A searchable, downloadable PDF of the original article appears below. Calvin Brown is the Executive Director of the Renewal Fellowship.
Syracuse, NY and Ottawa, ON had in common the hosting of a Presbyterian General Assembly this summer. I was happy to be able to attend both. The Canadian Assembly, held the first week of June, elected John Congram, editor of the Presbyterian Record as its Moderator. It was a happy signal when, after he had been installed as Moderator and presented with a Bible by a representative of the Canadian Bible Society, he held the Bible high and said that it was appropriate that this presentation be made since as Presbyterians we are considered a people of the Book. Affirming the authority of the Bible as our only rule for faith and life is an emphasis that cannot be made too often. The highlights of the Canadian Assembly included establishing two Han-Ca Presbyteries, one in the East and one in the West. These Korean-based Presbyteries are an attempt to deal with sensitive ethnic concerns for mission in Canada. The Americans were dealing with similar issues and although they have had ethnic-based Presbyteries previously an Overture had come requesting that ethnic congregations be allowed to be members of both their ethnic Presbytery and their geographic Presbytery. That suggestion is now being studied.
Both Assemblies dealt with the question of the place of homosexuals in the church. Our Assembly, in response to memorials and overtures from members of the Presbytery of Montreal sent yet another Commission to deal with the case of Darryl Macdonald, a self-confessed practising homosexual, from whom the Presbytery, in response to last year’s Assembly, withdrew the licence to preach. However, the issue was not settled since the Presbytery then appointed him as lay missionary to the Lachine congregation and allowed the congregation to increase Mr. Macdonald’s “hours of work in accordance with pastoral needs and resources available.” Presbyters who objected included a wide theological spectrum, although the majority were conservative and evangelical. They argued that “the Presbytery has dealt with the symbol, licensing and ordination, but has refused to deal with the reality, the person’s ongoing performance of pulpit and pastoral functions. To us it seems reasonable that if a person is disqualified from being ordained to an office in the Church, then he or she should not be allowed to fulfill the duties of that office …” A Judicial Commission was called for to judge the matter, to remove a cause of offense, and to restore discipline to The Presbyterian Church in Canada. So distressed was one congregation that they requested from Presbytery permission to withdraw from the denomination. The Assembly also established a committee to study the place of homosexuals in the church and report back to the next Assembly These issues will need a lot of prayerful consideration if we are not on the one hand to forsake the holiness of God and embrace moral anarchy or, on the other hand, in the interests of truth, justice and integrity lose gentleness and compassion.
We do not claim to be the only branch of the church of Christ but we do claim to be a people of integrity who understand in “whom we have believed.”
Although official headline releases announced that our American friends approved the “Fidelity and Integrity” Amendment by an even greater majority than last year, in fact it was amended and in my view greatly weakened. The changes move from being a strong stand that requires accountability in church officers to traditional Christian morality to a “Motherhood” statement open to wide interpretation. The amendments include changes in the requirements. It now: requires them to “be instructed by the historic confessional standards of the church” rather than Amendment B’s “in conformity” to them; requires them to “demonstrate fidelity and integrity in marriage or singleness, and in all relationships of life” rather than living “in fidelity within the covenant of marriage of a man and a woman or chastity in singleness.”
In the debate already wide interpretation about what it means in terms of the place of homosexuals in the church is evident. It is the sign of a church unable or unwilling to make up its mind and in the end if it doesn’t repent it will suffer the fate of all churches that are lukewarm. It will be spewed out not only ultimately by the King and Head of the church, Jesus, but by the rank and file membership on both sides of the issue who grow tired of the constant strife and seeming lack of moral direction that they expect from their church. The great fear is that taking any definitive decision and action will divide the church and lead many who disagree with the decision to leave. In truth, often procrastination and uncertainty are greater enemies to the church and leads to a gradual waning and in the end the weak institution left has neither the loyalty or respect of its own members nor the convictions or purpose that once called it into being. Certainly, every effort needs to be made to seek the unity and welfare of the church but if people in all honesty come to the place where there is no unity around what is considered doctrinal and moral non-negotiables then there needs to be enough integrity to acknowledge that and so each can get on with what each understands to be their God-ordained destiny in the company of those whose convictions they share. That is surely what it means to be a Confessional Church – a Presbyterian Church. We do not claim to be the only branch of the church of Christ but we do claim to be a people of integrity who understand in “whom we have believed.” As one of the early church Fathers put it: “In essentials – unity; in non-essentials-liberty; in all things – charity (love).” We may differ about many issues in the church but we must decide what are the essentials and what are not and we must be prepared, in love, to hold one another accountable. This too is one of the marks of the true church as Reformed Christians have understood it. We do no favour to our church or to the Holy Catholic Church if we surrender these “treasures” of our strong Reformed tradition in favour of a mess of misplaced ecumenical humanism. To be truly Catholic or ecumenical does not mean we have no convictions of our own – rather it means we bring to the table the richness of what God has shown us and also show appreciation for the “gifts” and riches God has shown others so that together we may show forth the “fullness of him who fills everything in every way.”
The 570 American Commissioner Assembly is about three times larger than the Canadian Assembly and was experimenting with “voting machines.” In an interesting way of doing things the Young Adult Reps and other advisors were given the vote first on each motion, the result was announced and then the Commissioners were called upon to vote. The first several days of Assembly are full of hearings in which various people, groups or commissioners are given opportunity to make brief presentations to Committees who are bringing reports or recommendations to Assembly. One interesting Committee was hearing reports and opinions on how non-official Presbyterian groups (like Renewal Fellowship, PRRMI, Presbyterian Association on Science, Technology and the Christian Faith, Presbyterian Mariners, More Light Network [Gays and Lesbians], Witherspoon Society, PEP [Presbyterian Elders in Prayer]) should be relating to the Assembly and its agencies. This is an issue we in Canada are also discussing with “church offices.” If you have an opinion let us know.
The American Assembly invites all kinds of groups, both official and non-official to have displays and events for Commissioners and others to participate in. A large auditorium is set aside and the resources are amazing. Each Commissioner receives a booklet schedule of the times and places of all these events, the various College dinners, a schedule for all the events planned by the local Arrangements Committee and the times and places of all the Committee hearings. This made for an exciting and rich experience. I attended the Princeton luncheon to hear President Tom Gillespie speak and was invited to a PRRMI worship service to bring greetings from Canada.
At the Canadian Assembly normally only official agencies have displays in the public area. Unofficial fellowship and prayer times are held by Renewal Fellowship and announced at the Assembly but it is more difficult to be included in the official mailings or programs sent to Commissioners and so some Commissioners seem totally unaware of these events and are disappointed when they hear of them after the fact. This year’s Renewal events included a barbecue hosted at the Statham home in Orleans and sponsored by the Eastern Ontario/Western Quebec Regional Renewal Task Force Coordinating Group. It was an inspirational time and it was an event that God was mightily at work among us as we shared his work in our midst.