Moderator talks about task force
By Robert P. Mills, The Layman Online, June 14, 2001
LOUISVILLE, Ky.–At a noon press conference Thursday, Moderator Jack Rogers answered questions about a task force authorized by the assembly Wednesday night.
The 17- member task force will be appointed by Rogers and his two immediate predecessors, Syngman Rhee and Freda Gardner. It is charged to consider Christology, Biblical authority and interpretation, ordination standards and power, and other issues the task force may choose.
Opening statement
Rogers began with an opening statement. “The debate this morning and the amendments to the task force idea have made it much more a gathering of information from the church as a whole and a reporting back to the church as a whole than it might have been otherwise.”
“Instead of a group of wise people closeting themselves for four years and producing a report saying, ‘This is what we ought to do,’ the assembly has mandated that these people consult very widely in the church and that their results be reported back, not just to the General Assembly but to the church at large. I welcome those modifications to the original task force idea,” he said.
As he has done repeatedly since his election as moderator, Rogers reminded reporters that he had served on the committee that created the denomination’s most recent confessional document, “The Brief Statement of Faith.”
“I said at the time and I believe just as much now that the process was probably more important than the product,” he said. “Because when we began, people were saying you couldn’t get a group of people in this church to agree on anything doctrinal. …I think the same thing will happen here. If we have people go out into the church and gather people’s ideas and every year give a provisional report to the assembly, that’s going to be a wonderfully healing and wholesome and healthy process. That’s my hope for the task force.”
Underlying issues
Asked if there was some common thread underlying all the issues facing the task force, Rogers replied, “One way to put it would be to say that some people feel that the church is in very bad shape and has strayed far from its original character. Other people say no, that is not true, the church is healthy and strong and is meant to represent a diversity of opinions on all but the most very essential parts.”
“Another way to say it might be that some people are more comfortable in a homogeneous grouping. They want to focus on ‘We all need to be united on most everything.’ There are other people who are more comfortable in a diverse group, saying, ‘We are united on the essentials, but it’s enriching to us also to tolerate diverse perspectives on things that aren’t absolutely essential.”
Asked what sort of criteria he will employ to pick the task force members, Rogers said, “I have no idea. We’ll just have to think and consult with others and figure out criteria. My own secret hope is that we can sort of surprise people and find some people nobody expects to be on that task force, but who everybody says later ‘That’s a good idea.’ I don’t have those people in mind.”
Rogers also was asked about the significance of the assembly’s creating a task force instead of the commission he had advocated. He answered, “It does have potential significance in the sense that I think what some people were afraid of is that a commission could be vested with power to do something rather than just report, like an administrative commission that could replace the session of a congregation. I think we’ve seen this assembly say, ‘We don’t want that to be the case, we don’t want the commission deciding, we want the church as a whole to decide.'”
A breathing period
Asked about the impact of the task force on judicial cases dealing with G-6.0106b, the “fidelity and chastity” ordination standard, Rogers said, “That would be one of the realities the task force would deal with. And, probably, people would hope that the task force might come up with some helpful ways to resolve those questions as they continue to be litigated in the church courts.”
“In an ideal world, we would just not carry on litigation now but would be patient while the task force worked and consulted widely. But, clearly, we don’t have the right to do that according to our polity. There is no way to control that. It would be nice if we kind of had a breathing period while we really tried to really listen to everyone.”
Asked if he would like to see a similar “breathing period” on the ordinations now being conducted in contradiction of the constitution, Rogers said, “I think ideally, if everybody felt safe and comfortable, there wouldn’t need to be activity in either direction. Until we know what happens to G-0106b, it’s hard to get a feel for that.”