Thursday, December 07, 2006

Atheist Church Member Update, Part Two


Those of my readers who have followed the saga of the atheist who was admitted to membership in St. Andrews' Presbyterian Church in Austin will want to check out the latest update on the situation provided by Toby Brown at A Classical Presbyterian.

On the one hand the Synod of the Sun denied the St Andrews request for an injunction against Mission Presbytery's resolutions that authorized its Committee on Ministry to counsel with the church about asking the appropriate constitutional membership questions for those who want to join the church. So St Andrews must cooperate with that counseling.

On the other hand they are setting up a symposium at Austin Presbyterian Seminary to discuss whether or not the English word "Lord" is required in membership and ordination vows. It's unclear whether a symposium has any standing in Presbyterian polity under the Book of Order. I'm going to say that it doesn't so it won't matter one whit what anyone says there.

Good grief.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

But don't you think that, regardless of standing, such a symposium might be useful to people in clarifying their understanding and their own response to the use of the word "Lord"? I have often heard people express that they are puzzled by both the word and their own gut response to it. It doesn't happen to be an issue for me, but if it's a stmbling block for people, why not address it?

Maybe this is one of those "churched" versus "unchurched" things (and you know how I hate those words; hence the "") -- what some people take for granted or revere presents a huge problem to others.

Jody Harrington said...

GG--

It seems to me that the motive for this symposium is to get some credibility for Rev. Rigby's views by giving him a forum at APS, rather than a sincere attempt to address the issues you posed. The average layperson would find nit-picking over the meaning of the word "kurios" pretty insufferable and not helpful.

The Vicar of Hogsmeade said...

O Lord ...

Anonymous said...

I can easily understand that this might be more about PR for the Rev. Rigby than about genuine questions.

But I would still argue (gently) that, while they might not know or care about the Greek, there are plenty of people baffled and then troubled by what seems to be archaic church language and need/want to find a way to make it live for themselves.

Anonymous said...

archaic church language

Nonsense! The context and meaning of Lord is clear. Master. It will be just as relevant and current a thousand years from now.

Anonymous said...

I agree that this is nonsense. I get so tired of hearing that we must be "relevant" and "sensitive", whatever that means. I maintain that the reason people aren't attracted to the church is that it has been so "dumbed down" that it's insulting!

Karen Sapio said...

My experience is that many folks-- in and out of the church--see "Lord" as a synonym for "God" and don't really think about the different meanings each word expresses. Obviously there are all kinds of politics involved in the Mission Presbytery forum, but I don't think it is "non-sense" to discuss this issue.