Private meeting of groups at loggerheads is canceled
By John H. Adams, The Layman Online, March 14, 2003
The proposed private meeting to which the denomination’s top two employees invited 12 special-interest evangelicals and liberals at loggerheads with each other has been canceled.
One evangelical invited to the meeting, the Rev. Doug Pratt of Memorial Park Presbyterian Church near Pittsburgh, told The Layman Online that General Assembly Stated Clerk Clifton Kirkpatrick and John Detterick, executive director of the General Assembly Council, have indicated that they may try to convene the group in October.
Kirkpatrick and Detterick were planning a closed retreat in May with six representatives of Presbyterians For Renewal and the Presbyterian Coalition, the evangelical groups, and six from the Covenant Network, which opposes the denomination’s “fidelity/chastity” ordination standard and orthodox Christian teachings. Pratt is co-moderator of the Presbyterian Coalition.
After The Layman Online began interviewing Detterick and Jack Haberer of Presbyterians For Renewal and other invitees for a March 7 story, a number of people on the invitation list began to back out.
The Rev. Jerry Andrews, pastor of First Presbyterian Church in Glen Ellyn, Ill., told The Layman Online today that Detterick called him to say that he could not get the desired quorum of six evangelicals and six liberals to attend the private meeting.
Detterick had asked Andrews, a former co-moderator of the Presbyterian Coalition, to scout for a location in Chicago for the meeting. The original plan was for the retreat to be held in early May, shortly before the convening of the 215th General Assembly in Denver on May 24.
There was no announcement of the proposed meeting. The Layman Online learned about the meeting from a source in Louisville and contacted Detterick for confirmation. At that time, Detterick said such a meeting was being organized but he would not disclose the names of people whom he and Kirkpatrick had invited or the names of the groups they were affiliated with. Andrews did disclose the names of the organizations and the individuals.
In its March 7 report, The Layman Online said Haberer, after acknowledging that he had been invited, sent an E-mail about an hour later saying he would not attend.
Presbyterians For Renewal and the Presbyterian Coalition are independent renewal organizations. Both support a Reformed understanding of the Christian faith and the denomination’s constitutional “fidelity/chastity” ordination standard.
The Covenant Network, also an independent group, has been in the forefront of the effort to repeal that standard. The Rev. Eugene Bay of Bryn Mawr Presbyterian Church, co-moderator of the Network, recently announced that the network will also focus on “progressive theology,” a theological perspective that rejects many classical Christian doctrines, including the atoning death of Christ.
Detterick and Kirkpatrick have conducted what they call “consultations” at presbytery meetings throughout the denomination – both to read the pulse of Presbyterians and to encourage unity in diversity by focusing on points of agreement. Detterick had told The Layman Online that the private meeting would follow that course.
But he acknowledged that the retreat would be the first time that such a “consultation” would be conducted privately and specifically involve non-elected Presbyterians who are affiliated with special-interest groups. The press is invited to attend the presbytery consultations. Detterick said no reporters would be permitted to cover the retreat with the non-elected Presbyterians.
Asked if the purpose of the meeting would be to negotiate agreements between a handful of liberals and evangelicals, Detterick said, “This is not a matter of trying to do a deal. We all believe in Jesus Christ. We think that people sitting down in worshipful relations is a good thing to do. One of the things we can affirm is how can we be helpful. Cliff and I always welcome guidance.”
Whether or not the retreat is held, Pratt said the Coalition “will not be a part of any deals or private negotiations. Any positions on the important issues will always be public and for all to know.”
One letter-writer who responded to The Layman Online’s March 7 report questioned why Detterick had extended invitations to Presbyterians for Renewal and the Presbyterian Coalition and not to representatives of the Confessing Church Movement, which includes 1,290 congregations and 427,000 Presbyterians.
Haberer said his reason for not attending the meeting was that he did not want to do anything to interfere with the task-force process. Haberer is a member of the denomination’s Theological Task Force on Peace, Purity and Unity. The 213th General Assembly established the task force to address issues that have created the most acrimony in the denomination, including Christology, the authority and interpretation of Scripture, the constitutional ordination law and how power is shared in the denomination.
Two Covenant Network board members who received invitations – Barbara Wheeler, president of Auburn Theological Seminary in New York City, and John Wilkinson, the pastor of Third Presbyterian Church in Rochester, N.Y. – are also members of the Theological Task Force. According to Andrews, both Wheeler and Wilkinson decided not to attend the retreat because they, like Haberer, were concerned about whether their attendance might tarnish perceptions of their work with the task force.
In 1998, Kirkpatrick conducted a private meeting with Presbyterians who were affiliated with some of the same groups that are currently polarized by the ordination issue. The result of that meeting was a negotiated deal – “A Call to Sabbatical,” which asked the 1999 and 2000 General Assemblies not to consider constitutional amendments that would repeal or change the PCUSA ordination standard. The Call to Sabbatical also called for a moratorium on judicial cases against Presbyterian officers who defied the ordination standard.