| Oklahoma church joins parade of departures |
| Written by Leslie Scanlon, Outlook national reporter |
| Friday, 30 March 2012 17:26 |
|
First Presbyterian Church in Edmond, Okla. – a congregation led by two pastors who have been active in Presbyterian evangelical interest groups – has begun the process of trying to leave the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). Mateen Elass, the church’s head-of-staff pastor, is president of the board of directors of Presbyterians for Renewal. Steve Marsh, moderator of the Presbyterian Coalition’s board of directors, is the church’s executive pastor. In an open letter released March 21, Elass wrote that the congregation has begun the process of seeking to be dismissed from the PC(USA), although it has not yet decided which denomination the church will try to transfer to. In an email interview, Elass said it is most likely the Edmond church would move either to the Evangelical Covenant Order of Presbyterians, a new denomination the Fellowship of Presbyterians created earlier this year, or to the Evangelical Presbyterian Church. A congregational task force is working on a recommendation regarding affiliation. Elass said the session of the congregation met on March 3 and approved a motion recommending that the congregation ask the presbytery to be graciously dismissed from the PC(USA). The Edmond congregation is part of Indian Nations Presbytery, which includes 53 congregations in central and southwestern Oklahoma. In his open letter, Elass wrote that the PC(USA) has been drifting theologically for more than 40 years, and that “in recent years, this drift has accelerated exponentially, to the point where core doctrines of biblical faith and central practices of Christian lifestyle are no longer deemed essential or even true.” He also wrote that “the PC(USA) has lost its passion for evangelism” and that “we can no longer in good conscience remain bound to a denomination we feel has jettisoned the core of why we were called into existence in the first place.” The session is hoping that a presbytery vote on dismissal could come in October, Elass wrote in the email. He also told the Outlook that if the congregation leaves, he and Matt Jones, the associate pastor, likely would leave the PC(USA) as well. But his message said, “Steve Marsh is committed to remaining in the PC(USA) to be a faithful witness in the midst of the present denominational situation.” |
Comments
I am presently serving a small congregation next to Ft. Hood, the largest military installation in the free world. Our soldiers are returning from war scarred and searching for healing and hope and direction as are their families. Seeing pain like theirs reminds me our politics and pensions fade in importance next to this intense suffering. Let's stand and sing a few verses from the about-to-be "old" hymnal: #401 "When Will People Cease Their Fighting?"
We Presbyterians are behaving as we always have, rooted as we are in the Reformation: from time-to-time, someone gets a bee in her or his bonnet and strikes forth to “reform” the church, make it better, restore it, recover it, renew it and generally rescue it from spiritual miscreants and all the other usual suspects.
The latest flap over ordination is just one short chapter in a very long book.
I suppose a thoughtful reader of our story might well ask the question: Do we ever learn from our behavior?
Do we learn, for example, that whatever “reform” we’re after will be realized in a substantially reduced form, occasioning the need for further reform somewhere down the line?
Do we learn, for example, that the very things we now are fighting against are likely to be resolved, if not by the church, then by society, as was the case for emancipation and women’s ordination (though, for some, the issue of women’s ordination remains a debatable matter)?
Do we learn, for example, that evil is not external, but within - that what defiles us is not what we might eat, but rather what issues from the heart? Jesus offers this advice to temper both those who would identify “evil” as residing “out there” somewhere, either in food or in people and those who would claim an inner purity greater than someone else’s inner purity.
There is much to learn from our story, and most it is that we don’t learn much at all and are likely to repeat the story at least twice every century. Right now, we’re on target for a new Presbyterian group, and before this century draws to a close (I won’t be here to see it, and chances are, many of you reading this right now won’t be here either), we’ll likely see another group emerge, with the same hopes of restoring, renewing, recovering and reforming.
I’m grateful for the new ordination standards - for me and my house, it’s been a long 35-year struggle, and when it comes to marriage equality for LGBTQ persons and related matters, the struggle remains, even as the struggles of environmental degradation, corporate predation, and war remain.
I wish we could find better ways of witnessing to the world, but such doesn’t seem to be an option.
In the meantime, I hope we can maintain some lines of communication, with none of us committing “the unforgivable sin” - that of demonizing one another, attributing motives to the Beelzebub.
I’m not worried.
We will find our way, and the Kingdom of God will continue to emerge from within our ranks, mostly in spite of us, I suppose, though we often like to think that it’s emergence is because of us.
I’m not worried, but saddened that we Presbyterians learn so little from our story.
But I’m not worried about that either.
God prevails … God always does … and stones get rolled away, even as we show up with our spices, ready to finish the burial.
The first question asked by an educated person when confronted by an event or situation is why is this happening? Or what factors contributed to the event. I do not know if the churches leaving the PCUSA, or thinking of, or in process of, will be a parade, trickle, a flood, or a few random events. But one thing is indeed striking is the total lack of reflection, thought, or introspection from the institutional national church. It's as if there is either a general complacency or total disreguard of facts on the ground as to the current condition of the church.
I have gone on record saying that after 50 or so years of culture/sex wars in the church the institutional PCUSA sufferes from a collective PTSD and their collective reason and though process has more or less shut-down. Further it seems the many of the public comments made by PCUSAers or those who love where the church is going usually is one of two responses, 1. Those leaving are homophobic to begin with and uneducated fundamentalist hillbillies and good to see you go, don't let the door hit you on the way out, or 2. How dare they, so lets throw the book and lawyer up and fight the property, money battle church by church, presbyterty by presbytery. And more or less treat the disease or symptoms of as a polity/legal issue on a local level.
I have further gone on record that the church needs at lease 3-5 years of rest/dwell time to heal, digest, process the changes of the last few years before any new or controversal or otherwise divisive matter comes before the church. Sadly that is not to be case we wade into Pittsburgh with redefinition of marriage, Israel divestments, same sex marriage rites all on the table. Sad indeed. Much like a physical body which shuts down after prolonged exposure to stress and insults to the system so the church indeed is close to collapse in its present form. If not there now.
The last major shoe to drop maybe not this year, but soon, is the perfect storm about to hit the Pension Plan as far fewer churches paying into the system, and the demogrpahic wave of boomers hitting the exit ramps about the same time crashes their business model, their happy-talk and positive spin not withstanding. When there has been no experience credit the last four years, even though the SP is up over 130% from the 2009 lows and the market had it best quarter in over 30 years, what does that tell you about what will happen next recession.
Behavior and choices made do have real world consequences, the storm is coming, discontent with the church will boil over eventually, and when the lid does comes off, it will be messy.
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