Every item of business on the docket of the 219th General Assembly (2010) will affect the health and ministry of the PCUSA, and as such deserves careful and prayerful consideration by commissioners and advisory delegates.
The primary goals of the Covenant Network Board, concerning matters related to ordination and marriage, are expressed in the most recent Board Statement. In addition, the Board has reflected on several other issues before the GA and offers the following recommendations.
The Covenant Network continues to work and pray for a church that, in the best Reformed tradition, is open to new forms of faithfulness to Christ and strives to live out the “trust and love” that are necessary among the “fellowship of women and men with their children in voluntary covenanted relationship with one another and with God through Jesus Christ” (G-7.0103). When diverse committees or task forces, having fulfilled their charge to engage in study and discernment as mandated by previous General Assemblies, issue unanimous reports, their recommendations should be accorded a high level of respect as this General Assembly continues the task of discernment.
The Covenant Network Board is grateful to all committee members who have participated in this service to the PCUSA, and in particular commends the following reports for approval by the Assembly:
The Form of Government Task Force
o Previous General Assemblies have repeatedly affirmed the need to revise the current Form of Government to provide more flexibility for ministry in a wide variety of contexts. The FOG Task Force has unanimously proposed to the church a revision that divides that section of the Book of Order into two parts, “Foundations of Presbyterian Polity” and “Form of Government.” The Task Force was instructed that both G-6.0106b and the “trust clause” in G-8.0201 not be altered, so these remain; the proposal before the church does not promote any faction’s agenda. Instead, it is intended to shift the focus away from a regulatory approach toward an emphasis on broad constitutional principles undergirded by Reformed theology. Functions are mandated, and structures are to be determined largely by those who must make them work efficiently day-to-day.
The Special Committee on Correcting Translation Problems of the Heidelberg Catechism
o The 218th GA (2008) lifted up five specific issues with the translation of the Heidelberg Catechism now in the Book of Confessions. In their work together, the members of this Special Committee identified a number of other problems with our current English text, leading to their unanimous recommendation that they be allowed to continue their work, in cooperation with our ecumenical partners the Christian Reformed Church in North America and the Reformed Church of America. They intend to bring a recommendation for a new translation to the 220th GA (2012).
The Special Committee to Consider Amending the Confessional Documents of the Presbyterian Church (USA) to Include the Belhar Confession in the Book of Confessions
o The Belhar Confession, adopted in 1986 by the Dutch Reformed Mission Church of South Africa in response to the sins of racism and apartheid, would be the first document in the Book of Confessions from the global South, and is unanimously recommended by the Special Committee as an important resource for the multicultural church that the PCUSA is committed to be and become.
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The church is at its best when it listens to all voices in an attempt to discern together the voice of Christ, placing our trust in the Spirit to lead us. In keeping with the twin goals of inclusion and unity, the Covenant Network Board urges defeat of several overtures that would restrict Presbyterians’ ability to hear and engage with one another, particularly across differences, and have the effect of impeding faithful dialogue:
o Item 03-06 proposes to require a super-majority vote at GA and a supermajority of the presbyteries to amend the Book of Order, effectively giving a minority the ability to block any change.
o Item 03-07 would require a supermajority of the GA even to consider an overture “substantially the same” as one considered by the presbyteries during the previous four years, prohibiting some presbyteries’ concerns from being fully heard.
o Item 03-20 would limit the participation of Young Adult Advisory Delegates during plenary sessions of the General Assembly.
o Items 04-03 and 04-04 propose the formation of self-selecting, theologically uniform middle governing bodies, removing opportunities for Presbyterians reflecting the rich diversity of the Body of Christ to hear challenges to their preconceptions and increasing the likelihood that we will pursue our own ideas rather than the will of God.
Please pray for commissioners and advisory delegates, the Committee on Local Arrangements and all other volunteers who enable the GA to do its work, the servants of the church who are employed by General Assembly entities, and all who will gather in Minneapolis seeking to serve Jesus Christ!
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Dear Covenant Network,
I have been hoping, praying, and working for renewal in the PC(USA) for years -but I’ve given up. Giving consideration to the items facing this year’s General Assembly (GA) convinced me all the more. There is something amiss when I wish our GA would never meet again. I had that thought a few weeks ago when I read the Layman – and I sent them a note a lot like this one. I had that thought again today as I perused your website. I only see part of what I hope to find. A few weeks ago, I perused a few web sites associated with the more conservative Presbyterian Church in America, and came to a similar conclusion. Something significant is missing. Like “us”, “they” are a mess, too. So, I have concluded it is past time to quit hoping for renewal in the Presbyterian world. It’s simply not enough. We should face it. We are dying. We are fighting over the things dying organizations fight over. And dying things need revival, not renewal.
I am sincerely grateful you are working for a church as generous and just as God’s grace. But please learn to pursue every bit as passionately the truth, too. I am more convinced than ever that the revival we need s one of the fullness of grace and truth – John 1:14 style. Most of us in our PC(USA) have loved grace. It isn’t possible to love grace too much. But to love grace without an equally passionate love for truth has led us to a lopsided sense of entitlement and license. In our quest for justice we are blind to sin. Less obviously to us, perhaps, the pursuit of truth with an equally vigorous pursuit of grace among our more conservative sisters and brothers has led to a meanness, and a sick legalism. And as long as we choose grace or truth exclusive to the other, we’ll continue to miss the fruits of both, for receiving grace saves us and practicing Jesus’ truth sets us free. After reading this page, I am sadly confident the arguments and debates at this year’s GA will be arguments of grace versus truth. Oh, and there will be preservationist arguments from the middle, too. But unfortunately, those seeking to be in the sober middle miss out on the fullness of grace and truth. Moderates are choosing a lukewarm, nauseating position and will miss Jesus just as much as the left and right do in their extremes.
Really, I do not think it is humanly possible for our churches to embody the fullness of grace and truth. Yet that is our calling, to be the body of Christ, full of grace and truth. It would take a miracle of the Holy Spirit for that reality to come about. So I am praying for a miracle. I’m praying for a miracle of revival in the Presbyterian world and preaching for it, too.
And I think we will have to die to figure this out. That concerns me but doesn’t frighten me anymore. We may in fact have to lose our life to find it. But hey, there are some stories I love in the Bible about what happens after death.
I will certainly answer your call to hold the commissioners and GA in prayer.
God is good and full of grace and truth.
Jesse Alexander
Pastor, Geneva Presbyterian Church
Covenant Network on it’s website states…..”The church is at its best when it listens to all voices in an attempt to discern together the voice of Christ, placing our trust in the Spirit to lead us.” This statement does not make reference to God’s Word, the Bible. The reason why this denomination is in such chaos is because of such statements. The church is at it’s best when it listens to the voice of God through Scripture and then responds with good works that glorify the Lord. The reason why the work of the Covenant Network is detrimental to the work of the PCUSA is because those who make up this organization are more concerned about people’s feelings than the clear teaching of God’s Word. Feelings trump Scripture.
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