Where the buck stops

Clerk craves peace but often seems to be in the line of fire

by Alexa Smith

      But he was seldom the focus of it until he became the stated clerk of the Presbyterian Church (USA), the denomination’s top ecclesiastical officer and ecumenical liaison, eight years ago.

      His usual role is mediating conflict — trying to make peace.

     That’s what he was up to when he joined a delegation of Jewish, Christian and Muslim leaders urging Secretary of State Colin Powell to pressure others in the Bush administration to renew the U.S. “roadmap to peace” initiative in the Middle East — and to send a presidential envoy to Jerusalem to kick-start the process.

      Kirkpatrick is sitting at a conference table, his gangly frame crammed into a swivel chair. He is open, affable, passionate. He says he’s a child of the ’60s whose theological vision is deeply rooted in the Confession of 1967, which says that God in Christ is reconciling the world and calling his followers to ministries of reconciliation.

      Kirkpatrick is a Yale-educated intellectual with a self-deprecating, “Aw, shucks” demeanor. He’s a citizen of the world who’s never far from Mayberry — which is evident from his earnest but awful Spanish. He’s a big-picture fellow who in conversation moves smoothly between the practical and the theoretical, the mundane and the theological, the now and the not-quite-yet.

      He also has a quality not often found in today’s church leaders: He seldom hesitates to speak his mind, on issues ranging from the war in Iraq (he has opposed it from the beginning) to the Taco Bell boycott (he’s an avid supporter, and a champion of farmworkers’ rights).

      His way of speaking is plain and straightforward. He’s not one for histrionics.

      In fact, some would say he is under fire these days — and facing three evangelical challengers in his current bid for a third four-year term as stated clerk — partly because of his mild demeanor. His critics say he hasn’t been tough enough in defending the PC(USA)’s constitution against Presbyterians who defy parts of it — some openly, some quietly. (See related story, “One thing in common”.)   

      Because it is the job of the stated clerk to maintain order in constitutional and judicial matters in the PC(USA), his critics believe he should take action against Presbyterians and governing bodies that break the rules, especially those who ordain — or marry — non-celibate gays and lesbians.

   The Rev. Jerry Andrews, a longtime spokesman for the PC(USA) evangelicals and conservatives who have worked hard to see that the constitution includes a specific prohibition of the ordination of “unchaste” gays and lesbians, says Kirkpatrick has not provided enough “clear instruction” to the church, even if it must be, in Andrews’ words, “painfully clear.”

      Kirkpatrick argues that he has been clear, and firm, while trying at the same time to speak as a pastor to the church. “We have always tried to (speak) in a gracious and pastoral spirit,” he says, “for which I do not apologize.”

       “We have been crystal-clear that G-6.0106b is the law of the church,” he says. “Dissent is to be honored, but defiance is not. We have trained and equipped judicial commissions and clerks across the church, and I think in a majority of presbyteries, even the ones where there is deep disagreement, the constitution is indeed being honored.”

      He says he agrees that some church disciplinary cases have produced questionable outcomes.

      “There are times that I think judicial processes have not resulted in the outcomes that might be called for,” he says.

      But he is concerned that forcing a “fix” in one case can create a longer-term problem and a spate of other cases. He insists that the clerk’s task is to educate and train church officials so that Presbyterians are better equipped to serve the church and the body of Christ.

      “We have a system that is based on the assumption that each governing body is both independent and interdependent, and is responsible for carrying out its actions,” he says. “I think, on the whole ... that our constitution is being honored in the life of the church.

      “I think the quickest way to bring constitutional disorder would be for a stated clerk to try to countermand the position of a judicial commission, to try to assume authority that belongs to a presbytery, to order its ministers. What we need to do is offer solid advice, strong training, be an advocate for what the constitution teaches, and work in partnership with governing bodies to carry that out.”

     Kirkpatrick says he is concerned that some Presbyterians who serve on administrative committees and judicial commissions fail to separate their personal passions from constitutional law. Their job is to uphold the constitution as it is written, he says; if they disagree passionately with parts of it, they should redirect their passion to a different process — that of is changing the constitution.

  “In some cases ... it’s not that cases weren’t brought, and followed in due process,” he says. “The secular equivalent is that the jury did not convict.”

      If the clerk tried to overturn decisions on his own, he says, it would “destroy the basis of Presbyterian polity, where elected elders and ministers and duly appointed committees and commissions govern the church.”

      What’s more, he says, “I don’t think the stated clerk can” (overturn such decisions on his own).

      “As a church we have deep divisions,” he says, and the irony is that those on both sides of the divide feel marginalized.

       “I am struck at how many groups feel alienated, both on the left and the right,” he says. “You go to tall-steeple pastors, and they feel cut out. You go to small churches, and they feel cut out. You go to women’s groups; you go to racial-ethnic communities. Certainly groups on both the left and the right feel that the other is controlling the church.”

      In company with John Detterick, executive director of the General Assembly Council (GAC), Kirkpatrick visited all 173 PC(USA) presbyteries, partly to help the church develop a common spirit, a feeling that “we’re in this together.”

      He worries that many Presbyterians relate more closely to advocacy groups in the church than to presbytery, synod and General Assembly entities. “While interest and advocacy groups often are very prophetic, we’ve got far too much investment in them as a primary place of connection to the broader church,” he says.

      Conflict isn’t the whole story of the PC(USA), Kirkpatrick says.

      He recently took a sabbatical to think about whether to run again for re-election. “I got a sense that God is calling me to do this again,” he says. “It has been a huge blessing in my life to be to do this for the last … eight years.”

      Before becoming clerk, he served for 15 years as director of the denomination’s world mission agencies, and through it all, he hasn’t lost his Texas drawl.

In 2003, Kirkpatrick earned $121,107 in salary and housing allowance, the second highest salary at the Presbyterian Center. Detterick earned $153,154.

      Kirkpatrick is deeply involved in ecumenical work. He has fought for decades to maintain Presbyterian involvement in, and financial support for, the World Council of Churches and the National Council of Churches of Christ.

      Asked about his accomplishments, he says the highlights include the creation of the Task Force for the Peace, Unity and Purity of the Church,” which he believes exemplifies “just the way Reformed Christians need to be working at reconciliation;” his efforts to make the General Assembly a spiritual experience for commissioners; and the development of curriculum to provide better training of church officers.

      There is more that he’d like to do.

      He wants to help Presbyterians see that the constitution itself is a source of renewal for the church. “There are all these efforts at renewing the church through one scheme and another,” he says, “but it is those values in those first four chapters (of the Book of Order) that make us Presbyterian, that offer us a source of renewal, that help us build, strong, healthy churches.”