July 30, 2003
by John Filiatreau

LOUISVILLE - Next week's meeting of the Theological Task Force on the Peace, Unity and Purity of the Church will focus on two issues - the purpose and nature of the church in the Reformed tradition, and the Presbyterian way of making decisions.

The three-day meeting in Chicago will begin on Aug. 6.

Two members of the task force - Mark Achtemeier, a professor at the University of Dubuque (Iowa) Theological Seminary, and Barbara Wheeler, president of Auburn Theological Seminary in New York - will offer presentations on the Reformed understanding of the church and serve as moderators of the ensuing discussions.

The Rev. Charles Wiley, of the General Assembly Office of Theology, Worship and Discipleship, and Leanne Van Dyk, a professor of theology at Western Theological Seminary in Holland, MI, will be on hand as facilitators. Van Dyk is a member of the PC(USA)'s catechism committee and the author of The Desire of Divine Love: The Atonement Theology of John McLeod Campbell.

The task force's exploration of Presbyterian decision-making will start with presentations by the Rev. John Wilkinson, pastor of third Presbyterian Church in Rochester, NY, on the Adopting Act of 1729 and the Swearingen Commission reports of 1926 and 1927. The Rev. Victoria Curtiss, co-pastor of Collegiate Presbyterian Church in Ames, IA, will discuss current modes of decision-making in the Presbyterian Church (USA) and lead the group in discussions of new models.

The Adopting Act, approved by the Synod of Philadelphia, held that candidates for ordination must subscribe to the "essentials" of Reformed faith, as set out in the "Confession of Faith with the Larger and Shorter Catechisms of the assembly of Divines at Westminster." However, it permitted a candidate to take exception to a particular doctrine or practice, and authorized the next-higher governing body to decide whether that particular section was essential or not, to counsel with the candidate on his "scruple," and ultimately to decide whether the ordination would stand.

The dispute over the "essential" tenets of the faith led to a division of the church between "strict" and "loose" subscriptionists, also called the "Old Side" and the "New Side."

Those camps were in existence again in the mid-1920s, when the 15-member Swearingen Commission was formed "to study the present spiritual condition of our Church and the causes making for unrest ... to the end that the purity, peace, unity and progress of the Church may be assured." One cause of the unrest was the General Assembly's declarations (in 1910, 1916 and 1923) that "five points" of Reformed faith (the "five points of Calvinism") - original sin, unconditional predestination, invincible grace in conversion, particular redemption, and perseverance of saints - were "essentials."

Also during this meeting, the task force will also get a first look at the finished version of a new video about its work. The tape, which was previewed during the recent General Assembly and is scheduled for release in September, describes the process through which the task force has explored the Presbyterian understanding of scripture and tried to discern God's will in the midst of theological conflict. It is intended for use by congregations and governing bodies grappling with the same issues.

Members of the task force also will discuss the decision of this year's General Assembly to permit the group by a two-thirds vote "to go into closed session solely for the purpose of exchanging views on sensitive theological issues." The task force's co-moderators, Jenny Stoner and the Rev. Gary Demarest, have said that that privilege will be invoked "sparingly and judiciously." They also have said that the task force did not initiate the overture that led to the Assembly's action.

During its next meeting, in October, the group is scheduled to begin its study of Presbyterian leadership and ordination. It will take up specific theological and ordination-related disputes in August 2004.

The group was created by the 213th General Assembly in 2001 and is to make its final report to the 217th General Assembly in 2006.

Presbyterian News Service