LOUISVILLE —
Although it was entertaining enough as a travelogue, the message
behind Moderator Susan Andrews’ report to the General Assembly
Council (GAC) here Thursday was profound:
“Mission is what holds us together, and mission is what
will keep us together.”
Recounting her travels around the Presbyterian Church (USA)
and to mission fields in Africa and Latin America, Andrews praised
the denomination’s mission enterprise in more than 80 countries
as “an incredible vision of how we’re called to be
evangelists and prophets … living out the Biblical mandate
that ‘justice roll like a mighty river and righteousness
like an ever-flowing stream.’”
Vice-moderator Charles Easley echoed Andrews, saying that he
has learned during his trips around the church and to Africa that
“Presbyterians everywhere love this church.”
Andrews didn’t duck the disputes that threaten to divide
the PC(USA). She said she has “fielded tough questions from
our more conservative brothers and sisters, and heard anger, sorrow
and frustration of gays and lesbians as they continue to feel
excluded from our church.”
But she said Presbyterians are also trying to “build partnerships
across theological divides around mission.” She cited two
divergent congregations in Cincinnati Presbytery that have embarked
on “a year of exchange” involving worship, mission
and fellowship.
Presbyterians in the United States and abroad are “hopeful
and joyful because of the Good News of Jesus Christ they’ve
received,” Andrews said. Even in desperately troubled Colombia,
she said, she marveled at the joy she felt when she attended a
party with Presbyterians there and was told, “We refuse
death to have the last word in our church and country —
we are a resurrection people!” |
