(By Leslie Scanlon, The Presbyterian Outlook.) A few months into his term, J. Herbert Nelson – the Presbyterian Church (USA)’s new stated clerk, elected last summer by the 2016 General Assembly – is beginning to offer glimpses into his expanding vision for the denomination.
Nelson will preach at a Reformation worship service Nov. 2 at the PC(USA)’s national offices in Louisville – in an address that will be live-streamed and is being given the title “Write the Vision – Reclaim the Call.”
Scripture tells us that “the people who have no vision – they perish. They perish,” Nelson said Oct. 31.
In remarks that day at the Fall Polity conference, during both a workshop and a question-and-answer plenary session, Nelson gave some sense of his thinking – about his desire for the PC(USA) to make an impact in St. Louis, Baltimore and Columbus, Ohio, cities where the next three General Assemblies will be held, and “to begin looking outward rather than inward” at the denomination’s national offices in downtown Louisville.
Reaching out. Nelson said national church leaders plan to be in conversation with Presbyterians and local community leaders in St. Louis (where Big Tent will be held in 2017 and the General Assembly in 2018) and Baltimore (the host city for the 2020 General Assembly) and Columbus (where the 2022 assembly will convene). The idea: a program Nelson called Hands and Feet.
When the 2016 assembly met in Portland in June, Nelson said many attendees noticed that Portland has a pervasive problem with homelessness – “it was pervasive, it was really frightening” to see the deep need. Presbyterians came, spent money in hotels and restaurants, then went home, Nelson said – but did not work “for the transformation of the city.”
He wants things to be different in St. Louis, Baltimore and Columbus. …
… Departures to ECO. Nelson said he wants the PCUSA to give some attention to its relationship to evangelical congregations that have left to go to ECO: A Covenant Order of Evangelical Presbyterian, some in response to decisions the PCUSA made to permit the ordination of gays and lesbians who are in relationships and to allow its ministers to perform same-gender marriages. ECO states on its website that it has more than 300 congregations nationwide – and over the past several years some of the PCUSA’s largest and most prosperous congregations have left.
“One of the great challenges we have with regard to ECO is what does it mean to be part of the body of Christ,” Nelson said – which means the PCUSA must consider the implications of the relationships between the two denominations, as painful as that sometimes has been.
That conversation can include, Nelson said:
- Raising questions at the ecumenical table to which they both belong – the World Communion of Reformed Churches.
- Considering what it means to be in covenant community with each other.
- Talking in local communities about what the relationship actually does and should look like.
“The responsibility for this does not rest solely with the Office of the General Assembly,” Nelson said. Each presbytery and synod must decide how to engage with congregations that have left or are considering it – determining how those departures will proceed.
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Although one has to give Rev. Nelson credit for thinking of Presbyterian congregations that have separated from the PC(USA)—most PC(USA) bureaucrats either give no further thoughts to departed congregations, think about how they might sue them to reclaim their property for the “sole use and benefit of the PC(USA)”, or think “good riddance”—I really do not see anything coming out of it. Nearly all congregations that have separated to go to the ECO—or to the EPC, which Nelson notably did not mention—went through a “listening” session with an Administrative Review Committee (or similar group) from the Presbytery, during which members of the congregations discerning God’s call for them to remain or to depart had an opportunity to ask questions or make statements to representative members of the PC(USA) Presbytery from which they were departing. If the Presbyteries did not hear the deep, heartfelt concerns of Evangelical Presbyterians then, and did not take them to heart, such as to repent of its wanton worldliness, what reason should Evangelical Presbyterians have now that there will be any meaningful change in the PC(USA) that could lead to reconciliation? The issues of homosexual ordination and same-gender “marriage” might have been the straw that broke the proverbial camel’s back, but the deeper divisions on the nature of the inspiration and authority of Scripture, the sole saving efficacy of faith in Christ alone v. salvation from sin also in the context of non-Christian religions, and the substitutionary character of the atonement remain. Until Evangelicals see genuine common ground with the PC(USA) on these issues (read: unless and until the vast majority of PC(USA) ministers repent of their de facto positions on these issues), there can be no reconciliation. And until the PC(USA) gives evidence that it will seriously consider what Evangelicals have been saying (read: will seriously consider repenting), no conversation can reasonably be expected to take place.
Having heard him speak in person a few times I have concluded that Rev. is a man of decency and christian conviction. Sincere in what he speaks of. Though politically and ideologically he is a reflexive liberal democrat and speaks out of that perspective in all matter church and life. The full content of his remarks at the gathering stressed mid council matters, timely in that many Presbyteries are close to functional collapse. And the ever present PCUSA obsession on all things race and anti-police rhetoric. As if the close to 800 murdered in the streets of Chicago so far this year was some dark police conspiracy.
As to remarks on the ECO. That conservation starts when the PCUSA admits to its use of the Property in Trust clause as more or less a tool for extortion and apologizes for its arrogance and smugness in all matters of church departures. This is a given fact, the PCUSA is dying, more than that, it is in an extinction level event of its own creation. The ECO, EPC is either stable to growing in fellowships and all metrics of church life, baptisms, membership, affiliations. He is only admitting in public what many in Louisville keep close to their vests. The PCUSA and its affiliates need to establish some form of communication and dialogue with the ECOs of the world, than the ECOs need the PCUSA. What the PCUSA fails time after time to remember is that foils will forget rather quickly and even forgive words spoken in anger or haste. What they do not forget, and find difficult to forgive is how one treats them at the point of departure, to the 3rd and 4th generation. And on that the PCUSA is tone deaf and cold in spirit.
It is painfully obvious Rev. Nelson does not know the people of the Charleston Atlantic Presytery. If he did, he would never suggest they sit down and talk to anyone considering discernment. There is nothing Christian about their attitude toward those who want to have a discussion. To the contrary! They are asked to leave the congregation and are rudely treated with anger and hostility. So much for peace and unity!
Responding to some of his ECO comments…more than “done” I believe that the majority of congregations leaving pcusa (for ECO, EPC and others) do so the acceptance of heretical beliefs and practice – same sex ordination marriage just the newest kids on the block; also, the comment is made that some of the congregations that left were among ‘the largest and wealthiest’ in pcusa…seems like the “head office” is exposing what it really believes – that large, wealthy churches count more (in their estimation) than small, poor churches…if pcusa really cared, ANY CONGREGATION that left pcusa would cause grief….