Presbytery: Actions of 218th General Assembly
‘failed to honor the authority of Scripture’
By Paula R. Kincaid, The Layman, August 6, 2009
Beaver Butler Presbytery approved “An Open Declaration to the PCUSA” recently stating the 218th General Assembly, held June 21-28, 2008, “failed to honor the authority of Scripture to govern our faith and practice.”
The declaration was introduced as new business at the September 2008 presbytery meeting and finally approved July 28, 2009 following more than an hour of “intense, but well-intentioned debate,” said the Rev. Toby Brown, a minister in the presbytery.
Beaver Butler’s declaration to PCUSA
1. “We will continue to uphold Biblical standards for ordination, particularly in areas of sexuality regardless of any Authoritative Interpretation, Advisory Opinion, alteration to the Constitution, or retranslation of our confessions.”
2. We will not seek or promote common worship opportunities with Jews and Muslims, when they do not recognize the unity and the divinity of the Trinity, and we must affirm the Trinity. We will dialogue with Jews and Muslims, seeking to introduce them to the Triune God.
3. We will not be governed by the Authoritative Interpretation adopted by the 218th General Assembly because it is constitutionally, Biblically and judicially unsustainable.
4. We will discourage our congregations from giving to the new defense fund … believing that it encourages actions that run counter to I Corinthians 6:1-8.
5. Rather than promoting same-gender civil unions, we will support Biblical definitions of marriage in our society.
6. We will encourage other presbyteries and/or congregations to join us in this declaration.
7. We will continue to proclaim the Gospel, grow our members in the One Lord Jesus Christ, and participate in the transforming work of God according to His Word within our denomination and presbytery.The declaration was introduced as new business at the September 2008 presbytery meeting and finally approved July 28, 2009 following more than an hour of “intense, but well-intentioned debate,” said the Rev. Toby Brown, a minister in the presbytery.
The entire process took over a year to complete, said Brown in his blog, “But the PCUSA is now on notice: There are entire presbyteries who will not allow our General Assemblies to dismantle our faith and our polity by fiat.”
The declaration states that some of the assembly’s actions “transgress the spirit and the letter of the confessions, constitution and understandings that have long been established to govern the content and practice of our faith.”
The declaration lists the objectionable actions and the reasons why. It also gives the response of the presbytery to each action and a way each action can be rectified.
The objectionable actions include:
- Adopting the Authoritative Interpretation of G-6.0106b, that voided all previous AI’s and General Assembly Permanent Judicial Commission decisions regarding homosexual practice and G-6. The assembly “committed its greatest constitutional error by legislating through Authoritative Interpretations,” and has “attempted by fiat to accomplish what four previous denominational votes have disallowed by ever increasing margins.”
- Adopting a proposal to re-translate the Heidelburg Catechism, in an apparent attempt to “advance and influence passage of the proposed amendment of G-6.0106b.” The argument for adopting the re-translation is “historically, Biblically, theologically and logically unsound.”
- Encouraging Presbyterians to participate in joint worship services with Jews and Muslims, which invited members of the PCUSA “to violate the integrity of Christian worship by diminishing the Gospel that is central to Christian worship services. … We worship the thrice-holy, Triune God. Because of their theology, neither Muslims nor Jews can participate in worshiping the Triune God. So, too, we betray our faith when we deny the Divinity and presence of Christ and the Holy Spirit in any worship context.”
- Approving a study guide for the Trinity Paper – received not adopted by the 217th General Assembly – by actions that “failed to follow due process” and “implicitly sanctioned a theological statement based on suspect Biblical interpretation.” The study paper “routinely confuses the natures of simile and metaphor to such a degree that it effectively confuses what we think we know about the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. In a great many places it skirts perilously close to propounding either pantheistic (God is everything) or panentheistic (God is in everything) views of God.
Creating a legal defense fund for the PCUSA to use in civil court litigation on property cases that has “increased already strained relations” in the denomination. “[I]t seems to invite Presbyteries to seek civil legal action to preserve property interests, rather than seeking reconciliation. … At best, it supports those who believe the PCUSA is primarily interested in things material. At worst, it can be seen as a declaration of war against its own congregations.”
Brown approved of the “tone of the document. It’s suitable for Christian discourse,” he said.
Page one of the declaration states, “We believe that Scripture calls on us to take these actions (see especially Ezekiel 33-34, Matthew 18:6-9 and Mark 9:42-50). We do so with sadness, yet with conviction, after much prayer and reflection. We do so with love for our brothers and sisters. We do seeking to be humble, faithful servants of Christ and the Church.”
“We are not loving them if we do not call them on it,” said Brown.
Brown told The Layman that the majority of the debate by presbytery commissioners centered on the section dealing with worship with Jews and Muslims.
He said some commissioners thought the declaration stated that they couldn’t attend services with Jews or Muslims. “Yes, you can visit,” said Brown, but Presbyterians “can’t do joint worship.”
Brown said more information can be found at the Merely Confessional Presbyterianism blog.
The Rev. Albert “Rusty” Stuart, one of the authors of the original declaration wrote on the Merely Confessional blog, “we seek to have other sessions adopt and submit this document to their presbyteries for discussion and approval. We are convinced that this is the way forward. The changes we seek must come from the lowest judicatories to the highest and must remain within the governing bodies themselves.”
“This is a fight we must commit to. As tired, dispirited and justifiably upset as we are, we must stay, carry it through until we are pushed out or win the argument. If we go elsewhere with the issues unresolved, then the same battle will merely follow us elsewhere in a different form 15 – 20 years from now,” he said.