Seminar scheduled May 6 on task force report and New Wineskins Initiative
The Layman Online, April 18, 2006
A seminar titled “Avoiding a Constitutional Crisis” will be held on May 6 at Southminster Presbyterian Church in Crestwood, Mo.
The seminar, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., will address the report of the Theological Task Force on Peace, Unity and Purity of the Presbyterian Church (USA).
The major speakers will be Jim Berkley, interim director of Presbyterian Action for Faith and Freedom, who will lead an evaluation and discussion of the PUP report, and David Henderson, pastor of Covenant Presbyterian Church in West Lafayette, Ind., and co-moderator of the New Wineskins Initiative.
Berkley attended and reported on the task force’s meetings during the four years it deliberated four issues: the authority of Scripture, Christology, the denomination’s prohibition against ordaining practicing homosexuals and how power is divvied up within the PCUSA.
The task force’s 56-page report to the 217th General Assembly is a compilation of its process and conclusions, including a proposed authoritative interpretation that would allow sessions and presbyteries to decide on their own whether to ordain practicing homosexuals.
Henderson is one of the founders of the New Wineskins Initiative, a movement to restore Biblical teaching in PCUSA congregations. NWI held its first convocation in June 2005 and plans a second convocation in Tulsa, Okla., July 22 to evaluate the actions of the General Assembly and plan its response.
Henderson will provide an overview of the NWI and respond to questions about the organization.
More information is available on the Web site of “Avoiding a Constitutional Crisis” or by contacting Matt Ferguson, the pastor of First Presbyterian Church in Hillsboro, Ill.