Chronology of the Theological Task Force
By John H. Adams, The Layman Online, August 15, 2005
A chronology of the Theological Task Force on Peace, Unity and Purity of the PCUSA:
June 2001The 213th General Assembly in 2001 voted 464-41 to authorize a task force “to lead the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) in spiritual discernment of our Christian identity, in and for the 21st century, using a process which includes conferring with synods, presbyteries, and congregations seeking the peace, unity, and purity of the church. This discernment shall include but not be limited to issues of Christology, biblical authority and interpretation, ordination standards, and power.” The same General Assembly asked the presbyteries to ratify a proposed amendment to the PCUSA constitution that would have repealed G-6.0106b, the “fidelity/chastity” ordination requirement, and the Authoritative Interpretation that undergirds the constitutional standard. The presbyteries later voted by 73 percent to defeat the proposals. Nov. 2001General Assembly Moderators Jack B. Rogers (2001), Syngman Rhee (2000) and Freda Gardner (1999) announced their appointment of the 21 members of the task force. Although the list included three Confessing Church pastors, the majority favored some change in the ordination standards. Gary Demarest, a semi-retired pastor in California, and Jenny Stoner, a long-time denominational activist and former PCUSA employee, were named the co-moderators. Dec. 2001
First meetingThe self-named Theological Task Force on Peace, Unity and Purity – later to become known as PUP – held a three-day “love-in,” in the words of co-moderator Demarest. The task force’s focus on relationship-building and dialogue continued in later meetings. Rogers told the task force, “We did not intend to design this task force to resolve the issue of homosexuality. I hope personally it will be a subordinate issue on your agenda.” One of the earliest concerns was press coverage. Elizabeth Achtemeier feared it would “dampen the freedom of this discussion.” Demarest said, “I don’t think that we want in any way to direct the media, exclude the media or control the media.” The commitment to openness ended later. The task force adopted a covenant and a fuller description of their mandate.March 2002
Second meetingPUP members studied Scripture, worshiped, sang hymns, prayed, hugged (a lot), fine-tuned the way they would communicate with the Presbyterian Church (USA), mapped data-collection strategies, etc. What they did not do to any significant degree was to start to try to come to grips with the controversies in the denomination.August 2002
Third meetingSome of the task force members began to weigh in on sexuality issues, including suggesting that the final report should have a recommendation on the ordination controversy. Without tipping its hand about its direction, the task force adopted “A Plan for Moving Ahead.” Reservations about the press continued. Victoria G. “Vicki” Curtiss of Ames, Iowa, said some members of the task force were reluctant to express their true feelings, fearing that they might be quoted. Co-moderator Demarest asked reporters for the Presbyterian News Service, The Presbyterian Outlook and The Layman what they thought. The reporters agreed: The General Assembly’s open meetings policy required that their business be conducted openly. Barbara Everitt Bryant, director of the U.S. Census Bureau during former President George Bush’s administration, said the press didn’t bother her, that she had been quoted and misquoted so many times that she had learned to live in the limelight.October 2002
Fourth meetingGeneral Assembly Stated Clerk Clifton Kirkpatrick made a pitch to the task force for help in writing an abbreviated version of the Book of Order. He got no takers, unless some decision was made in a closed meeting. Mark Achtemeier, a member of the faculty of Dubuque Theological Seminary in Iowa, joined the commission as the replacement for his ailing mother. Achtemeier would become an increasingly key player in developing the task force’s theological statements that focused on unity even with divided opinions or actions on sexuality. Achtemeier led a discussion on the Nicene Creed and its history. Sometimes, Achtemeier said, the Church needs to determine where the truth is not. That piqued some remarks about truth. “Are we choosing to proclaim a central truth at the expense of mission?” Curtiss asked. “How do you create a safe space for experiment?” Commending the task force members for their growing consensus, Demarest said, “I think something is happening here of great significance to me personally, and I just want to witness to that. We don’t need a vote that we believe in the Nicene Creed by 18-2.”December 2002Concerned about the direction in which the task force might be heading, the Presbytery of Mississippi sent to the General Assembly an overture calling for adding representives of evangelical Reformed denominations – the Presbyterian Church in America, the Reformed Church in America, the Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church and the Christian Reformed Church. The 215th General Assembly rejected the overture.February 2003
Fifth meetingAlthough the task force had given no clues about where it might be headed on the issues, Achtemeier suggested that its final report could be of such value that it could be accorded confessional status in the PCUSA. “Confessions are gifts of the Holy Spirit,” he said. “I don’t think it’s inconceivable to envision a scenario in which something produced by the task force would become a candidate for the Book of Confessions.” But Mike Loudon, pastor of First Presbyterian Church in Lakeland, Fla., a Confessing Church congregation, said The Book of Confessions already had plenty of material and it wasn’t being used. Loudon cited the eruption that occurred in 2000 after a speaker at a Presbyterian conference questioned the sovereignty of Christ by asking, “What’s the big deal about Jesus?” “Why didn’t we say then, ‘We have a Book of Confessions. Here, use it.’?” he asked.March 2003The Presbytery of San Gabriel approved an overture calling on the General Assembly to exempt the task force from the denomination’s open-meetings requirements upon a two-thirds vote of the panel.May 2003The 215th General Assembly voted to exempt the task force from the denomination’s open-meetings requirements. Demarest was among those supporting the overture. He told an assembly committee closed sessions would provide the task force “a space to play with ideas,” and he believed that the task force could be more effective with that opportunity. Later, Demarest told the General Assembly, “This has become a unique and life-shaping experience to each of us on the task force.” He called his work on the task force a “deeply rewarding part of my spiritual journey.”August 2003
Sixth meetingThe task force held its first open discussion about closed meetings. It didn’t reach a vote, but it did raise hackles. “I am an open meeting person,” Bryant said. “I won’t ever vote to close the meetings.” Demarest urged moderation in the use of closed meetings, “a privilege given to us by the General Assembly. We didn’t request it.” Jack Haberer, pastor of Clear Lake Presbyterian Church in Houston, Texas, said there would be a clear reason for going into executive session. Minority members expressed their disagreement with Presbyterian polity and decision-making. Martha Sadongei, a Presbyterian minister in Phoenix, Ariz., who traces her ancestry to the Kiowa and Tohono O’odham tribes said, “The Book of Order is a white man’s book. It was only through reading this material that I realized how white the church is.” Lonnie J. Oliver, pastor of New Life Presbyterian Church in Atlanta, said the African-American culture – like Hillary Clinton’s It Takes a Village to raise a child – focuses on community and oral tradition. “That’s a process I grew up with. For a lot of African-Americans, we think through the heart.” Jose Luis Torres-Milan, pastor of Tercera Iglesia Presbiteriana (Third Presbyterian Church) in Aguadilla, Puerto Rico, said, “I’m not a token. I’m here as part of the church. I’m not promoting anarchy here.”October 2003
Seventh meetingThe task force had its first – and open – discussion of ordination issues. It read six papers that suggested church polity ranging from 1) a ban on ordaining practicing homosexuals, 2) full approval of ordaining them and 3) approval of ordaining only those in committed, monogamous relationships. The paper that got the most criticism was by Robert A.J. Gagnon, the author of The Bible and Homosexual Practice. Gagnon’s view is that Biblical texts condemning homosexual practice must be taken literally. But the task force members did not reach a consensus on which approach they’d prefer. Loudon alone urged the task force to take a decisive stand on the ordination issue. “Something has to be done,” he said, saying it was not helping the denomination by shunning the issue. “It’s just breaking my heart. We lost 41,000 members last year.”February 2004
Eighth meetingThe task force adopted a draft of an interim report to present to the 215th General Assembly, including an anti-schism statement that would cause some controversy: “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 himself.” The statement was approved unanimously in the first vote taken by the task force since it was established. W. Stacy Johnson, a member of the faculty at Princeton Theological Seminary, raised a question that never got a direct response: “The integrity issue,” Johnson began, stopping short of a full sentence. “What do you do when you have a congregation that changes the ordination vows on their own, which is happening in the Presbyterian Church? I have heard a lot of liberals say to conservatives, ‘How dare you break fellowship.’ In fact, changing the ordination vows is a break in integrity.” His question addressed the issue of defiance of the PCUSA’s constitutional ordination standard by sessions and presbyteries that have approved the ordination of men and women who openly assert their involvement in homosexual relationships.June 2004In an open letter to the PCUSA, Gagnon publishes an essay declaring that the task force, in its preliminary report to the General Assembly, distorted the teaching in Ephesians on peace, unity and purity. August 2005
Ninth meetingMembers of the task force weighed in individually on viewpoints about how the Presbyterian Church (USA) should consider the issue of ordaining homosexuals. The full weight of their comments seemed to suggest that, as a body, they were leaning away from endorsing the standards outlined in the denomination’s Definitive Guidance, now considered the Authoritative Interpretation of the constitutional standard that prohibits the ordination of self-affirming, practicing homosexuals. But there was no vote and most of the further discussion of the issue was in executive session. Johnson introduced a draft paper that said, “The real question is the propriety of covenantal same-gender unions. By focusing squarely on this question, the possibility of reaching some consensus or mutual forbearance amid our differences may be enhanced.” But there was no vote.March 2005
Tenth meetingMoving toward the end of their work, the task force voted to spend half of its three-day meeting in executive session. It concluded that meeting by announcing – with no open votes having been taken – that some members would prepare a draft of its final report and recommendations before the next meeting, in July 2005. The task force later sent out a news release announcing the members of the writing teams for the draft final reports. July 2005
Eleventh meetingThe task force released three portions of its draft final report. It did not take a position on the ordination of practicing homosexuals. However, the draft did note that, “Many [of its members] believe that, instead of beginning with the question of ordination, it would be more profitable to frame the question differently: ‘How are baptized gay and lesbian persons in exclusive, covenanted relationships called to participate in the church in God’s gracious drama of creation, reconciliation and redemption?'”