Presbyterian Assembly Ratifies Confessional Shift

Everything was coming up roses in Portland, Oregon, last month, a week before the annual Rose Parade, especially for leaders of the United Presbyterian Church in the U. S. A. And if commissioners to its 179th General Assembly believed the roses had thorns, they raised surprisingly little protest.

The assembly adopted without alteration the controversial “Confession of 1967” and all but one report of the avant-garde Standing Committee on Church and Society chaired by Stanford’s Robert McAfee Brown. A report on “War and World Order” was approved after deletion of a provocative but non-essential section.

By accepting the “Confession of 1967,” the assembly gave final approval to the first major change in the denomination’s confessional standards in three centuries. The action to include the new confession along with eight other doctrinal statementsThe Nicene Creed, the Apostles’ Creed, the Scots Confession, the Heidelberg Catechism, the Second Helvetic Confession, the Westminster Confession of Faith, the Shorter Catechism, and the Declaration of Barmen. carried with it a far less publicized amendment of the ordination vows for ministers, elders, and deacons.

Candidates will no longer receive the doctrinal statements of the church—even the new one—as “embodying that system of doctrine taught in the Holy Scriptures.” They will promise only to be “zealous and faithful in studying the Scriptures, the Book of Confessions, and the Book of Order” (italics added). The presbyteries of the denomination had already accepted the alterations, 165 to 19.

Earlier, on recommendation of the steering-committee majority, the assembly had rejected a protest from four presbyteries that deletion of the Larger Catechism from the confessional standards of the church was unconstitutional. After an estimated four-to-one approval of the new confession, commissioners also rejected an amendment to delete the phrase “even at risk to national security” from a section urging peace among nations. The alteration had been proposed by the presbytery of Washington, D. C., which found the phrase “unnecessarily provocative.”

The practical thrust of the new confession is to engage the church in social concerns. And the church and society committee lost no time in claiming the assembly’s action as an endorsement of its efforts. Claiming that “the ‘Confession of 1967’ thrusts upon us a type of divine pressure,” committee chairman Brown added his own pressure on behalf of the committee’s resolutions, proposing that the commissioners adopt them without change. For the most part they did.

A crucial “Declaration of Conscience” on Viet Nam said the United States, “as the stronger nation,” has a moral obligation to take the initiative “leading finally to the negotiating table.” The first step: “an alternate to the bombing of North Viet Nam.” The statement also urged “renewed attempts to get all parties concerned to seek arbitration of the war through the United Nations” and “exploration of other alternatives, such as a purely defensive war behind the fortified Demilitarized Zone in South Viet Nam, with the subsequent pacification of the South Vietnamese countryside.” The assembly asked that its declaration be read from all pulpits on June 11. (Earlier, Princeton Seminary’s President Emeritus John A. Mackay had said the U.S. should never have gotten involved in Southeast Asia and that “we must withdraw.”)

Reminders from the floor that such proposals have already been tried by the United States provoked no comment from the committee. Nor did the suggestion that cessation of the bombing under present conditions may be as immoral as continuing it. A defeated motion would have qualified the recommendation for a halt to bombing by adding, “provided North Viet Nam gives evidence of its willingness to negotiate by cessation of hostilities.”

Adopted in a late-evening session were resolutions endorsing United Nations power “adequate to make, interpret, and enforce world law”; avoidance of anti-ballistic missile systems in the United States and the Soviet Union; increased aid to underdeveloped nations; economic protest against racism in southern Africa; Project Equality “as a responsible and effective ecumenical program to use the contracting and purchasing powers of churches in support of equal opportunity employers”; full diplomatic recognition of and a U. N. seat for Mao’s China; new emphasis on racial equality in housing, employment, and education; and a “rigorous evaluation” of the military draft, deferment for clergymen, and conscientious objection.

In other resolutions the General Assembly approved:

• Basic principles of a new plan for church education to replace many aspects of the Faith and Life Curriculum and methods. Union Theological Seminary Professor C. Ellis Nelson said many assumptions used in planning that curriculum “were not true.”

• A report on the marriage of divorced persons that stresses concern for the persons involved and removes the restriction requiring a one-year waiting period before remarriage.

• A special committee to study the feasibility of union congregations with members of other churches in the Consultation on Church Union.

• A policy statement defining the new evangelism, plus a conservative statement from the floor citing the Church’s obligation “to declare and explain what it means to know Jesus Christ as Lord and Saviour.”

Money Up, Members Down

United Presbyterians apparently are better at raising money than at winning converts, judging from statistics reported to the 1967 General Assembly (story above). A one-year drop of more than 10,000 was the first loss in total membership in recent history. Also down: number of churches, church school pupils, infant and adult baptisms, and ministerial candidates.

But total giving was $330 million, up $13 million from the previous year, and per-capita giving was $99.96, an increase of $4.21. The denomination’s much-publicized Fifty Million Fund, the biggest Presbyterian fund drive ever undertaken, substantially exceeded its goal.

“I have no easy explanation,” said Stated Clerk William P. Thompson. “We must face the harsh fact that our stewardship of the Good News has been faulty.” There was no discussion.

The assembly of 800 commissioners elected as moderator the Rev. Eugene Smathers, pastor of tiny Calvary Presbyterian Church in the Appalachian town of Big Lick, Tennessee. Smathers defeated Dr. William H. Hudnut, Jr., well-known national chairman of the Fifty Million Fund.

Before the assembly, with approval of the “Confession of 1967” almost assured, many delegates and visitors were asking, “Where does the United Presbyterian Church go from here?” Today the answer is clear. The church is moving toward increasing involvement in all social issues and a radical restructuring of its mission to “act” rather than “preach” the Gospel. Brown told a pre-assembly evangelism conference, “Politics is the vehicle through which the will of God is done in the world today.” Most commissioners were inclined to agree.

The A.B.C.S Of Evangelism

The American Baptist Convention’s General Council last month voted 23 to 15 to make a “study in depth” of the denomination’s evangelism program, even though the council has no authority over the ABC’s autonomous Home Mission Society and its controversial evangelism secretary, Jitsuo Morikawa.

As often happens, this General Council action was more important than anything that took place later in the week at the full ABC meeting in Pittsburgh. A middle-of-the-road resolution on evangelism, rewritten to the right after complaints from Ohio, got swift passage. Later, Oregon’s J. Lester Harnish failed by only six votes to get the three-fourths needed to reopen the evangelism debate. He sought an amendment endorsing the inter-Baptist Crusade of the Americas and urging American Baptists “at all levels” to cooperate. The General Council decision against the crusade is lamented by those interested in closer ties with other Baptists rather than with non-Baptist groups, and by those interested in traditional evangelism.

New ABC President L. Doward McBain, a flamboyant Phoenix pastor active in the National Council of Churches, said he wished the Harnish move had succeeded so that he could take it, rather than apologies, to the Southern Baptist Convention.

The crusade decision was a skirmish in the continuing war between ABC evangelicals and the headquarters emphasis on social action as evangelism. The most dramatic complaint among many in recent months was a petition from two-fifths of the ABC pastors in New Jersey.

In the General Council discussion, a series of state secretaries agreed generally with Pennsylvania veteran Wilbur Bloom: “We are headed for trouble. We must make some adjustments, regardless of how difficult it may be.”

In defense, home-missions chief William Rhoades, a layman who admits to no theological expertise, attacked the “divisive statements” from New Jersey and said it was “unfair to attribute emphases” to the national offices, because the planning involves state and local leaders. He said Morikawa’s program is “highly successful” and “offers a wide variety of options.” The Home Mission Society spokesman on the General Council, Mrs. Howard G. ColwellHer son David, a United Church of Christ minister, is chairman of the Consultation on Church Union. of Loveland, Colorado, said she is as sure Morikawa is “a prophetic voice” now as when she introduced him as a new staff member while she was ABC president.

Morikawa believes, as he told the Pittsburgh Rotary Club, that “vast secular structures” should be part of the Great Commission “so that institutionally, men may respond to the Lordship of Jesus Christ.” Thus, much of his evangelism program involves social action—in New York City, Philadelphia, and Valley Forge (home of the ABC headquarters, known as the “holy doughnut”)—and “converting” the local church for secular mission.

In a panel discussion, President-elect McBain said that “in evangelism, we are confronting the individual with the claims of Christ. It begins with the individual. I would be delighted to discuss the Viet Nam war—it should stop today—but we must confront man with his need before God. If we leave him there, then we have left him in his impoverishment—moral as well as sociological.”

Layman Carl Tiller, in his last address as ABC president, said the denomination should “recapture a concern for souls” to reverse “our shameful twenty-year trend of fewer first decisions for Christ.” He noted that the ABC is the only one of the major Protestant groups in the United States to lose members since 1950.

Tiller and McBain see the ABC as a bridge between other Baptist denominations and the large U. S. denominations that are discussing merger.

The ABC is in no mood to review last year’s decision against joining the Consultation on Church Union. But delegates approved a general statement on Christian unity from the ABC’s new ecumenical executive, COCU-leaning Robert G. Torbet, that leaves the door open.

The ABC delegates rejected soft-toned statements from the resolutions committee, and urged the U. S. government to provide “contraceptive information and medically approved devices” to public and private agencies worldwide, to promote “effective population control.” They favored legal abortions in cases of rape, incest, mental incompetence, and danger to the mother’s health.

A carefully worded measure on “black power” cited the “legitimate need for disadvantaged groups” to organize as blocs to achieve “needed changes in society.” Curiously, ABC pacifists helped turn down by a slim margin an amendment that endorsed only nonviolent uses of power.

On Viet Nam, the doves managed to delete two statements commending President Johnson. Another successful amendment, from President Tiller’s son Robert, called for “mutual de-escalation” by the United States and North Viet Nam. A hard-to-oppose hawkish motion backed U. S. servicemen.

Moving With Cloud And Fire

How much should a 78,200-member denomination spend on higher education? For the Christian and Missionary Alliance, the question loomed large last month. Many have been wary of inroads upon the 85 per cent budgetary allotment for work overseas (currently about $5 million annually). They converged on Hartford, Connecticut, for the seventieth General Council ready for a full-dress debate.

The battle never came. Thanks to the work of a twelve-man study commission, a broad new education policy was adopted in a breeze. The commission’s fourteen recommendations were adopted virtually intact. The four CMA colleges’ primary responsibility—to train people for full-time Christian ministries—was reaffirmed, and a secondary responsibility was assigned: “to provide, as facilities and funds will allow, liberal arts training with a strong biblical emphasis.” A graduate school of theology and missions was authorized, and ground was laid for minimal educational standards for those commissioned by the CMA. The question of government subsidy for colleges was left open.

Credit for the policy formulation belongs largely to a soft-spoken 41-year-old Canadian who headed the study commission, Dr. Donald J. Trouten, academic dean of St. Paul (Minnesota) Bible College of the CMA. In drafting the commission’s sixty-six page report, Trouton drew liberally from his own 500-page unpublished Ph.D. dissertation for New York University, in which he traced seventy-five years of CMA educational changes. As if to reward him for the work, a delegate nominated Trouten for the post of general secretary of the CMA. Trouten withdrew his name after the Rev. William F. Smalley, who planned to retire, acceded to another three-year term.In another election, Toccoa Falls Bible College President Julian A. Bandy was chosen CMA vice-president over the incumbent, Pittsburgh pastor K. C. Fraser, by a vote of 469 to 425.

The most interesting CMA educational innovation now under way is the bid of Canadian Bible College, Regina, to become an affiliated theological college of the University of Saskatchewan. Under a coordinated curriculum the student would get a B.A. from the university and the equivalent of a seminary education. It would take him six years, assuming he had had the Canadian thirteenth grade.

Officials of the Regina school feel their plan pursues the path laid down by an early Alliance educator, George P. Pardington, who observed back in 1912: “It cannot be shown from the Scriptures that the highest mental discipline and the deepest spiritual culture are to be divorced.” Pardington said God was challenging the Alliance to produce a race of intellectual and spiritual leaders. “The pillar of cloud and fire … is moving in that direction.”

Death Of A Newsweekly

The Sunday Times, interdenominational newsweekly that six months ago became the successor to the 108-year-old Sunday School Times, closed up shop abruptly last month.

The reason, according to a statement in its final issue, dated May 27: “The income … was not sufficient to continue publication beyond this date.”

As the Times’s board prepared to meet to decide its fate, Tyndale House, a publisher in Wheaton, Illinois, announced it expected to purchase the paper and merge it with the Christian Times, a smaller weekly Sunday School take-home it has been publishing since January.

The death of the Sunday Times represents the failure of the first attempt to establish a Protestant newsweekly in more than two decades.

Tyndale House said it would continue to publish the Sunday Times’s lesson material as long as there is a demand, but the paper’s tabloid news format will be absorbed into the eight-page, 8½-by-11-inch format of the Christian Times.

Bible Boom

The American Bible Society’s final figures for 1966 show a remarkable 50 per cent jump in U. S. distribution, to a total of 39 million Bibles, Testaments, and Scripture portions.

In the overseas reports, a 42 per cent increase was shown in the combined totals for India, Indonesia, Viet Nam, and Taiwan. The biggest increase was in Ghana, 319 per cent, because the government placed the biggest order in Bible Society history—520,250 Bibles for use in public schools.

The report showed the ABS spent $6.8 million in 1966.

Mobilizing The Poor

A major first step toward national coordination of church-backed social action was taken last month when ten interfaith groups created a non-profit foundation to develop and implement programs for mobilizing the nation’s poor.

The foundation, the Inter-Religious Foundation for Community Organization,Charter members: American Baptist Home Missions Society, American Jewish Committee, Board of Missions and General Board of Christian Social Concerns of The Methodist Church, Catholic Committee for Community Organization, Executive Council of the Episcopal Church, Board of Homeland Ministries of the United Church of Christ, National Catholic Conference for Interracial Justice, Board of National Missions of the United Presbyterian Church U. S. A., and Foundation for Voluntary Service. was launched, according to its president, Rabbi Marc H. Tanenbaum, to “provide the poor with the help they need to develop control over their own destinies.”

With two staffers and contributions of nearly $100,000 for the coming year, the foundation is confronting two problems: undue duplication and proliferation of projects among its members, and inadequacy and ineffectiveness of federally sponsored development programs.

The foundation will survey programs currently being conducted by its members and coordinate them under a system of priorities.

It will solicit money from private sources and then channel it to individual members working on projects.

Formation of the foundation points to the growing emphasis religious activists place on direct action aimed at specific problems.

IFCA’s goals closely parallel those of the highly controversial organizer Saul Alinsky, who himself heads a foundation that previously was used by some groups now in IFCA to organize projects at the local level. Alinsky’s most recent activities involved work with a coalition of religious and civil-rights groups against the Kodak Company over jobs for Negroes in Rochester, New York. But the differences between Alinsky and IFCA are as striking as the similarities.

Alinsky’s Industrial Areas Foundation works under contract and becomes directly involved in organizing activities. IFCA, however, will only certify and fund projects that its members then carry out. Also, IFCA hopes to evolve a broad strategy for social action under which a wide range of religious organizations can be associated. Its leaders also hope it will be able to appeal for funds to a wider audience.

The response to the foundation has been encouraging. At least four more organizations are considering joining. Even before its formation, the foundation received requests for projects whose cost totals more than $750,000.

Have something to add about this? See something we missed? Share your feedback here.