The Fellowship PCUSA event – It’s a sell out
By Carmen Fowler LaBerge, The Layman, June 28, 2011
Expectations for Fellowship PCUSA’s August 25-26 event in Minneapolis, Minn., are high, with 1,100 registered putting it at capacity. Arrangements for an additional 350 spaces in an adjacent room with a live feed are underway. Those who attend will be presented with the ideas of pastors from very large congregations in states where property law favors the denomination’s asserted trust clause.
The Fellowship PCUSA website acknowledges that they are interested in initiating “Christ-honoring change in the PCUSA:” a point that is not lost on those who genuinely feel the call of conscience to realign their denominational affiliation after the passage of Amendment 10A.
So, what can people expect to hear in Minneapolis? According to the “talking points” distributed after a June planning meeting, “The goal of the Fellowship is to form a new way for Presbyterian congregations to relate, recapturing more of what it means to be the body of Christ. The mission of the Fellowship is to create an environment in which these congregations can grow and thrive as communities in covenant. Shaped by our shared faith, we are committed to new ways of identifying and nurturing leaders, and to starting new biblically-grounded faith communities.”
Acknowledging that the passage of Amendment 10-A complicates the discussion of the positive possible future with a genuine “crisis of integrity for Presbyterians who remain committed to theological orthodoxy,” the Fellowship will be faced with a room full of people who have very divergent expectations of their August meeting.
The image of the Fellowship is that of an umbrella. The statement says that “Existing underneath this umbrella will be congregations and individuals who are called to ministry both within and beyond the current boundaries of their presbyteries or of the PCUSA. We in the Fellowship recognize and affirm that different contexts of ministry call for different and equally faithful strategies of ministry, and we are committed to co-laboring with brothers and sisters in Christ who share the goals and commitments of the Fellowship.”
Seeking to clarify seemingly conflicting statements made earlier this year, the Fellowship acknowledges plans to form “a new Reformed body.” But it will not be organically distinct from the PCUSA with plans to build a “fence with a gate, not a brick wall” between the two entities.
In the Fellowship’s own words, “One option under the Fellowship umbrella will be a new Reformed body that, while desiring to maintain mutually helpful association with the PCUSA and its related institutions, will nonetheless provide a clear and distinct identity beyond the PCUSA. Documents required for the creation of this new Reformed body are in process.”
Those documents are being drawn up in conversation with staff leadership of the PCUSA and of the options and alternatives being explored, a positive response of at least the 2012 General Assembly will be required.
Ideas like non-geographic presbyteries would require the positive vote of the 2012 GA, a majority support vote by existing presbyteries (2013) and subsequent ratification by synods. That time-line would be untenable for congregations who desire an immediate relief of conscience.
The Fellowship addresses those Presbyterians directly: “We strongly recommend that individuals and congregations move carefully and deliberately at this time allowing time for the full potential of our changing denominational landscape to come into clearer focus. Previously existing options for departure are not time sensitive. However, we have only begun to explore the possibilities that may be available to us without the rancor of departure, and we are actively pursuing these.”