San Diego Presbytery condemns statement denouncing Confessing Church Movement
By Craig M. Kibler, The Layman Online, March 22, 2005
Calling it a “divisive and unwarranted characterization of brothers and sisters in Christ,” the Presbytery of San Diego is calling on the president of the Presbyterian Publishing Corp. to apologize and retract a statement denouncing the Confessing Church Movement within the Presbyterian Church (USA).
In an introduction to the latest volume in the Price H. Gwynn III Church Leadership Series published by Geneva Press, Davis Perkins, the president and publisher of the Presbyterian Publishing Corp., wrote:
“The term ‘confessing church’ has come to mean something altogether different in the current Presbyterian context … as right-wing organizations seek to use confessional statements as theological sledgehammers to bludgeon Presbyterians into a rigid orthodoxy that divisively excludes certain persons from ecclesiastical leadership.”
The volume, which was mailed free of charge to churches and individuals throughout the country, contains an essay by Douglas Ottati, a member of the faculty of Union Theological Seminary in Richmond, Va., whom Perkins called “one of the most insightful progressive theological voices in the Presbyterian Church today.”
The introduction has sparked an outcry, with several Presbtyerians – including some not involved in the Confessing Church Movement – calling Perkins’ words uncalled for and “mean-spirited.”
In response, at its March 15 meeting, the Presbytery of San Diego approved the following resolution:
- “BE IT RESOLVED on the 15th day of March, 2005, that the Presbytery of San Diego:
- “Condemns the language contained in the ‘Publisher’s Note’ of a document entitled, “Confessional Standards for a Confessing Church,” produced by Geneva Press; specifically,
- “The term ‘confessing church’ has come to mean something altogether different in the current Presbyterian context, however, as right-wing organizations seek to use confessional standards as theological sledgehammers to bludgeon Presbyterians into a rigid orthodoxy that divisively excludes certain persons from ecclesiastical leadership.”
- “Requests that Davis Perkins, President of the Presbyterian Publishing Corporation, retract this statement and apologize for the divisive and unwarranted characterization of brothers and sisters in Christ who are part of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.); and,
- “Instructs the Stated Clerk of San Diego Presbytery to convey this Resolution to The President and Publisher of the Presbyterian Publishing Corporation; To Rick Ufford-Chase, Moderator of the 216th General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.); To Clifton Kirkpatrick, Stated Clerk of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.); and, To John Detterick, the Executive Director of the General Assembly Council of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.).”
- Rationale:
- “There are a number of confessing congregations within San Diego Presbytery. The language of this statement by the President and Publisher of the Presbyterian Publishing Corporation is inaccurate, offensive, and damaging to those congregations. It is particularly inappropriate because it is produced with the seal of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) and under the color of the authority of the General Assembly. This statement should be retracted with an apology; distributed as widely as the original publication.”