Possibility of PCUSA split draws standing applause
By John H. Adams, The Layman Online, October 3, 2001
ORLANDO, Fla. – A suggestion that the Confessing Church Movement eventually could result in a new denomination prompted standing applause from more than 1,200 Presbyterians attending the Presbyterian Coalition’s Gathering VI.
But Marnie Crumpler, who mentioned that possibility during a slide presentation, quickly added after people took their seats: “Let me be clear. There is no present intention to exit the denomination.”
Another applause.
“But you and I know that precipitating events, like the change in our denomination, could change our circumstances,” she said.
She identified the national referendum on Amendment A – the proposed constitutional change that would allow the ordination of self-affirming, practicing adulterers and homosexuals – as the pivotal issue that could determine whether the Confessing Church Movement breaks away from the denomination.
In the meantime, Crumpler said, the congregations in the Confessing Church Movement have leverage by withholding their per-capita contributions to the General Assembly and their general mission giving to influence changes in national church policy.
Another issue that prompted robust applause during her presentation was a comment about loyalty oaths. Opponents of the Confessing Church Movement have strongly criticized any proposal that would require church officers or PCUSA employees to pledge their loyalty to the cornerstone confessions.
“Some have accused of us of requiring church leaders to take a loyalty oath,” Crumpler said. “Loyalty is a virtue and not a vice.”
And a third issue to draw hearty applause was a single-word response to accusations by some denominational leaders that the Confessing Church Movement is being orchestrated by The Layman, the Coalition or Presbyterians for Renewal.
The slide said: “Incredible!”
Doug Pratt, an evangelical leader in Pittsburgh, also refuted the charge that renewal groups were orchestrating the grassroots movement.
“Whether intentionally or unintentionally,” he said, some denominational leaders are using “misinformation and propaganda” in an attempt to “slander and dismiss this grassroots movement.”
Pratt, pastor of the 1,900-member Memorial Park Presbyterian Church near Pittsburgh, added, “The grassroots movement is not and never has been planned, orchestrated or controlled by any group: not the Presbyterian Coalition, not the Presbyterian Lay Committee, not Presbyterians for Renewal.”
Both General Assembly Moderator Jack B. Rogers and Stated Clerk Clifton Kirkpatrick have accused the Confessing Church Movement of being schismatic, and Rogers has said that the movement is orchestrated by the Presbyterian Lay Committee.