Theological Task Force to receive draft proposals
By John H. Adams, The Layman Online, June 23, 2005
The Theological Task Force on Peace, Unity and Purity will meet in Dallas on July18-21 to consider draft proposals in preparation for its final report to the 2006 General Assembly.
The task force is scheduled meet again in August to collate the revised drafts and prepare a report to the denomination’s 173 presbyteries for their review before the final recommendations go to the General Assembly. The deadline for the report to be ready for the presbyteries is Sept. 15.
The final report – covering Christology, Biblical authority, ordination standards and the allocation of power within the denomination – is one of the most anticipated documents in the history of the Presbyterian Church (USA) since the Northern and Southern denominations merged in 1983 – but not necessarily because of its likely content.
So far, the task force has received mixed reviews.
Stated Clerk Clifton Kirkpatrick stated last year that the task force had “accrued huge moral authority” – practicing what he preaches, unity despite theological diversity. The Presbyterian Outlook has run numerous articles on task-force like dialogue groups that emulate the panel’s elevation of relationship-building above doctrinal issues. In the May 5 Outlook, one observer was quoted as saying that the task force’s relational style “may prove as significant for the church as the report itself.” Task force members have said likewise.
On the other hand, conservatives have been more skeptical and critical, sometimes questioning the Biblical validity of portions of its work. One of the primary critics among the conservatives has been Dr. Robert A.J. Gagnon, a professor at Pittsburgh Theological Seminary, who says the task force’s theological work, which was included in a preliminary report to the 2004 General Assembly, has been weak and wrong.
The task force has met three times a year since 2001, when the 213th General Assembly established the body with the principle purpose of advising the denomination on how to respond to three decades of efforts by homosexuals and their allies to end the PCUSA’s prohibition against ordaining active homosexuals.
Except for promoting their process and their own videos and resources, task force members have grown skittish about public exposure. At their most recent meeting in March, task force members spent about half of their time in executive session and made no decisions during open sessions about where they might be
headed in the final report. Rather, they established three writing groups to submit reports:
Theology, including Christology: Scott Anderson, Frances Taylor Gench, William Stacy Johnson, Jong Hyeong Lee, Lonnie Oliver and Barbara Wheeler.
Ordination, sexuality and “other controversial issues:” Mike Loudon, Sarah Sanderson-Doughty and John Wilkinson.
Polity, process and decision-making: Wilkinson, Mark Achtemeier, Joe Coalter and Vicky Curtiss.
A fourth writing group – made up of Jack Haberer, William Stacy Johnson and Martha Sardongei – will draft a “review and conclusions” after the other reports are adopted.
Media who have regularly covering the task force – including the Presbyterian News Service, The Outlook and The Layman – have not been privy to the work of the writing teams. Bobby Montgomery of the Office of the General Assembly, who makes arrangements for the task meetings, notified reporters for those organizations by e-mail on June 21 that she had received no agenda for the meeting.
The task force essentially left its March meeting without publicly stating its view on any of the issues. However, there did appear during earlier discussions – before the task force began using executive sessions to avoid being quoted – to be a consensus in two areas: Christology and ordination standards.
The task force had previously published a Christology that said Christ is the church’s peace, unity and purity. That section, drawn from selected verses of Ephesians, included this statement: “The implication of the Biblical teaching is clear: Christians cannot even entertain the notion of severing their ties with sisters and brothers in Christ without also placing themselves in severe jeopardy of being severed from Christ” (Page 4, Preliminary report to the 2005th General Assembly).
The task force statement was highly criticized because its statement sounded as if it intended to say that, by leaving the PCUSA, a Presbyterian could lose his salvation. In March, task force members reconsidered the statement, and some expressed their opposition to it, but no formal changes were made.
During discussions, the consensus seemed to be that ordination ought to be allowed for homosexuals living in monogamous, long-term relations. Only Loudon, pastor of First Presbyterian Church in Lakeland, Fla., said he would not vote for ordaining anyone involved in a sexual relationship outside marriage as defined by the Book of Order – between a man and a woman.
A compromise would still have to face a churchwide referendum. Already, the PCUSA has voted three times on the issue:
- In 1996, 55 percent of the presbyteries approved the “fidelity/chastity” clause for inclusion in the constitution – G-6.0106b in the Book of Order.
- In 1997, nearly two-thirds of the presbyteries voted to affirm that standard by rejected an earlier compromise.
- In 2001, nearly three-fourths of the presbyteries rejected a proposal to repeal the “fidelity/chastity” clause.
The task has had 11 meetings since its first one in December 2001. Much of the group’s time has been spent in relationship-building among its 20 members. In its report to the General Assembly in 2004, the task force suggested others adopt its style. (Brief biographies of the members are on the task force’s Web site.)
The task force has produced videos of its own members making presentations and slide shows and published many of the resources it used. They are available on its Web site.