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News Archive
August 10, 2004
Theological Task Force Examines
Ordination Standards and Church Polity
Three-day meeting held full
agenda
LOUISVILLE—Members of the Theological
Task Force on Peace, Unity, and Purity of the Church focused intently
on the issue of ordination standards at its August
3-6 meeting in Dallas, TX.
The group devoted a full day of the meeting
to reflect on task force member and Princeton Theological Seminary
professor Stacy Johnson’s presentation, “Theological
Reflections on the Place of Homosexual People in the Church: Six
Viewpoints.” Members had prepared in advance for the study
by an extensive reading of Scripture and a collection of writings
from the fields of theology, psychology, psychiatry, and biology.
Following Johnson’s presentation, the
task force used for the first time the privilege of closed meetings
granted to it by the 215th General Assembly (2003) to consider
the material. Task force members Martha Sadongei, pastor of Central
Presbyterian Church, Phoenix, AZ, and Frances Taylor Gench, professor
at Union Theological Seminary-Presbyterian School of Christian
Education, Richmond, VA, led the discussion.
The task force also continued its study of church
history by focusing on models of the church described in the Gospels
and epistles of the New Testament. These were written in the last
half of the first century after the death of the apostles who
actually knew Jesus Christ. This study was based on The Church
the Apostles Left Behind by Raymond E. Brown (Mahwah, NJ: Paulist
Press, 1984). The models were presented by pastors Jong Lee, Hanmi
Presbyterian Church, Itasca IL; Jack Haberer, Clear Lake Presbyterian
Church, Houston TX; and Sarah Sanderson-Doughty, First Presbyterian
Church, Lowville NY. All are members of the task force.
Task force member Milton J. Coalter of Union-PSCE
continued the focus on church history, leading the group in critiquing
a paper summarizing previous work of the task force on Presbyterian
polity. Coalter prepared the paper with co-authors and task force
members Barbara G. Wheeler, president of Auburn Theological Seminary,
New York, NY, and John Wilkinson, pastor of Third Presbyterian
Church, Rochester, NY.
The next meeting of the task force will be October
13-15, 2004.
Contact info: Sharon
Youngs , Communications Coordinator, Office of the General
Assembly; (888) 728-7228, ext. 5750.
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