Briefly: Check your Bible for ‘Lambec’
By John H. Adams, The Layman Online, March 4, 2002
DALLAS – Quotables and notables, present and missing at the meeting Feb. 28-March 2 of the Theological Task Force on Peace, Purity and Unity:
CHECK YOUR CONCORDANCE – John B. “Mike” Loudon, leading the opening Bible study, recalled his time at a youth camp in Pennsylvania. The name of the camp was Lambec, and its motto was “To know Christ and make Christ known.”
For sure, Loudon said he long thought, Lambec must be a spiritual word, like a place in the Old Testament. He was disappointed when he discovered that Lambec was an acronym using the first letters of the six counties that comprised the camping region.
MISSING IN ACTION – Dr. Elizabeth Achtenmeier, a retired professor at Union Theological Seminary in Richmond, Va., and one of the leading evangelical voices on the task force, was unable to attend the meeting because of serious health concerns.
Gary Demarest, co-moderator of the task force, said he did not know whether someone will be appointed to her place if she is unable to continue before the next meeting in August.
THE BIG QUESTION – “I know we all live with this big question: What is God trying to do with this task force,” said Victoria G. “Vicky” Curtis of Ames, Iowa.
A VISION OF THE PCUSA – “I saw a vision of people who are weeping and confused. We know that they should support the church, but the church has become more of a foment than a comfort. I think we ought to also have the courage to look into the darkness,” said Milton J. Coalter.
THE FINAL REPORT – After some banter about its final report, despite the fact that two meetings have not produced much grist for that report, there arose a question about who would write it.
“Jack [Haberer] and I volunteer to do that final draft,” said Loudon, attempting to ensure an evangelical point of view.
“I volunteer for you to do it now,” said Coalter.
“I volunteer to edit it,” said Dr. Barbara Wheeler, a staunch liberal.
FEEDBACK TIME – After a lengthy presentation by Curtis and Sarah Sanderson, a McCormick Theological Seminary student, on a sociologically tilted model for discernment called “Frames of Life,” task force members were asked what they thought about the process, which included lengthy periods of meditation.
“On a scale of one to 10, with 10 being positive, it was a six,” said Barbara Everitt Bryant.
“I thought what we did was very Protestant,” Wheeler said. “We thought about it for a while, and then we talked. Nobody had visions or spoke in tongues. I’m glad there was nothing unCalvinist.”
Scott Anderson added, “I’ve heard a request for more content.”
William Stacy Johnson, a professor of theology at Princeton Theological Semianry, was the most pragmatic: “We’re never not discerning.”
TIME FOR SHARING – In the time for sharing after a Scripture study about God, John Wilkinson came to this conclusion. “God’s not indifferent to us. He says, ‘I’m mad as hell, but I’m going to put up with them.'”
CONFESSING CHUCHES – When the Confessing Church Movement within the Presbyterian Church (USA) has been mentioned during the meetings of the Theological Task Force, many of the participants seem to look the other way.
But Loudon brought the movement to the fore with a report to the task force on the National Celebration of Confessing Churches.
Two other people who attended the celebration also were at the task force meeting in Dallas – moderatorial candidates Laird Stewart, pastor of Calvary Presbyterian Church in San Francisco, and Jerry Tankersley, pastor of Laguna Beach Presbyterian Church in Laguna Beach, Calif. Both attended the task force meeting as observers, although Stewart did, upon request, deliver the benediction at the closing meeting on March 2.