RICHMOND, June 30 - The Committee on Theological Issues and Institutions approved the preliminary report of the Theological Task Force on Peace, Unity and Purity (TTF) Monday and endorsed its call for all PC(USA) sessions and presbyteries to create "intentional gatherings" of Presbyterians to discuss the "affirmations" in the report.

Task force member Mark Achtemeier told the committee that the group has concluded that "drawing closer to Jesus Christ is the key to holding peace, unity and purity together" in the church. Another member, Stacy Johnson, said: "Some say the task force has met for three years with little to show for it . (but) we were not asked to impose a solution from the top down; we were asked to help the whole church take ownership of the issues. . Ownership of the task force's work belongs to you."

Johnson said the task force is "exploring workable proposals" for learning "how to be Presbyterian and to allow our differences to edify, not divide."

An overture calling for a more specific definition of the "essential tenets" of the Reformed faith drew a lot of opposition. Six people spoke against the measure, including the Rev. Jack Rogers, a former Assembly moderator, and Elder Doug Otatti, a seminary professor and author.

Rogers, a retired seminary professor, told the committee, "My main teaching role has been on our Reformed confessions and our Presbyterian tradition," then quoted the Westminster Confession's observation that synods and councils can err."

"All lists of essential tenets are interpretations," Otatti said. "They all form a kind of 'Cliff Notes' on the original. . You already have short lists: the Apostles' Creed, the Nicene Creed, the Brief Statement of Faith."

Three people spoke against a paper on language to be used to describe the Trinity. Peggy Hinton, an elder from Columbus, OH, said God "has chosen to reveal himself to us through Jesus Christ" and "the Old Testament refers to God as Yahweh," but the draft paper "de-emphasizes the very words that God himself uses to describe himself."

The Rev. Shelly Parsons, an observer, defended the report, saying that it "affirms that all of our language is inadequate to describe the Trinitarian God," affirms "the language of Father, Son and Holy Spirit," and is "in line with scripture and the Book of Confessions."