Gradye Parsons
Gradye Parsons, stated clerk of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (USA), brought greetings this morning to the 150 gathered at the national conference of the Covenant Network of Presbyterians meeting at Central Presbyterian Church in Denver, Colo.
From their website:
The mission of the Covenant Network of Presbyterians is to strengthen the church of Jesus Christ, with the help of God’s grace. We are called to achieve this goal by working for the unity of the church, furthering the inclusion of LGBTQ persons, seeking understanding and reconciliation, and joining with others seeking a still more just and inclusive church.
Receiving a standing ovation, he opened his remarks by noting his perfect attendance at all Covenant Network national conferences. He said, “this is my last time to be here as Stated Clerk but not my last time, I want to be clear about that.”
“This is a good church and a great church,” he said. “This is a faithful church centered on the Word at work in the world.”
Parsons acknowledged and celebrated the role of the Covenant Network in helping to “shape the PCUSA as a more gracious and generous, fully inclusive church.”
Then he said, “There’s a tendency when we hear something that we don’t want to hear — to tell them to shut up.” Parsons encouraged the Covenant Network to resist that temptation.
“Think as we go forward, as we pray and think toward the church we want this church to be – that cannot happen if we tell some folks to be silent.” He continued that discerning the mind of Christ must include more than just a memo issued by a small group gathered together which is why, he said, the Committee on the Office of the General Assembly(COGA) is inviting everyone to participate in the conversation about the identity and future of the PCUSA.
Parsons said, “COGA is asking the whole church to put their whole 2 cents.” He assured them that there is no fore-gone conclusion — “there’s no thumb on the scale,” but indeed the process is intentionally open.
He invited everyone to visit: www.pcusa.org/identity. From there you can download a paper copy of the discussion questions or answer via online survey.
Parsons concluded that the goal must be to “find some common understandings about who we are, what we are and what God is calling us to be about in the 21st century.”
‘The State of the PCUSA’
In his workshop, “The State of the PCUSA,” Parsons offered a largely statistical look at American religious demographics, but made no mention of congregations departing the PCUSA.
Parson’s presentation drew heavily upon the Pew Forum on Religion report ending in 2014, which just rolled out another 638 pages of analysis on Tuesday.
After assuring attendees that the PCUSA membership losses track with other mainline denominations in the United States and exploring the changing U.S. religious landscape, religious affiliation of immigrants, fertility rates, etc., Parsons acknowledged that, “When I was growing up in a little town south of Nashville, whatever church your parents went to you when you were born was your destiny. The only way out was to marry into another church …. Now it’s much more fluid.”
Parsons then addressed the issue of racial division to a room filled with 100-percent white faces. “The flat out challenge for us as Presbyterians, after all our best efforts, we’re still a 92-percent white church. We have to ask ourselves, my grandson who is 3, when he’s 21, a 92-percent majority white church is going to seem very odd. If we don’t want to become a boutique church, we have to take this seriously. If you really want racial-ethnic people to be a part of your church, you have to really care what’s going on in their lives.”
From race, Parsons turned to the generational challenge. He said, “34-percent of older millennials self-identify as unaffiliated with a particular religion and 88-percent are not looking. When we consider that the average age for first marriage for men in America is 29 and the average age of a woman in America having her first child is lower than the average age of first marriage, we cannot rely on an old formula wherein we baptize, catechize, confirm our kids, send them off to summer camp and then expect that they’re go off to college and cultivate their testimony – returning to the church after they settle down in marriage and have their first child, is just not realistic. By the time they marry, they are committed to religious non-affiliation.”
DIY vs. DIT
Parsons asked, “Do you know the difference between the ‘Do it Yourself culture’ and the ‘Do it Together culture’? We are a church built around DIT. We are in a DIY culture. That is one of our challenges. The 1001 stuff is part of the DIY world. But how do you do that when one of our core values is DIT?”
Parsons then shared his new favorite number — 815.
He said, “My new favorite number in statistics is 815. Last year on the congregational statistical report we asked churches to tell us how many people their church ministered to beyond themselves. In the 40-percent return, the average was 815 people per congregation.”
Acknowledging that its a soft statistical number, Parson’s extrapolated the 815 out to “1.67 million people minister to 8 million beyond themselves in 2014.”
Then he asked, “if we start thinking in terms of ministry community and not membership, consider the impact we’re actually having a denomination.”
Big Conversation
Parsons concluded by challenging workshop attendees to consider a different definition of “success.” He asked, “What does it mean to be successful as a church?” Parsons suggested that the answer is “some measure of faithfulness.” Then asking, “but how do we measure faithfulness?”
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“Parsons acknowledged and celebrated the role of the Covenant Network in helping to “shape the PCUSA as a more gracious and generous, fully inclusive church.’”
“Gracious”, “generous”, and “inclusive” are not adjectives that I would use to describe the Presbyterian Church (USA). When presbytery after presbytery demands that departing congregations fork over a significant sum of money just in order to keep the property it has already paid for—all in order to uphold the denomination’s immoral property trust clause—I would hardly call that “gracious” or “generous”. Likewise, when presbyteries threaten to dissolve pastoral relationships of congregations seeking to separate from the denomination, or when they defrock former interim pastors of congregations that have left the denomination, I see no “grace” or “generosity” in that either. And with annual losses adding up to more than 2.5 million (over 60%) since 1965, and with Evangelicals in the denomination feeling increasingly disenfranchised, using “fully inclusive” as an adjective to describe the Presbyterian Church (USA) seems ludicrous and bizarre.
Parson’s “this is my last time to be here as Stated Clerk” had he said that around my fellow presbyterians, he would have gotten a five minute standing ovation.
The most telling sentence in this story is: “Parsons then addressed the issue of racial division to a room filled with 100-percent white faces.” I am quite sure that whiteness was not the only feature that most if not all of these people shared in common. They are what “diversity” actually looks like among the movers and shakers in the PCUSA — a bunch of older, affluent, college-educated, ideologically left-wing, amoral (if not blatantly immoral), massively arrogant and self-righteous white people.
Some folk wonder why more people of color aren’t beating down the doors to join the PCUSA. Hmmm. I’ll have to think about that one for a while.
He is either delusionsal…or blissfully ignorant of everything that has taken place….or he simply does not give a vermin’s posterior.
..that is “delusional” by the way!
I’m going with Door No. 3
Gradye Parsons does not display the characteristics of a delusional person, nor does he seem stupid or out of touch with reality. He seems to know exactly what he is doing, and what the outcome of his actions is likely to be.
He simply doesn’t care. He is an ideologue, and like true believers of every stripe (left or right) above all else he cares about his grand and noble cause, and will do whatever he can do to insure its success.
Like a lot of ecclesiastics of his generation, myself included, Parsons was taught to see the PCUSA as a vehicle to be used for the advancement of a grand sociopolitical ideology, a tool to be employed in the service of a higher and greater cause. And like Clifton Kirkpatrick before him, he was successful in using the polity structures of the PCUSA to pursue this objective, undermining the mission of the Church in the process.
And to be honest about it, I am quite confident that Gradye Parsons could not care less about the amount of damage that he has done to the PCUSA through his actions. The PCUSA simply does not matter to him. It was just a tool to be used, and nothing more.
Door No. 3, yes, definitely Door No. 3
In your opinion, does he view the church as a means of advancing a political agenda? Or does he view politics as a means of advancing a religious agenda?
Only God knows the man’s heart, so one must be careful in answering such a question. I have observed Gradye Parsons from a distance for a long time, and during that time I have seen within him precious little of anything that could reasonably be called “spirituality.” Again and again he has come across as little more than a secular Social Justice Warrior dressed in religious clothing seeking to bend the PCUSA to a particular social and political agenda, and not as a pastor to the people of God. In the end, of course, the only opinion about this man that will matter will be God’s opinion, so I will happily leave that final call in His unfailingly just and loving hands.
“The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom; all those who practice it have a good understanding. His praise endures forever!” (Psalm 111.10)
“And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell.” (Matthew 10.28)
So, please do not cite the words of a CGI muppet from an awful movie as if they were genuinely wise. Rather, pay close heed to the words of God. After all, “The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God will stand forever.” (Isaiah 40.8)
Like those before him, and those who will come after him, the Stated Clerk is a ‘denominationalist” in the hierarchical understanding of the term. Individual churches, people, other institutions have no or little value in and of themselves, apart from their utility or use or function in serving the institution. Its goals and ends.
Departing churches, membership loss, institutional collapse, general chaos really has no direct effect on the man apart from the flow of dollars and power uphill to his office. And like any other person aware of their own strengths and limitations, he is also fully aware of the impeding implosion left in his wake, hence his departure.
If he presents himself as a humble man, it is only the fact that he has indeed much to be humble about.
Come on, P-C, you need to seriously lighten up on this 40-year old make-believe Star Wars nonsense. You do realize that all of that was a Hollywood science fiction screenplay, right? There is a real world out there, and it’s actually a pretty interesting place. It might do you good to check it out from time to time.
John,
Fear, anger, hate and suffering…my friend, that IS the darks side.
John, you said, “Are you so righteous that you know you are speaking true”. If you’ll read what Loren wrote, Loren quoted scripture. You also state that Loren is in need of self examination based on your judgement of Loren. I believe that Loren is examining scripture.
“John I”,
I quoted three passages from Scripture, two of which commended the fear of the Lord; and I suggested that instead of attending to the words written by George Lucas and spoken by Yoda (performed by Frank Oz) in Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace, that one instead attend to the written Word of God; and then I am angrily denounced for purported “growing anger” and a spirit of self-righteousness.
I think, sir, that you ought to remove the proverbial log from your own eye before you presume to remove the speck from mine (Mt. 7.1-5).
Parsons says he wants the PCUSA to be “inclusional”.
One wonders who will included when so many hundreds of thousands are excluding themselves from the PCUSA, either by their congregations leaving or by leaving individually for other denominations. Perhaps he only wants to include those known as LGBTQ. If so, then what kind of denomination will the PCUSA be?
Surprisingly post,it is useful to me and others,please just keep it on….