Kirkpatrick calls for 'leaner'
constitution
Says Book of Order isn't meant to be a rulebook or
operations manual [5--6-02]
by John Filiatreau, Presbyterian News Service
ATLANTA - 1-May-2002 - The Rev. Clifton Kirkpatrick,
the stated clerk of the Presbyterian Church (USA), argued last week, as
he has for some time, that the denomination's constitution must be made
"leaner" and "more foundational."
During a one-day conference at Columbia Theological
Seminary, Kirkpatrick told an audience of about 200 people that the
church should treat its constitution as a "basic covenant for our
church life" - not as a "manual of operations" or a list
of specific rules governing what he called "matters that can and
should be decided by a session or presbytery."
He called on Presbyterians to join in "a common
culture of respect" for a less compendious "missionary
constitution" that would affirm Presbyterians' fundamental
theological commitments but leave day-to-day matters of ecclesiology
largely to church legislative bodies.
The first of six panelists invited to comment on
Kirkpatrick's presentation derided the "downsized" Book of
Order he envisions as a "Cliff Notes" version.
If the constitution were shorter and less specific,
said the Rev. Jill Oglesby-Evans, pastor of Emory Presbyterian Church in
Atlanta, "the battlefield would merely shift … to
interpretation."
"Who knows what we might lose if we ditched some
of the rules?" she asked.
The PC(USA) constitution is composed of the Book of
Confessions and the Book of Order, the first part of which is titled
Form of Government. Kirkpatrick called for a new constitution that would
reaffirm the Book of Confessions as "the first and most important
book in our Constitution" and rely on the first four (of 18)
chapters of Form of Government as the crucial "bridge between our
faith and our polity." Those four chapters, he said, "set our
whole life … under Jesus Christ as the living head of the church"
and "give the (denomination) its mission statement in the Great
Ends of the Church."
During the April 26 "consultation,"
co-sponsored by the Office of the General Assembly (OGA) and Columbia
Seminary, Kirkpatrick noted that recent conflicts over the Book of Order
"have captured much of the emotional and spiritual energy of our
church," with some churches "openly engaging in
'ecclesiastical disobedience'" and others "filing judicial and
remedial charges against an ever-increasing list of Presbyterians."
"The major emotional energy of our presbyteries
is devoted each year to conflictual debates over amendments to the Book
of Order," he said. "And millions of dollars that ought to be
spent on Christ's mission … are being spent on interest groups and
media campaigns on both sides of these divisive issues. …
"I can't help but ask myself … if this is
really what Jesus would hope for the Presbyterian Church (USA)."
Kirkpatrick told a long, humorous story about a
train-travel misadventure he survived three decades ago - when two
trains wound up nose-to-nose on a single track - as a roundabout way of
getting to his point: "We have a 'train wreck' in the making if we
all continue on our present path."
In describing this potential disaster, he pointed out
these factors:
Kirkpatrick said he and his OGA colleagues "will not serve as
prosecutors or 'enforcers' of the constitution" - as many in the
church have demanded - because the constitution clearly does not assign
those functions to the stated clerk.
He said previous calls for "a shorter and more
flexible Book of Order" have not come to fruition because of
"a climate of distrust in our church."
The stated clerk concluded by calling for "a
church-wide discernment process that enables us together to identify
those key principles of Reformed polity (and they need to be limited in
number) and distinguish them from all of the rules and procedures that
may be valuable but are not of constitutional character."
Kirkpatrick noted that John Calvin wrote of three uses
of the law: first, to convict us of our sins and lead us to Christ, our
salvation; second, to provide public standards and guard against moral
chaos; and third, to provide a source of inspiration and a moral compass
"to support us in righteous and faithful living."
"We have used our church law to regulate one
another and, when that failed, to convict one another of sins," he
said. "I believe that God is calling us to mold and shape a
Constitution for the 21st century … based on the third use of the law
… as a moral and theological compass that builds community and calls
us to Christian faithfulness and missionary outreach in … gratitude to
God."
The panelists invited to comment on Kirkpatrick's
remarks (who had been given printed versions in advance) were generally
agreeable.
Oglesby-Evans, for example, said of Kirkpatrick's call
for a leaner constitution: "It sure sounds good to me - at least in
principle. … I'd like to see where the shift in conversation might
take us."
But she had a quibble: "Surely ecclesiastical
disobedience should not be regarded as lack of respect for the
law." She said such defiance is "simply more evidence of the
church's attempts to clarify its identity" - a process in which,
she said, "our 'tome of order' has helped not a whit."
The Rev. Jim Choomak, executive presbyter for Cherokee
Presbytery, agreed with Kirkpatrick that the church's chronic
"constitutional turmoil" is "a drain of our spiritual
energy … (and) a sinful squandering of the gifts God has given
us." The solution, he said, is "a deeply seated revival of the
Holy Spirit - at the heart, where Jesus lives, not at the head,"
which he called the province of "strategy and argument."
David Wallace, a dean and professor at Johnson C.
Smith Theological Seminary in Atlanta, pointed out that American society
is becoming increasingly diverse with the emergence of racial-ethnic
minority groups. "If our polity restricts us from reaching out to
this diversity," he said, "then the church really has no
future."
"The enemy, in my opinion, is not fellow
Presbyterians with whom we disagree," Wallace said. "The enemy
is resistance to change." He said Presbyterians must quit
"blaming and demonizing" each other in conflicts over polity
and theology.
The Rev. Jerry Andrews, pastor of First Presbyterian
Church in Glen Ellyn, Ill. and a spokesman for the Presbyterian
Coalition, said the Book of Order was once smaller than it is today
because it served at "a time in the church when there was a
consensus of faith" and when "trust in the doctrinal integrity
of the church" forestalled most objectionable behavior. The key
problem in the church today, Andrews said, is a "lack of
trust" among those who disagree.
"The task is to restore the trust," he said,
"but this is not done merely by calling for it. … It requires
that people act in trustworthy ways."
Andrews said he doesn't question Kirkpatrick's
integrity, although he sometimes disagrees with him. He extended to the
stated clerk "my trust, freely given," as a step toward
creating the "climate of respect" Kirkpatrick envisions.
Andrews repeated a demand from the coalition that
Kirkpatrick investigate whether churches, presbyteries and synods are
complying with judicial commission decisions. Enforcing compliance, he
said, simply "makes us honest in our common life."
Pam Byers, director of the Covenant Network of
Presbyterians, agreed with Kirkpatrick that "a streamlined Book of
Order" would be "far more serviceable for mission." She
noted that the network has asked those who oppose the constitutional
provision requiring "fidelity in marriage" or "chastity
in singleness" from candidates for church office to do so "in
a way that honors the church's constitution."
The
text of Kirkpatrick's address is available on the Web.
