By Harold Reutter, The Grand Island Independent (Nebraska).
Heath Rada, moderator of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (USA), speaks at the First Presbyterian Church in Grand Island. (Independent/Matt Dixon)
First, the ambassador listened.
Dr. Heath Rada, moderator of the Presbyterian Church (USA) General Assembly, visited First Presbyterian Church in Grand Island Thursday evening for a church supper that was enjoyed by members of numerous Presbyterian churches in Central Nebraska, including those in Minden, Kearney, Hastings and St. Paul.
Rada noted that many people do not know what a moderator for the Presbyterian Church actually does.
“I’m not a pope,” said Rada, explaining that he has no authority over either theological issues or policy issues. In that regard, he said, he does not have as much authority as bishops in some Protestant denominations.
His job was to moderate the 221st General Assembly that was held last June in Detroit, an event that brought together commissioners and advisory delegates from all 172 presbyteries.
Rada said that once his moderating was done, his role changed to that of ambassador. During the past nine months, he has traveled to 20 states and 10 countries.
In Grand Island, he first wanted to listen to members and pastors from all the area Presbyterian churches speak about “something that gives you joy, something that makes you excited about being part of the Presbyterian Church.”
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In the therapeutic world you have patients who engage in what is called, “magical thinking”. In simple terms it is a defense mechanism where they project notions and concepts in to the external world as a means to deflect responsibility or manage their environment. Very common in patents with PTDS or victims of domestic violence.
Heath in a sense engages in such magical thinking in that for him:
-Systemic/structural decline and a classic theological schism is in essence a non-event or invented by other people. The classic death spiral hence does not exist. All is well.
-Folks, even those who profoundly and deeply disagree with with the AI or 14f are in essence folks who at the end of the day will not leave and will just get along. Either because they love the PCUSA so much or like the Koreans he cites, (very odd) think they owe the PCUSA something. I suppose he could not think of another racial-ethnic group to reference as an example of institutional loyalty.
-The great revival and rebirth of the church is at hand where all those disaffected and non-faith millennials as a monolithic group, will wake up and say, lets find the local PCUSA church. As if the Quakers, New Agers and Unitarians have not been trying that for about 2 centuries.
And at the end everybody gets a pony and rainbows all around. I just wonder if those were passed out before or when folks left .
Geez Peter—you really are out of line.
“Looking to the future, Rada predicted the Presbyterian Church will grow because of its ability to attract young people, its openness to diversity and its willingness to work outside its church walls.”
Which “Presbyterian Church” is he talking about?
Every week of the moderator’s travels, there are between one and two thousand fewer PCUSA members than there were the preceding week.
Amen to Don.
Back to Mr. Moderate.
On this platform just in the past week we have discussed 1. Is the PCUSA Christian 2. A heretic who is an ordained PCUSA clergy 3. Further evidence of PCUSA extortion, shake down of churches. And I am out of line. Ok.
If the average per year membership loss of the PCUSA, from 1983 to today, was broken down by days it comes to about 126 per day, or about 5 per hour, or 1 person departs, vanishes, drops out, quits, etc. from the PCUSA about every 15 minutes. Yes, keep him on tour by all means. Flying time from Atlanta to Louisville is about 2 hours.
Yes the rainbows and ponies comment was in violation of proper decorum and professorial ethics. For that I apologize.
Good observation and apt analogies Mr. Gregory.
Summing up this slow motion train wreck that’s called PCUSA, it’s been a 40 year highly organized political takeover by apostate wackos.
James…..look at the picture and count the number of heads that don’t have gray hair. Evidence that the Dear Moderator wasn’t talking about the group he was talking too. Or evidence the Dear Moderator doesn’t know what he’s talking about.
Do all of you who leave all these hateful comments about other people talk to your families this way? Because all of these people are your family as children of God. So sad to read what you, my brothers and sisters, continue to write.