Presbytery votes to consider call
for status confessionis proposal
The Layman , September 29, 2008
The Beaver-Butler Presbytery in Pennsylvania voted overwhelmingly Sept. 23 to consider a proposal to declare status confessionis in the Presbyterian Church (USA) because of the actions of the 2008 General Assembly.
Status confessionis is a Latin term for a solemn rebuke against a church council for departing from the Christian faith because of false doctrine or confessional compromise. The authors of the declaration say the errors of the 218th General Assembly “must be labeled and opposed lest we be guilty of failing to raise alarm or of leading ‘the least of His little ones astray.'”
The vote was not approval of the document written by the Rev. Albert Rhodes Stuart of Highland Presbyterian Church in Slippery Rock, Pa., and the Rev. Pat McElroy of Park United Presbyterian Church in Zelienople, Pa. But it did move the draft forward for possible amendments and an up or down vote at the November presbytery meeting. McElroy told The Layman that he, Stuart and others are not “under any illusion about what this [status confessionis] means. Our intention is not to leave. This is not a stay, fight and win strategy. It’s a stand strategy.”
Even if the presbytery does not approve the declaration, McElroy said he and others will stand fast and face the consequences.
On the first reading, the presbytery voted overwhelmingly on Sept. 23 to fully consider the proposal in November.
The title of the paper is “An Open Theological Declaration to the PCUSA Explicating Major Errors of the General Assembly as a Church Council and the Means of Their Redress.”
The authors of the document call on the presbytery to recognize the errors committed by the General Assembly and declare status confessionis until orthodoxy and orthopraxis are restored by a future General Assembly.
Until that it done, the declaration says, the presbytery should refuse to follow the practices authorized by the General Assembly, such as the ordination of practicing homosexuals.
“We cannot abide the ruling of any council which breaches status confessionis,” the declaration says. “The errors of this Assembly fail to live up to its professed theme of justice, mercy and humility. Our trust has been violated. Our denominational covenant has been broken by our own highest level governing body.”