Who kicked off Confessing Church?
The Layman Online, November 8, 2001
Alas, there’s a dispute within the Confessing Church Movement within the Presbyterian Church (USA).
Who kicked it off – the Confessing Church Movement, that is?
Moderator Jack B. Rogers blames the Presbyterian Lay Committee for starting and commandeering the movement. But that’s not the case at all.
The Layman has reported that the grand opening occurred on March 21, 2001, at Summit Presbyterian Church in Butler, Pa., where the session adopted what is called the “Summit Resolution.”
It was also reported that the “Summit Resolution” quickly spread into a movement because the Beaver-Butler Presbytery adopted a similar resolution. And, within weeks, dozens of congregations had adopted Confessing Church resolutions.
But Doug Brandt, pastor of Lancaster Presbyterian Church near Niagara Falls, doesn’t believe the Summit Resolution was the first shot.
The Lancaster Affirmation was!
“There is an easier way to prove that The Layman did not start the confessing movement, because Lancaster Presbyterian Church did so in 1997!” Brandt said in response to the moderator’s comments.
Indeed, Lancaster Presbyterian Church is numbered among the 1,071 Confessing Churches within the PCUSA. Or the other 1,070Confessing Churches are numbered with Lancaster. Whatever.
Anyhow, the Lancaster session did adopt its resolution in 1997. But the language of the affirmation, a more sweeping theological statement than most of the other Confessing Church resolutions, was not picked up en masse, so the Lancaster affirmation was not then regarded as the genesis of a movement.
But that’s not Brandt’s fault. He has been a Lancaster Affirmation booster from day one.
Brandt indicated he was hesitant to publicly dispute Summit’s claim to being first. “The next thing JR [Jack Rogers] will do is call me a cussin’ fundie. Then what would my mother think?”