “Ride the Wave! Catch the Missional Tide!” for Orlando as follows:
Thursday – February 8
Pre-Convocation Morning of Prayer and Fasting
Convocation Convenes
1 p.m. – Welcome of delegates, observers and invited guests
1:10 p.m. – Opening Worship
2:30 p.m. – “Looking Back and Looking Forward – The Presbyterian Missional Vision” – Dr. Luder Whitlock
“The Presbyterian Predicament” – The Rev. Parker T. Williamson
3:45 p.m. – Break
4 p.m. – Envision a Church, Part I – Shared Theology and Ethics, NWAC Essentials-EPC Essentials, NWAC Ethical Imperatives-EPC and Westminster Imperatives, Energy of Subscriptionism
5:30 p.m. – Dinner In (provided) – dining with Regional Networks
7 p.m. – Evening Worship
7:30 p.m. – Envision a Church, Part II
7:45 p.m. – Shared Missional Vision, introduced by Luder Whitlock interviewing Dean Weaver, Paul Heidebrecht, Sameh Maurice and Marcello Robles
8:30 p.m. – Envision a Church, Part III – Emerging Structure: NWAC polity and structure-EPC polity and structure
Friday– February 9
8:30 a.m. – Morning Worship
9:40 a.m. – Introduction of Strategy Team Report and time of prayer
10:35 a.m. – Break
11 a .m. – Workshops – “Ride Your Wave I”
1 p.m. – Lunch (on your own) – Plan to dine with various non-geographic affinity groups (e.g. women’s network; legal network, pro-life network, etc.)
2:30 p.m. – Workshops – “Ride Your Wave II”
4 p.m. – Break
4:20 p.m. – Delegated meeting (sanctuary)
5:45 p.m. – Dinner In (provided) – dining with regional networks
7 p.m. – Evening worship and prayer
7:30 p.m. – Delegated meeting (sanctuary)
9 p.m. – Adjournment to Live as Light and Salt
Craig M. Kibler is the Director of Publications for the Presbyterian Lay Committee and Executive Editor of The Layman and The Layman Online. He can be reached at cmkibler@www.layman.org.