Unity-Diversity’ booklets set stage for conferences
By Paula R. Kincaid, The Layman Online, September 28, 1999
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico – Stated Clerk Clifton Kirkpatrick presented General Assembly Council members galley proofs of “Unity in the Midst of Diversity,” booklets that include resources to be used during regional conferences.
The 1999 General Assembly called for the conferences over the next two years in recognition that the Presbyterian Church (USA) is sharply divided on several issues, including ordination of practicing homosexuals.
“One of the things that came out of this Assembly was the strong call for extending what had started both with the sense of sabbatical, and a Unity in Diversity conference last year,” said Kirkpatrick.
The sabbatical that Kirkpatrick mentioned was an agreement among himself and leaders of the Covenant Network and the Presbyterian Coalition not to revisit the ordination issue for two years. The sabbatical did not prevent other groups from seeking changes. In fact, the Presbytery of Milwaukee submitted an overture calling for repeal of the constitutional ordination standard. The 1999 General Assembly declined to change the constitution and called for the Unity in Diversity conferences.
Kirkpatrick said the conferences will examine the “nature of the unity we seek in the midst of our diversity in every presbytery, in our congregations, out of the hope we could really move much more toward that model of the church as the body of Christ.” The booklet, which will soon be ready for mailing, includes former Moderator Douglas W. Oldenburg’s sermon, “Together in God’s Grace,” given at the 1999 General Assembly and “two potential models of how we might start the conversation in governing bodies and other groups,” he said.
Models to begin conversation
The first model, “That All Might Be One” focuses on what “unites us as Presbyterians,” said Kirkpatrick, using as a study the first four chapters of the Book of Order.
“Finding Grace in the Church,” the second model, focuses on “our diversity. How do we deal with our fears – our differences – and still be united in Christ,” he said. Kirkpatrick said other resources in the booklet included official actions of the General Assembly on the issues of unity and diversity.
The list includes “The Confessional Nature of the Church” (1986), “Historic Principles, Conscience, and Church Government” (1983), and “Is Christ Divided?” (1988);
“Selected Theological Statements of the Presbyterian Church (USA) General Assemblies (1956-1988);” and “What is the Nature of the Unity We Seek in Our Diversity? Excerpts from Presbyterian Constitutional Resources.”
Resources also include presentations from the churchwide unity and diversity conference held last spring in Atlanta and General Assembly documents on race, human sexuality, gender and theological position, he said.
The second step in the process of planning the conferences, said Kirkpatrick, will be to invite Presbyterian groups and governing bodies to establish web pages suggesting resources they might want to offer to the church and models they might use. All of this, said Kirkpatrick, will be created on a master webpage at the PCUSA website where churches, presbyteries and others can access official resources and gain from the broader conversation in the church.
“I hope the whole process will indeed lead us to a point that I know we all seek,” said Kirkpatrick, “and that which this council has been such a vital part of – a real sense of unity in the midst of our diversity in Christ.”