Three Gulf Coast Presbyteries
Meet To Hear Achtemeir

by Jane Hines

Interest in the work of the General Assembly Task Force on the Peace, Unity and Purity of the Church seemed to be at high tide on the Gulf Coast on May 17. On that day, 350 Presbyterian commissioners from South Alabama, Florida and Mississippi Presbyteries gathered at Spring Hill Presbyterian Church in Mobile to hear Task Force member Dr. Mark Achtemeir report on what has been said and done so far.

He said, after reading the First Psalm, that Presbyterians do turn to the Word of God “when we’re in a mess.” He said this is not the first time the Presbyterian Church has been in the midst of difficult times, reminding those present that the Presbyterian Church is Reformed and Always Reforming. He said, “The task force was brought together to talk about, study, reflect, pray and meditate on the Word of God for five years and to consider something tearing at the fabric of the Reformed Faith for decades.”

“A sense of unfaithful witness led to the creation of the task force,” he said, adding that it is a very scary assignment, dealing with a vague and sweeping mandate. He reminded the group that the task force has “absolutely no power; it only gets an audience.”

Achtemeir said the report of the task force has not been written. The final report is scheduled as an important piece of business at the 217th General Assembly, meeting in Birmingham, AL in 2006. The deadline for the report to be written is September 15, 2005. Aletter from Gary Demarest and Jenny Stoner, co-moderators of the task force, was sent to all synods and presbyteries on April 21, asking them to invite one of the task force members to come for a presentation of the report between September 15 and the Assembly meeting next June.

At the meeting in Mobile, Achtemeir said: “As a matter of witness to the world, we need to show a way to deal with conflict that does not involve killing. The report is about a lot more than gay, lesbian and bisexual ordination. It is about a Christian way of dealing with conflict. The viability of Reformed and Presbyterian Christians is especially at stake.”

He said: “The task force decided to start with God instead of the issues; we spent two and a half years studying common theological foundations; caricatures of both liberals and conservatives were blown out of the water.”

“What we have in common,” he said, “is more weighty than the single issue on which we disagree.” The results of their process have been “ profoundly transforming, creating more sympathy and less certainty.”

The task force has become an “us” instead of “them”, he added. “We have different perspectives, but the same goal of learning to speak to the church about contested issues, “ he told the group gathered in Mobile.

In other observations, he said: “We hope to be able to show how to duplicate this kind of discipline and thinking and demonstrate how we can be faithful in our life together. Perhaps the task force can put forth a meaningful call to repentance for the entire church and we can stop demonizing and stereotyping each other as we challenge the church’s way of debate in the conflict. The task force is not perfect but we can lift up an alternative way to be the church as we consider the issues. God draws all of us together into Christ’s body and we become more like him through Grace.”