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Press Release

August 12, 2003

The General Assembly Task Force on Peace, Unity, and Purity of the Church met August 6-8, 2003, in suburban Chicago to continue to address its five-year agenda. The task force, created by the 213th General Assembly (2001) and given the mandate to “lead the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) in spiritual discernment of our Christian identity in and for the 21st century,” focused on the church – its theological character and its decision-making legacy.

A series of presentations by task force members and the group discussions that ensued gave the task force a sense of the large scale implications of its mandate, but also an increasingly clearer sense of the ingredients that will allow its process and report to make a positive difference in a Presbyterian church conflicted by theological and ethical issues.

Mark Achtemeier (University of Dubuque Theological Seminary) and Barbara G. Wheeler (Auburn Seminary) explored biblical and theological dimensions of the church’s peace, unity, and purity. Grounded in insights from the Epistle to the Ephesians, augmented by references to both John Calvin and the Donatist Controversy, Achtemeier and Wheeler asserted that the church’s peace, unity, and purity—like the church itself—were gifts of God rather than human achievements.

Guest presenters Leanne Van Dyk (Western Theological Seminary) and Charles Wiley (Office of Theology and Worship) expanded on these theological claims about the peace of the church; that it may be experienced through what Wiley calls “ordinary discipline” and what Van Dyk likened to the rhythm of the church’s worship and sacramental life.

John Wilkinson (Third Presbyterian Church, Rochester, New York)’s presentation focused on two events in the history of American Presbyterianism that demonstrated various approaches to decision-making. In the Adopting Act of 1729, Presbyterian ministers not only debated the “necessary and essential” elements of orthodox doctrine, but how and by whom those standards are determined and enforced. In the Presbyterian controversy of the 1920s, the Commission of 1925 (known as the Swearingen Commission) agreed that theological standards were appropriate, but allowed for latitude in their interpretation.

Frances Taylor Gench (Union Theological Seminary-Presbyterian School of Christian Education) led a provocative study of John 13, in which Jesus washes the disciples’ feet. Task force members engaged the passage in terms of personal response and through the lens of the work of the task force.

Vicky Curtiss (Collegiate Presbyterian Church, Ames, Iowa) led the group in its continuing consideration of developing forms of decision-making. Included in her presentation were models of consensus and discernment, alternatives to the church’s historical use of parliamentary procedure and Robert’s Rules of Order. Curtiss also led the group through an exercise of polarity management.

Martha Sadongei (Central Presbyterian Church, Phoenix, Arizona), Lonnie Oliver (New Life Presbyterian Church, Atlanta, Georgia) and José Luis Torres-Milán (Third Presbyterian Church, Aguadilla, Puerto Rico) reflected on their experiences as Presbyterian leaders from diverse cultural perspectives. Their reflections helped broaden the task force’s thinking on important issues, including the way that decisions are made, to the way that Presbyterians from diverse racial and ethnic groups relate, to a predominantly Anglo tradition to the way that the task force communicates its actions and learnings to the entire church.

Scott Anderson (Wisconsin Council of Churches) coordinated this meeting, which included worship led by various task force members.

Though given the possibility of meeting in closed session regarding “sensitive theological issues” by the 215th General Assembly (2003), all of the task force’s sessions were open to the public and the press.

The task force will next meet in Dallas in October, where it will consider theology of human sexuality and continue its deliberations on the theological and ecclesiastical nature of the church.