The Fellowship: Birth of a PresbyPolity

For a PresbyPolity Wonk like me, it's been fascinating watching the Fellowship of Presbyterians create a new polity. 

I wasn't planning to go to the Covenanting Conference in Orlando this week, having sung my Farewell Song and all,  but then a couple of weeks ago my church asked me to join the group attending, so I plan to be there.

There's been speculation, confusion and angst on the internet about the nature of the process that will birth this new polity which has the very broad purpose of being an affiliation of PCUSA congregations, other Presbyterian congregations such as the EPC, and a stand-alone denomination.

This Outlook article clarified everything for me. The process is similar to that of creating any non-profit organization, something I have done several times. Once the corporate entity is legally created then the organizing board of directors adopts by-laws and other policies that will govern the organization.

In the case of the FOP, that includes the Theology and Polity statements. The board released a draft of these two statements in November and solicited comments, critiques and suggestions from interested folks. They will adopt the final versions and release them Thursday. 

At that point the documents will be subject to change and revision through the process set up by the Polity document to call a meeting of the new Synod (the GA of the FOP) with properly credentialed commissioners from congregations that have affiliated with the FOP. 

According to the Outlook article, that Synod meeting is being planned for sometime in 2013--after the next PCUSA GA in 2012.

Since the Covenanting Conference is open to all comers, having a vote by those in attendance to adopt or alter the documents risks the credibility and authority of the process. Many of those coming may not be authorized to represent their congregation at the conference. 

Of course 2013 will too late for some congregations who will move for dismissal to other reformed denominations, like the EPC, that are already fully organized and operating before that date. They will have the option of later affiliating with the FOP. Time will tell whether those congregations will have any interest in doing so.

A gathering of Presbyterians without our trademark business meetings, done "decently and in order", will truly be something new under the sun. Speaking for myself, turning a conference of over 2,000 attendees whose authority to represent anyone other than herself into a committee of the whole would be a nightmare. So I think the projected process is preferable, although I won't be surprised if pressure to set the Synod meeting date earlier than 2013 is successful.

Checking In and Prayers Please

It's been a wild couple of days since coming back from our trip to Pennsylvania for the weekend.

Please pray for my friend Martha, seriously injured in a car accident yesterday. She suffered multiple fractured ribs, a concussion and an injured lung. She faces a long, painful recovery.

Also, prayers for my patience in dealing with last-minute changes to the church's policy and procedures manual would be appreciated. It gets voted on at Monday's session meeting. Yeah!

In other news, I see the Vatican is wooing disaffected Episcopalians. Aren't they concerned that expanding the exception allowing married priests will generate more pressure to permit all priests to marry? Which would be fine with me, but I'm not Catholic. What do you think?

WSJ Article on Church Schism

Today's Wall Street Journal has an interesting and instructive review of church schism, prompted by recent doings in the Episcopal church-- Their Separate Ways by Philip Jenkins, author of The Lost History of Christianity. (This week the ECUSA's triennial convention ended the ban on gay candidates serving in ordained ministry. Meanwhile, earlier this summer conservatives organized a rival church, the Anglican Church in North America, and essentially withdrew.)

Jenkins gives a good brief summary of the history of schisms in the church--some successful, some not so much, and some failures. Presbyterians, like Episcopalians, were born in schism from the Roman Catholic Church. Is it really surprising that churches born of schism continue to be subject to schism?

Too Late for Blather

Things are heating up again in the Presbyland. Today's letter to the churches from the Stated Clerk and Executive Director of the PCUSA, posted under the title "Unwavering Confidence Expressed in Letter to Congregations" in fact expresses no such thing. Although Kirkpatrick and Valentine fail to name it, the letter is clearly written in response to fears that the New Wineskins Association of Churches meeting in Orlando later this week will be followed by more than "a few" congregations seeking to leave the PCUSA.

Why be so coy? The New Wineskins published a plan whereby congregations leaving the PCUSA would join a non-geographic presbytery of the Evangelical Presbyterian Church for a period of five years as a transition into that denomination. That is on the agenda. There have been a few churches leave for the EPC already, and clearly this convocation is (and ought to be) a serious concern in Louisville. Presbybloggers Toby Brown and Bayou Christian will be in attendance, so check their blogs for their reports and observations if you'd like to read a first hand account.

Sharing this letter will raise more questions than it answers for most people in the pews. It is past time for straight talk, not more tedious smokescreens and pious blather. The letter reveals an inability to acknowledge and deal with the very real division in the church, and further undermines whatever confidence in GA officials remains.