Commentary
An amazing grace slows the show
Parker T. Williamson, The Layman Online , June 20, 2006
217th General Assembly
Birmingham, Ala. BIRMINGHAM — A fragile voice — the speaker’s eyes twice clouded by tears — drove a room full of Presbyterians to its knees. The show stopper was brief, for within moments the General Assembly Committee on Ecclesiology regained its composure and proceeded with business as usual. Nevertheless, the pause that was prompted by a young woman from Chicago proved palpable.
For 14 hours, committee members were exposed to an entourage of princely Presbyterians. Seminary presidents, former General Assembly moderators, the heads of denominational boards and agencies, tall-steeple preachers, professional theologians and other ecclesiastical luminaries paraded across the podium to applaud the Task Force on Peace, Unity, and Purity Report (PUP). Sophisticated speakers whose voices had been honed through years of public deliverance, called on the General Assembly commissioners to “Celebrate diversity; save us from destructive infighting; replace ‘yes/no’ confrontations with ‘both/and compromises;’ approve the PUP report.”
The line up was indeed impressive. Louis Weeks, president of Union Theological Seminary in Virginia, prefaced his testimony in favor of PUP with “I come as a historian.” Ian Torrance, president of Princeton Theological Seminary, peppered his remarks with scattered references to Augustine, and he concluded by assuring the committee that as a former moderator of the Church of Scotland, he could speak to the value of “seeking consensus.”
Cynthia Campbell, president of McCormick Theological Seminary, said, “We are committed to a way of being the church that does not settle for a simple either/or alternative but a bold both/and approach.”
Ted Wardlaw, president of Austin Theological Seminary, applauded “the process the task force went through.”
Laird Stuart, whose San Francisco church houses the offices of the Covenant Network, lauded the report for the fact that it “supports structured conversation.”
Marj Carpenter, former General Assembly moderator, said, “I’ve fought in this ditch for 30 years. Missions that I love are hurting. I’m ready to compromise.”
John Buchanan, former General Assembly moderator, said “The world is weary of our conflicts.”
Syngman Rhee, former General Assembly Moderator, said,”The task force gave us a new way of living together with conflict.”
Susan Andrews, former General Assembly Moderator, urged the committee to “focus on relationships, not rules.”
Fahed Abu-Akel, former General Assembly Moderator, sent a note commending the PUP report as a move toward peace in the church.
Reacting to this lineup of luminaries, Howard Soehl, commissioner from Detroit Presbytery, exclaimed, “Some of us are so in awe that we think this report came down from the mountain!”
Then 17-year old Youth Advisory Delegate Shannon Meador made her move. Stepping to a microphone before her 69-member committee, a 20-member General Assembly task force, an authoritative spokesman for the Advisory Committee on the Constitution, and a gallery of several hundred lobbyists, activists and observers, she struggled to maintain her composure. Then she said,
“I understand the importance of finding common ground in the secular world, but religion from the beginning has called us to be uncommon. We are told in Scripture that we were not made for this world, thus, we are not called to fit in it. James 4:4 says to us ‘don’t you know that friendship with the world is hatred toward God? Anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God.’ Please don’t approve this PUP recommendation, for it allows us to do what God’s Word forbids.”