Four years ago, the General Assembly appointed a task force to help our Church deal with difficult issues of ordination standards, Church power, and theology. This task force has been made up of virtually every "position" that is represented in the Presbyterian Church USA.

Please visit www.pcusa.org/peaceunitypurity for the full text of the report and other useful information, including bulletin inserts.

On October 24, there will be a video conference, featuring members of the Task Force. Press here for more information.


Task force members say every believer
is an essential part of the body of Christ
Sept. 23, 2005
One chance
by Jerry L. Van Marter

SACRAMENTO, CA - In their first national forum since the release of their report late last month, members of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)'s Theological Task Force on Peace, Unity and Purity of the Church (TTF) laid out their supporting case last night during a joint meeting of five denominational agencies.

Their bottom-line message was clear: The church, wracked by polarizing disputes, must stay together, because it's the body of Christ.

"Our goal must be life together in discernment, rather than head-to-head confrontation," said TTF Co-Moderator Jenny Stoner. "Our purpose must be to know in our very being in the church the peace, unity and purity that has been given to us in Jesus Christ, and that we are to demonstrate and share with the world."

The 20-member task force was created by the 2001 General Assembly
"to lead the PC(USA) in spiritual discernment of our Christian identity in and for the 21st century." The group was specifically directed to address issues of Christology, Biblical authority and interpretation, ordination standards and power.

The task force members will be itinerating extensively in synods and presbyteries until next June's 217th General Assembly, when their report will be up for adoption.

The experience of the task force can be a model for the whole church for living together with differences and disagreements, said the Rev. Gary Demarest, the other co-moderator.

"We're a group of 20, chosen because of our differences and rooted in our disagreements," he told the gathering, which included members of the General Assembly Council, the Committee on the Office of the General Assembly, the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) Foundation, the Presbyterian Publishing Corporation and the Presbyterian Investment and Loan Program.

In the end, Demarest said, the task force voted unanimously to approve its report, "and a minority report was never considered." He said the report's conclusion that "the differences on these matters are strenuous and serious, but precisely because they are so important, we have been encouraged to stay together, speaking the truth in love, learning from one another and building up the body" is the heart of its discoveries.

Another task force member, the Rev. Mark Achtemeier, reiterated the group's fundamental affirmation that peace, unity and purity can only be found in Jesus Christ, because Christ is the embodiment of that peace, unity and purity. "The way we Presbyterians have been conducting ourselves is not sustainable," Achtemeier said. "It is literally a matter of life and death that, as we find ways to witness to our differences and disagreements, we recover our witness by turning again to Jesus Christ, who himself is the peace, unity and purity of the church."

This isn't the first time the church has been threatened with division by theological disputes. Task force member Barbara Wheeler commented that "Presbyterians have a bad historical habit of choosing sides and splitting up."

One of the group's key recommendations is a proposed authoritative interpretation of G-6.0108 of The Book of Order - which has its roots in the formation of American Presbyterianism in 1729. At issue at that time, Wheeler said, was an attempt to find balance between national standards for ordination ("subscriptionism") and individual conscience ("scruple") on any given theological tenet.

That same balance is what is being sought today, Wheeler said, particularly with regard to the ordination of sexually active gay and lesbian Presbyterians. Noting that ordination standards have always been "a flashpoint" in the church, she said "that original arrangement did create a balance for the church to which we must return today."

G-6.0108 grants to ordaining bodies the responsibility of deciding whether any conscience-driven "scruple" with respect to church doctrine is an essential "departure from scriptural and constitutional standards for fitness for office." If the scruple is deemed not to be essential, then the candidate may be ordained - subject, of course, to review by higher governing bodies.

The proposed authoritative interpretation, coupled with another TTF recommendation that no further changes to the constitutional standards for ordination be entertained - particularly the deletion of G-6.0106b, which requires "fidelity in the covenant of marriage between a man and a woman or chastity in singleness," and the 1978 authoritative interpretation that supports it - "can guide to our life together, no matter what the controversy," Wheeler said, "enabling us to hold on to each other while we all hold on to our most deeply held convictions."

Such an approach is not just "a polity tweak," Achtemeier insisted. "Our study of the Bible shows there's no support for viewing the church as an association of like-minded individuals," he said. "God creates the church by filling people's hearts with love and faith for Jesus Christ, and God seals us together through Baptism into one body with others who are very different from ourselves."

The TTF report is "a deeply penitential document," Achtemeier said. "Christ calls us together, so responding to him means turning to each other in our differences and diversity. This is enormously important, because it reminds us that disagreements among us are not disagreements between Christians and infidels, but between brothers and sisters in Jesus Christ - Christians of good faith who are trying their best to be faithful disciples of Jesus Christ."

Finding the balance between "holding on to each other while we all hold on to our most deeply held convictions" is the task of the "season of discernment" the TTF is proposing to the church, Wheeler said. Another key recommendation urges governing bodies, congregations and other groups of Presbyterians to engage in processes of discernment, worship, community building and study like those that have guided the TTF.

Such engagement "adds up to far more than a 'winner-take-all' battle," Wheeler said.

"No one will have everything they want, but we'll still have each other," she said, "and we need each other to seek and find the truth."

Such work by the whole church is "not a diversion from our true mission, but integral to our proclamation of the truth of the gospel in word and deed, that the world may believe," Demarest said. "The world needs not only to hear our witness, but to see and witness the embodiment of Christ's love in us.

"The task force is convinced that the world is watching the PC(USA) as we engage in highly polarized debates," Demarest concluded. "And the
world will be persuaded, not by the absence of conflict or disagreement
among us, but by the quality of our life together and our ability to make
visible the unity that is ours in Jesus Christ."

The text of the TTF's report and many resources related to its work are available at its Web site: www.pcusa.org/peaceunitypurity. Printed copies of the report and a study guide ($5 each) are available by calling
Presbyterian Distribution Service at (800) 524-2612 and asking for order #OGA-05-088.