From the Office of the General Assembly.
The church lives its life through the liturgical seasons. Those seasons remind us of the biblical story and prepare us to celebrate the gift of God’s grace in Jesus Christ. In Advent we live in a season of expectations—the expectations of awaiting the promise of new life and a new way of living.
I firmly believe the Presbyterian Church (USA) has entered into a new chapter of its common life. That chapter is full of much promise as we continue to follow God into the world. It also is my belief that this new chapter needs new leadership. I am therefore officially announcing that I will not stand for a third term as Stated Clerk.
It has been a great privilege for me to serve in the church in a variety of ministries. In every setting I have met wonderful people who are extraordinary witnesses for God. I have seen unselfish, faithful service from small children to mature saints. All of these images and stories I will carry with me always.
It has been a great honor to work with a talented staff—people giving of themselves because they strongly believe in their call to the work. It is a staff that is always striving to find ways to help, to encourage, and to listen to the wisdom of the greater church. We are blessed to have such servants.
Most of all I want to thank my wife Kathy. She has been an honest supporter and good listener. She has helped me to stay grounded. Her theological insights open my eyes daily to new visions of God.
The Lord has been good to me during these years. God has sent me friends to encourage and friends to challenge. The Holy Spirit has filled in for my many gaps. The gift of faithfulness in the life of Jesus Christ has inspired me to journey on the road with other disciples during this time of great change. I look forward to the future that God is calling the PCUSA toward.
The Reverend Gradye Parsons
Stated Clerk of the General Assembly
Presbyterian Church (USA)
Parsons was ordained in 1979 and served two congregations over 15 years. He also served as executive presbyter of the Presbytery of Holston for six and a half years. Parsons began working in the Office of the General Assembly in August 2000 and was elected Stated Clerk for his first term in 2008. A new Stated Clerk will be elected at the 222nd General Assembly (2016) of the Presbyterian Church (USA), June 18–25, in Portland, Oregon. The work of the Stated Clerk Nomination Committee is underway, and the committee is currently seeking church-wide input.
29 Comments. Leave new
When seeing the news I almost broke into a happy dance, however his tenure has been a disaster, from his asinine pronouncements, to his decision on the AI vote, to his silence on the PP scandal, which frankly is the most disgusting silence of all. He said absolutely everything without saying anything at all.
done all he can do, I guess?!…
One always wishes one well into a retirement or “next phase” of life. Much like his predecessor, he will likely land as some adjunct as a denominational seminary.
But no matter how you cut it, his tenure has been an abject disaster from an organizational perspective.
-The ongoing grease fire that remains the PMA
-The catastrophic failures and illegal activities of the 2012, 2014 GAs.
– During his tenure the denomination contracted, lost 40% of its members.
-General organizational incompetence and gross mismanagement on a host of matters. Most notably his comments 30 seconds after the grand jury results on Ferguson, stoking racial tension . And his silence on Planned Parenthood. Both speak to a person out of his depth intellectually to the challenges of the contemporary church. All on his watch, he owns it. Like it or not.
So who will be next? My guess someone to the left of Gradye. Do not be surprised if you hear of a number of female or racial-ethnic canidates. Fits in very well the tribal, identity theology of the entity at this time.
So maybe someone from the Layman should run. Or are you afraid that you would not be elected?
One of us would have about the same chance of winning as a pro-life, traditional marriage favoring politician seeking the Democrat nomination for president. That’s how far gone the denomination is.
Walking away now in the midst of the broken denomination he supervised is cowardly and irresponsible. (Linda Valentine also resigned leaving the power in the hands of the PMA.)
They have over seen the demise of the PCUSA and they leave the pieces….a squandered vision, shattered denomination all falling down around them.
Maybe Grady Parsons thinks leaving will appease those upset about the last GA, those moving toward leaving the denomination……but too much damage has been set in motion. The battles are now being played out at the congregational level, in churches, in courts and Presbyteries. A house divided against itself cannot stand…..the people are like sheep without a shepherd.
The only hope is that God alone saves us, God keeps His promise, God is persistent, God is not going to resign……Amen!
Pres person Re…..
Your personal attacks have nothing to do with the article.
What do you think about Rev. Grady Parsons decision to resign
at this time in the denomination. I would like to hear your honest thoughts
and not just your mocking of individuals comments.
Thanks!
@ LiLee – I believe I will take him at his word – he feels strongly that this is time for new leadership, and I think you need to learn the difference between not standing for a third term and resigning…
Your comments were really helpful to the conversation.
Thanks for pointing out the difference in wording and I mean that sincerely.
It helps me lesson my angst and I appreciate your comment!
Deciding on a third term would be an appropriate time to make that decision.
I just wish the PCUSA was less in turmoil with leadership leaving at this time. But maybe I was unfair and new leadership will be just what is needed.
I make some comments about the turmoil playing out at the local level…
In churches, courts, Presbyteries and division is real.
What kind of new leadership do you think would be helpful?
How can I be praying for this new leadership to come forward.
I sincerely want to hear your thoughts!
In many ways it’s the best for HIM to leave, he got gay marriage agenda passed, he did what HE wanted to do. I doubt that he loos back with much regret. The way he and rada talk, the pcusa’s best day are still ahead!
Trust me if I thought we could get enough votes for the 16’GA to overturn just some of the mess your side has made, I would pay for it myself, however just like in business I can spot a bad investment when I see one.
Gradye Parsons, like Clifton Kirkpatrick before him, was a creature of the bureaucratic system. I really don’t see his successor being any different. When Kirkpatrick stood for reelection to his third term in 2004, he was opposed by three Evangelical candidates, and he won by a 2/3 majority.
Both Parsons and Kirkpatrick have been status quo men. Like the majority of Executive Presbyters, they saw themselves as essentially peacekeepers between Evangelical and Theological Liberal factions in the PC(USA), regardless of whatever their personal theological commitments were. They did not want to be seen as tilting toward one political direction or the other, either hindering or helping the forces seeking to undermine traditional Christian doctrine in the Church, lest they alienate one faction or the other.
Parsons had the unfortunate happenstance to be the Stated Clerk when the PC(USA) voted first to compromise its ordination standards to allow the ordination of practicing adulterers, fornicators, and homosexuals, and then to compromise its theology of marriage by redefining it to include two people of indiscriminate gender. Thus, he was in office when this twofold attack on the Biblical requirements for officers in the Church and definition of marriage proved to be the last straw for a great many Evangelicals and Evangelical congregations in the PC(USA), precipitating the largest split in the denomination’s history since the Civil War: At the end of 2007, just before Parsons took office, the PC(USA) had 2,209,546 members; at the end of 2014, that number had fallen to 1,667,767—a drop of 25%.
Recently, Parsons said in regard to how the PC(USA) came to recognize the validity of homosexuality and same-gender “marriage”, “The way we got here is the way America got here. People suddenly met their gay fellow Presbyterians, their gay children or grandchildren and realized that false dichotomy—that a person couldn’t be Christian and gay—it just wasn’t true.” In other words, according to Parsons, just getting to know one or more homosexual individuals and realizing that they’re just nice people is enough to undermine one’s theology of sexuality and marriage. Honestly, if that was all it took, then those who came this “realization” did not have a sound theology to begin with. Paul was very clear when he listed homosexuals among those who will not inherit the kingdom of heaven, just as he was very clear that the Church includes those who repent of such acts and believe in Jesus Christ alone for their salvation will (I Cor. 6.9-11). Of course, when the Bible is thrust from its position of supreme authority in the Church—as it was by literary and historical criticism, which as assumed that role (Book of Confessions §9.29)—then the Church’s adoption of the world’s standards for sexual morality and definition of what constitutes justice in place of the Bible’s standards and definition becomes inevitable.
And so, Gradye Parsons will step down next year, and he will be replaced by yet another liberal bureaucrat. Eventually the current hemorrhaging of Evangelical members and congregations will stop, and the PC(USA) will continue sloughing off its members at pre-2007 rates, playing at being church while the world continues to starve to death for want of the Word of God, the hope of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the proclamation of which has been abandoned by the PC(USA), until it eventually merges with other like-minded sidelined, irrelevant denominations to become a bigger moribund denomination that continues its slow decay.
Such is the glorious future to which Parsons’ eventual successor gets to inherit.
i have held for some time that the next clerk will be engaged at some point with the UCC on matters of union or merger, economics of scale and current over-laps almost demand such.
If joined today, the current reported membership of the UCC/PCUSA merger would yield an organization of about 2.8-2-7 million off 2014 numbers, that does not even get the totals to reported 2003 numbers in the PCUSA.
The next shoe to drop and next big crises will be in the Board of Pensions, where demographically the numbers of retired vs, active, paying churches vs. those off the grid become catastrophic in terms of risk-pool analysis and age distribution for benefit services, starting about 2017. He or she will have a very full plate.
I don’t think the decline is slowing. If anything, it is accelerating.
The decline has been higher than usual in the last several years, and it will continue to be for the next few. But eventually, all the churches and members that have not made peace with the PC(USA)’s very worldly decisions to ordain practicing adulterers, fornicators, and homosexuals and to redefine marriage after the world’s liking, will have finished going through the dismissal process, or will left those congregations that have, and the decline will continue as before, at its earlier slower rate.
The average age in the PCUSA is currently around 67 years old. The life expectancy for a 67 year old in the US is about 17.5 years.
One trend that really has not been reported or discussed is the plummeting numbers of infant baptisms over the past 10 years. In 2005 there were 30,727 reported infant baptisms. In 2014 there were 17,027. A 45% decrease over a ten year period. As a broad rule, evangelicals & traditionalists tend to have more children than progressives.
This demographic trend does not suggest that there will ever be any leveling of membership.
Agree with all comments. In actuality the birth rate of females (30-40), millennials, Gen X are 70% lower than their age cohorts in the Boomer generation during their years of fertility, family formation (1980-95). The core PCUSA demographic remains the older white female.
Projecting the membership loss on average 1990-present, leaves the PCUSA at about zero by 2035. L. Lee is correct in that as the dust settles and folks find their natural places to be, the membership bleed will slow, I think the PCUSA will settle at about 800K-1 Mil (where the UCC is now) in about 5 years, and then slower decline after that. The absolute floor for PCUSA membership, apart from any merger, union is around 300-400K, same absolute numbers where the Quakers and Unitarians are now.
Pres Person Redux,
I want to make sure you do not feel closed out of the conversation presented by the articles on The Layman. Your constructive comments
can be helpful. The mocking on both sides has been unsettling so that is why I “wrote” the note, but I do hope you will stay in the conversation.
Your knowledge of PCUSA matters is important even if there is disagreement. Thanks for your patience with me anyway.
OK. Grady Parsons in his own words….a picture of the journey we have been on for the last decade and a view of the possible trajectory going forward. His assessment of where the denomination is now at the end of his time as Stated Clerk is interesting and instructional in understanding the motivation that drives his vision.
However, I can not say I agree with that vision.
The decline is worse than we’re being told. In my state, local Presbyterian churches (USA) are recruiting young heterosexual married people to serve as elders, in the session. That’s odd, I thought, knowing these new young recruits knew little to nothing of Presbyterian rules, biblical/scripture, etc.; while the past 20 years traditional orthodox scripture believing Presbyterians had been passed over—even shunned at these same churches. Then it struck me; now that the irreparable damage has been done, they toss a crumb to the ‘straights’ in hopes of slowing the decline. These new recruits appear to be ‘window dressing,’ or token ‘sit down and shut up’ recruits innocently, unknowingly communing with life long leftist political oper
put your money where your mouth is…
If you don’t agree – run for the office yourself – or move on somewhere where you find like-minded folks and don’t look back – but stop expecting those of us who do agree with this vision and assessment to shift to yours when you are not even in the game – you’re hanging out at the layman preaching to the choir…
Are you trying to quote this instruction from Jesus to his disciples in Scripture?
Matthew 10:14. ” If anyone will not welcome you or listen to your words, shake the dust off your feet when you leave that home or town. I tell you the truth, it will be more bearable for Sodom and Gomorrah on the day of judgement than for that town.”
My vision includes Jesus the Savior not just Jesus the alien refugee.
My vision includes evangelism and the righteous Justice of Jesus alone paid on the cross, not just social justice and human works.
Parsons did not even mention Jesus Christ until the comment about the next challenge for the denomination which for him was immigration and white privileges.
Pres person Redux is evangelism a part of your vision? Was it part of Parsons vision?
In the weeks and month to come in the PCUSA, you will hear more of the the concept of “white privilege”, including a conference on the matter the PCUSA is co-sponsoring. It the attempt by the PCUSA to get into the agenda of the “black lives matter movement” and its ideological as well as political goals of defunding police/pubic safety, criminalizing law enforcement professionals, as well as the resurrection of the concept of “reparations” or the financial compensation of those effected by slavery, segregation, and effects of color. Good luck with that.
The PCUSA cannot even get out of its own way in terms of its financial management of the the PMA and could not plan its way out of a paper bag. Yet insists on preaching to others how to live and what is correct social justice.
Much like the Planned Parenthood debate, if white liberals feel guilty, oppressed, or otherwise the scales of justice just are not right, I suggest they just get their checkbooks out and write a check to their favorite cause of charity or organization to swage their conscious. Otherwise get your hands out of my pocket and out of my house.
Now that’s the PCUSA rhetoric we’ve grown to expect. You must work at my Presbytery, judging from your tone.
Is Gradye Parson’s departure anything like rats leaving a sinking ship?
Praise The Lord!! There is a God. He can leave with Obama.
According to your great summary it looks as though Gradye has done very well for those that supported and kept him in office.