2012th General Assembly (Pittsburgh)

Foundations for a Curriculum on Marriage, Part I

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This week I am putting on my “Christian Formation and Discipleship” cap to analyze the best approach for a congregational study along the lines directed by the General Assembly. The content of our study, the methods employed, and the desired outcomes will be discussed through this week here. But before we can get to that standard protocol for curriculum development, the question must be addressed: “What will be considered authoritative and foundational for the study?” What can be identified as “information” and “true knowledge” as we start out? I realize this is a Modern approach, but the post-Modern alternative poses […]

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What Can a New “Season of Serious Study” Accomplish?

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In answer to all the Committee 13 items of business regarding civil unions and marriage, the PCUSA General Assembly passed the following resolution:  “In a desire to promote the peace, unity, and purity of the church, we move the whole Presbyterian Church U.S.A. enter into a season of serious study and discernment concerning its meaning of Christian marriage in the two-year period between the 220th General Assembly (2012) and the 221st General Assembly (2014). We would further move the Office of Theology and Worship prepare and distribute educational materials to all presbyteries and congregations. These materials should include the relevant

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What GA Decisions Mean to the Church

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Hundreds of decisions were made in the course of this week’s General Assembly. Tracking the business is a little like maintaining a baseball scorecard. Some runners may get on base but never make it to home plate. The weather may delay the game. An error may be offset by a brilliant field catch. The final score is only one indication of what happened during the game; but the routine plays, the hand signals, and the errors throughout the game reveal the true condition of the team. To carry this analogy into the PCUSA, the Big Decision not to change the

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We Are Not at Liberty . . .

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On this Fourth of July, while Americans consider the implications of Liberty, Presbyterians were in their plenary session of the General Assembly in Pittsburgh, PA.  The Assembly was surprised by the announcement of the Vice-Moderator Tara McCabe, that she was resigning that office immediately. After a tearful statement infused with anger and defensiveness, she was released from duty and replaced by Tom Trinidad of Faith Presbyterian Church in Colorado Springs. What Tara learned was that with church office comes a limit to one’s freedom. As office holders in the PCUSA, elders agree to bind their consciences captive to the Word

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Real Power in the PCUSA

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One of my favorite verses in my favorite chapter of the whole Bible is this one: 10”But if Christ is in you, though the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness. 11If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will give life to your mortal bodies also through his Spirit that dwells in you.” (Romans 8:10-11) As a long-time observer (if not commissioner to) the Presbyterian General Assembly, I have absorbed the ethos of the Reformed tradition in ways not possible

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Can God Be Glorified in the PCUSA?

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Last Sunday I preached a sermon on the last (Protestant) line of the The Lord’s Prayer: For the Kingdom, the power, and the glory are yours, now and forever. Amen. What is “sticking” this week, as I transition to Pittsburgh and await the PCUSA General Assembly opening this afternoon, is the acclamation that God is in charge, God is able, and God deserves the credit. I am praying in advance of opening worship this afternoon that God would be glorified as the King of kings and Lord of lords; that we as a body would submit to God’s power and

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“Resistance Is Futile”—Huh?

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A Complaint was filed with the Synod of Southern California and Hawaii in response to the action of Santa Barbara Presbytery on June 2 to identify itself as a union presbytery (co-membership in PCUSA and ECO). This “local matter” may seem a bit off-topic as I reflect on General Assembly here in Pittsburgh, but the Complaint is germane because it reveals a strategy for attempting to make the ordination of practicing GLBTQ people mandatory across the church. I am quite sure we will see these arguments come forward in discussions and debates in the coming week. The Complaint cites “reforms,”

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Do Presbyterians Consult the Bible at GA?

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On my flight to Pittsburgh today, I was recalling memorable moments from previous PCUSA General Assemblies. High points and low points abound, of course, depending on one’s point of view. But one particular moment stands out as a commentary on our modus operandi. I was meeting in a hospitality suite with fellow evangelical/conservatives on Monday of the Assembly, probably at lunchtime. On the schedule, this would be in the middle of committee deliberations, so the commissioners are getting to know their fellow committee members, learning how to conduct business, and otherwise sinking in to the deep pile of work before

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The Silence Is Deafening

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[It shouldn’t be fascinating at all that I have not been blogging. Still burning the candle at both ends. Just two more days of grading papers and finalizing the academic quarter, and I’m back with you on a daily basis, for the duration!]  It is so fascinating to observe how quiet some people are in the face of recent events in the PCUSA.  A few cases on point: The silence in response to rogue Redwoods Presbytery has been deafening. Whom might we expect to react to its refusal to censure one of its minister members, the Rev. Janie Spahr (honorably

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Two Degrees of Separation

12 Comments / 2012th General Assembly (Pittsburgh), GAPJC Decisions, MCC Report, Moral Authority, New Form of Government (nFOG), PCUSA, Peace Unity & Purity / By /

This is the third and last installment in my series considering the options for a church in conflict, and what happens when separation is necessary for the sake of mission. I have tried to make a case, at least anecdotally, for the positive reasons to separate ministries. And here are two more just to keep us nimble to the idea that separation can be good and honoring of Jesus Christ:  the planting of “daughter churches,” which call out of one congregation a group of people that seed the new church; and the division of one congregation into two or more

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