Presbyterian Coalition
announces campaign
The Layman, August 31, 2010
Renewal groups from within the Presbyterian Church (USA) have organized a response to actions by the 219th General Assembly.
The Presbyterian Coalition, in partnership with other PCUSA renewal groups, has released plans for a campaign entitled “Reclaim Biblical Teaching.”
Coalition Executive Director Terry Schlossberg said a group of 100 Presbyterians representing 40 PCUSA presbyteries approved a plan at a recent meeting in Chicago to oppose actions taken by the GA in July.
The group has pledged $100,000 in support, with the expectation that more will be needed, for an 18-month campaign against several amendments that soon will go before presbyteries for referendum. It also will focus on the GA mandate that the PCUSA Board of Pensions extend benefits to include same-sex spouses, and will look beyond the business that’s immediately before the denomination, including the PCUSA’s definition of marriage.
“This campaign will extend to the next General Assembly and will include efforts to bring both corrective and positive business to that assembly,” Schlossberg said. “Further, the campaign will connect directly with efforts to continue exploring alternative, positive ways to live faithfully and distinctively within the PCUSA.”
According to information on the Coalition’s Web site, the coordinating committee of the national campaign will be Bob Davis, Jim Tony and Schlossberg.
The campaign, which Schlossberg said is about much more than defeating another round of harmful amendments, will seek to strike down:
- Amendment 10-A, which seeks to strike the “fidelity and chastity” standard from the PCUSA’s Book of Order. Current wording requires that ordained officers be faithful in marriage between one man and one woman, or chaste in singleness.
- Amendment 10-1, if approved, would mean a new constitutional for the PCUSA. Supporters of the new Form of Government (nFOG) argue that it will give greater flexibility and its opponents worry it creates a more top-down governance.
- Amendment 10-2, which would add the Behlar Confession to the Book of Confessions. Written in 1986 by the Dutch Reformed Mission Church, the confession addressed apartheid in South Africa. Opponents of adding Belhar to the PCUSA Book of Confessions claim it could be used for purposes other than fighting racism and segregation.
Voting on the amendments is expected to begin in September, but will vary from presbytery to presbytery. Voting must be concluded by mid-2011.
The call to action by the Presbyterian Coalition asks its supporters to get involved and to financially support the campaign.
“There is no doubt that we face strong and formidable opposition, but the closeness of the vote in 2008-09 was because too many of us sat it out, not because the opposition showed a significant increase in votes,” Schlossberg said. “Don’t let that happen again.”
More information about the campaign is available on the Presbyterian Coalition’s Web site.