News Archive

Task Force Releases First Video in New Series: Seeking Peace, Unity, and Purity Now Available

October 2, 2003

The Theological Task Force on Peace, Unity, and Purity of the Church has released the first video in a new series of videos for the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.).

Videos in the new Seeking Peace, Unity, and Purity series will be produced on an occasional basis throughout the life of the task force and will cover a wide range of topics being addressed by the group. The series is designed primarily for adults of all ages who have come together as a theological reflection group to use similar processes and to study the same issues as the task force. Other groups—adult study groups, new member classes, office training, commissioned lay pastors—may find the series helpful to adapt for more general use.

In this first video, Vicky Curtiss, co-pastor of Collegiate Presbyterian Church in Ames, Iowa, shares some of the tools being used on the task force to build a community of trust within the framework of worship, Bible study, prayer, and sharing. Frances Taylor Gench, professor of New Testament at Union Theological Seminary and Presbyterian School of Christian Education in Richmond, Virginia, discusses principles of biblical authority and interpretation, which is one of the topics that is key to the task force’s mandate. Gench also leads viewers through a Bible study of Matthew 5. Both Curtiss and Gench are members of the task force.

A leader guide is included with the video.

“It was made clear by many that the church does not want us to produce another report that will be received, then sit on a shelf, said Jenny Stoner and Gary Demarest, co-moderators of the task force. “So, we are doing these video resources as one way to offer the church something that is clearly not a report to be filed, but a resource to be used interactively by many groups.”

“It is one way we hope to share with the church a small portion of our experience of doing church in a new way.”

Copies of the video have been mailed to every presbytery resource center and seminary library, as well as middle governing body executives. Copies are available for $10 through PDS by calling (800) 524-2612 and asking for item #OGA-03-069.

The next video in the Seeking Peace, Unity, and Purity series will be available next spring. It will focus on Christology and will feature P. Mark Achtemeier, who is an associate professor of Systematic Theology and Ethics at the University of Dubuque Theological Seminary and a member of the task force.

Contact info: Sharon K. Youngs, Communications Coordinator, Office of the General Assembly; (888) 728-7228, ext. 5750; syoungs@ctr.pcusa.org.