''Irretrievably apostate''
Ministers tape ""Call to
Confession"" to Presbyterian Center entrance
by Alexa Smith, Presbyterian News
Service
You can see the photos that
accompany this report on
the PNS web page.
We invite you to check out a
Witherspoon comment on this event -- and to offer
your own comment!
LOUISVILLE -- October 28, 2002 -- Five Presbyterian
ministers appeared at the Presbyterian Center at dawn Monday, taping a
poster-size "Call to Confession and Repentance" on a wall near
the entrance and offering prayers for a reformation of the church and
its national leadership.
A second poster bore the signatures of nearly 100
Presbyterians who have affirmed the document.
Harkening back to Martin Luther's nailing of his 95
theses to a cathedral door on the eve of All Saints' Day as a protest
against corruption in the Roman Catholic Church, one of the protesters,
the Rev. Rick Wolling of Pittsburgh, PA, said, "We're doing the
work of Reformation theology (before) Thursday (All Saint's Day)."
Luther's protest in 1517 launched the Protestant
Reformation.
The "Call to Confession and Repentance"
charges that the Presbyterian Church (USA) is "decaying and dying
in the belly of the beast" (Revelation 13:1-8) and is
"irretrievably apostate under current management."
It says "talk of renewal is ludicrous" and
argues that the denomination is "desperate for rebirth through
confession and repentance." It urges Presbyterians to remain within
the denomination but to refuse to support any work "antithetical to
the will of God."
The focus of the complaint is defiance of the
PC(USA)'s constitution. Several congregations have announced that they
will ignore a constitutional provision forbidding the ordination of
sexually active gays and lesbians. More than 16 allegations have been
lodged against openly gay clergy and ministers who support them, but not
a single judicial charge has been filed.
On their arrival at the center, the men were invited
inside for prayer with John Detterick, the executive director of the
General Assembly Council, and the Rev. Clifton Kirkpatrick, stated clerk
of the General Assembly -- an invitation they accepted.
Before going inside, they spent about 45 minutes
outside, praying and reading scripture as employees arrived for work.
Kirkpatrick said later that he agrees that "all
of us need to hold up Jesus Christ as head of the church." However,
he said the "core of leadership" in the Presbyterian tradition
is that elected members of governing bodies, commissions and councils
make policy and carry out discipline. "It is unconstitutional for
the stated clerk to usurp those roles," he said.
Kirkpatrick noted that he has made clear that defiance
of the constitution is "inappropriate." He said he regrets the
protesters' "sense of alienation," but said he is "glad,
since they came, that we had the chance to pray together."
Wolling, the pastor of Beverly Heights Presbyterian
Church in Pittsburgh, said: "We're telling folks here in the
building that they're not hearing the concerns of people across the
church. We feel like we're in a constitutional crisis that has required
a prophetic act like this."
Three other protesters also were from southwestern
Pennsylvania -- the Rev. L. Rus Howard and the Rev. James C. Yearsley,
both of Pittsburgh, and the Rev. Paul Roberts of Butler, PA.
It was the session of Roberts' church, Summit
Presbyterian, that drafted the statement that started the Confessing
Church Movement, a loose-knit network of congregations that want the
church to unequivocally profess three beliefs: that Jesus is the only
way to salvation; that scripture is the inspired word of God; and that
Christians are called to holiness, which precludes sexual relationships
outside of marriage between a man and a woman.
The fifth protester was the Rev. Robert Kopp, of
Rockford, IL.
The document called on Kirkpatrick to make certain
that all clergy, elders, deacons and governing bodies who defy the
constitution are removed from office; and to press charges against
officers and governing bodies that defy the constitution.
Kirkpatrick is also urged to intervene in several
presbyteries, including forcing Hudson River Presbytery to pay back the
$110,000 Circleville Presbyterian Church was required to pay for its
building when it was dismissed from the PC(USA).
The document also calls for the "immediate
removal" of any "unrepentant stated clerk" who doesn't
apply the constitution "with consistency and without
prejudice" or who "fails to honor the responsibilities of the
office."
Arguing that the national leadership will deal with
apostasy only if it is pressured financially, the document calls on
churches to stop giving per capita dollars to any governing body that
"tolerates defiance of our constitution," giving the funds to
other ministries. It also calls for churches to refrain from giving
undesignated mission money to "any governing body of the
denomination."
Yearsley and Kopp said their congregations do not
withhold per-capita payments.
"We come (here) in deepest humility," Kopp
said during the morning prayer in the cold morning. "Not because we
are better than … but recognizing our own sin, recognizing the silence
we've allowed to go on too long. And we are calling our brothers and
sisters to a time of confession, confessing how we've not … stood up
for Jesus."
The protesters have called the church to a season of
prayer, confession and repentance that began with World Communion Sunday
on Oct. 6 and ends on Easter, April 20.
Yearsley told the Presbyterian News Service that
the group wants "our highly visible and called leadership to, in
fact, take the lead" in imposing church discipline.
He said presbyteries can discipline churches and
leaders in their jurisdictions, but he wants national leadership to
enforce the constitution. "It's a demanding call," he said,
"but God lifts up leaders for (a reason)."
The protest group has not sought the endorsement of
any PC(USA)-related group, but Roberts said it believes it has the
unofficial support of the Presbyterian Lay Committee and of some leaders
of the Presbyterian Coalition. The Rev. Brad Long of Presbyterian and
Reformed Ministries, International, is among the 100 people who support
the document.
Just outside the chapel where the men prayed with
Detterick, Kirkpatrick and members of the staff of the Office of the
General Assembly, Roberts said the protest group is not "going
away."
"For years, evangelicals have simply walked away
… and we're here to help redeem this denomination," he said.
The five who signed the "Call to Confession"
were Howard, Yearsley, Roberts, Kopp and the Rev. Howard Eddington of
Orlando, FL. Eddington did not attend the protest.
The posters stayed up until about 9:30 a.m.
