A Clash of Polity and Doctrine

The umbrella of the “Umbrella Church” did not exactly snap shut at last month’s 187th General Assembly of the United Presbyterian Church in the U. S. A. But it closed enough to leave many conservative ministers within that denomination standing in the rain. At convention’s end whether they would move back under the umbrella or seek shelter elsewhere remained an open question.

Unlike many former General Assemblies, this year’s gathering in Cincinnati, Ohio, of the highest ruling body of the 2.7-million-member denomination was a one-issue assembly. The issue was the “Kenyon Case,” a landmark decision by the denomination’s Permanent Judicial Commission (the UPC’s supreme court) that barred ordination to twenty-seven-year-old seminarian Walter Wynn Kenyon on grounds that he said he could not endorse for biblical reasons the denomination’s position in regard to the ordination of women ministers and elders (see March 28 issue, page 36).

Conservatives had hoped for a shift in policy in order to permit those who felt as Kenyon did to remain within the denomination. Instead, the assembly moved to bar the legitimacy of any mediating position. It also implied that not only new and aspiring ministers like Kenyon but also ministers, elders, and deacons of long standing who think like him are unwelcome.

The focus of debate fell on seven overtures (proposals) from a wide variety of presbyteries, all of which sought to provide some breathing space for dissenters from the official denominational position. But on recommendation from the Bills and Overtures Committee, commissioners voted either no action or non-concurrence on each one. There was not even significant debate. The only real discussion was on a substitute motion by clergyman Wayne Buchtel of the Santa Fe Presbytery that would have allowed ministers, ruling elders, and deacons already ordained to continue in their current roles with “equal rights” and move to other churches and presbyteries “without prejudice.” But this was soundly rejected. No more than twenty-five of the nearly 700 commissioners voted support.

The whole discussion took only thirty minutes, during which time Kenyon and other affected seminarians watched from the sidelines. Kenyon did not appear to be surprised. “It seemed inevitable,” he told a reporter. “I had hoped we would be able to get the constitution changed, but I really didn’t have any great hopes.” He added that he was disappointed that so momentous an issue was not more fully debated and that the final vote in support of change was so low.

Others were disappointed also, but for different reasons. In an interview shortly after the vote, Robert C. Lamar, the immediate past moderator of the assembly, supported the viewpoint of the Permanent Judicial Commission but said he wished the matter had not gone the judicial route. He said that the effect of the assembly action was to “strengthen and broaden” that decision, a course that he termed “unfortunate.” The new moderator, William F. Keesecker of Wichita, Kansas, said at a news conference before the debate that any move to make the Kenyon decision “retroactive for those who are already pastors would be going too far.”

Reacting to the assembly’s action, many predicted that the matter will go much farther than Keesecker or other denominational officials have anticipated.

The immediate fall-out may be the splitting or secession of a sizable number of churches and the peaceful withdrawal of even more pastors and seminarians. According to Pastor Frank Moser of the Bethel United Presbyterian Church of Monroeville, Pennsylvania, at least ten churches in the Pittsburgh area alone may either split or be refounded by their departing pastors. Another informed observer predicted the same would be true of the Baltimore and Albany areas and perhaps many more.

By the assembly’s end, several pastors had determined to call a church-wide meeting to discuss the options, including the possibility of simultaneous withdrawal. The meeting is currently scheduled for June 16 and 17 in the Pittsburgh area, where the Kenyon matter originated.

It is not known how many ministers or churches might attend the Pittsburgh meeting, but 1,700 of the 8,700 churches in the denomination do not have women elders.

On a broader front the assembly’s decision may also affect the proposed union between the UPC and the Presbyterian Church in the U. S. (Southern), which is now in the study stage. Contacted within hours after the debate, Chairman Andrew Jumper of the board of the Covenant Fellowship of Presbyterians, a powerful group of conservative Presbyterians within the southern church, said he intended to have his group write an open letter to the southern churches in which they would discuss the bearing of the Cincinnati decision upon the proposed merger. He said the decision was an offense to decency and might kill the union plan.

The irony of the decision, conservatives point out, is that it is now possible to remain in the northern church while denying the virgin birth, bodily resurrection, vicarious atonement, and personal return of Jesus Christ, and many other cardinal doctrines, but not if one believes that the Bible requires that women may not be ordained to the office of ruling or teaching elder.

Does that mean that the position of the church regarding women is more important than these other doctrines? Apparently, and some are not afraid to say so. Clergyman Jack Maxwell, who brought the case against Kenyon, said that a minister who does not believe in the virgin birth of Christ is not hurting anyone. But a minister who denies women the right to be ordained “would hurt and dispossess a lot of people.”

Kenyon had not denied the right of the church to ordain women nor their right to be ordained within it. He had only denied that this was right according to the Bible, and said that he would himself refuse to take part in such a ceremony.

It was ironic that it was at an earlier meeting of the General Assembly in Cincinnati, forty-five years ago, that the ordination of women as ruling elders became a part of the denomination’s constitution. At the last meeting in Cincinnati, thirty years ago, the assembly voted to oust New Jersey minister Carl McIntire and two other men from its ministry.

If the Kenyon matter was clear cut, as the brief debate and the vote against all mollifying overtures would indicate, the place of homosexual ministers within the church apparently was not. A proposal to recognize a gay caucus was debated at length, received strong platform support, and was voted down by a narrower margin than the Kenyon issue.

Under the leadership of clergyman David B. Sindt, a confessed homosexual, the Presbyterian Gay Caucus had sought recognition as an unofficial organization of Presbyterians related to the church through special provisions in Chapter 28 of the church’s constitution.* (The conservative Presbyterian Lay Committee and Presbyterians United for Biblical Concerns are Chapter 28 organizations.) The assembly engaged in two hours of intense, spirited debate before it voted against receiving the gay report, which would have had the effect of granting recognition.

The report of the Committee on Minutes and Reports, upon which the assembly acted, affirmed that “there is no condemnation for anyone in Christ Jesus,” but added that in its view “the Scripture as understood in our Reformed tradition does not condone their sexual orientation and life style.” Former moderator Lamar surprised many by arguing forcefully on behalf of the Gay Caucus. He argued that “we must continue to run the necessary risks of inclusiveness within our church family.”

Even though the commissioners declined to follow his advice, many conservatives felt that recognition of the Gay Caucus will be granted eventually, along with the right of homosexuals to be ordained within the denomination. Those who felt most strongly about the Kenyon matter noted with dismay that no one seemed concerned about the sexual orientation of Sindt and other confessed homosexuals, although their life style is clearly in opposition to biblical norms while Kenyon’s is not.

Overall, it was a bad week for conservatives. In other action the assembly affirmed the action of its General Assembly Mission Council in rejecting both the theology and recommendations of “A Declaration and Call,” the mission document drafted and signed by most of those who participated in a mission consultation called by Presbyterians United for Biblical Concerns last October. The document had articulated a conservative theology of mission and had called upon the mission council to “establish the overseas mission enterprise of the church as a separate agency,” responsible to the mission council in carrying out “the work of world evangelization.”

The assembly also called for “a vehicle through which the Presbyterian Lay Committee is obliged to dialogue with … persons or groups” it criticizes, and it instructed the mission council or a committee appointed by it to “counsel with” the lay groups about “the manner in which its publications and spokespersons deal with persons, organizations, and policies with which it disapproves.” The lay organization had come under unprecedented attack for recent articles criticizing denominational policy, particularly in fiscal matters. Its monthly, The Presbyterian Layman, has a circulation of 300,000.

For years the UPC has endorsed the concept of “mutuality” in mission but has been ignoring it in grants to a controversial organization known as ROSCA in Colombia, South America. Mutuality refers to an agreement not to intrude into the affairs of another country’s churches against the wishes of those churches. In two previous years the denomination’s Committee for the Empowerment of Minorities granted $75,000 to the non-church-related, Marxist-oriented ROSCA organization. This year the committee was proposing to give $90,000, in spite of the vigorous protests of the Presbyterian Church in Colombia. But the protests seemed to have gotten through to the commissioners, though not to many members of the committee; the commissioners voted to adopt a minority report which struck down the proposed grant.

On the same morning, worship had begun by the singing of the words, “We will work with each other, we will work side by side.… And they’ll know we are Christians by our love.” But as the assembly ended many pastors and elders returned home feeling unloved and unwanted. They face agonizing decisions of compromise, withdrawal, or defiance. Others, less affected, spoke openly of the “death wish” of the northern church, which, in spite of its severe budget cutbacks and divisions, persists in racing like a herd of lemmings into the sea.

EASY, RIDERS

“We’re simply moving with the times,” explained Bishop Maurice Wood of Norwich, England, as he sent forth thirty-six vicars on Hondas to spread the Word of God.

With only 500 clergy to cover 760 parishes in Norfolk County, Wood decided it was time to switch from horses and gaiters to Hondas and crash helmets.

The parsons are not “a rodeo of reverend gentlemen,” commented Wood. “They are seriously out to reach the people.”

Clergyman Geoffrey Burton, 55, stood on the seat of his bike as he roared off with the others. He had, he said, ridden a motorcycle before.

TAKE KERR

There’s been a change of menu for TV chef Graham Kerr, known to millions as “The Galloping Gourmet.” Kerr, 42, recently told a History of Eating class at Cornell Hotel School in Ithaca, New York, how his tastes have changed since he became a follower of Christ. He says his “Galloping Gourmet” series, taped several years ago and being shown currently as reruns, wrongly emphasized indulgence, imbibing, and off-color humor. He wants to get the reruns off TV.

Kerr and his wife Treena, who produced the show, were injured in a serious auto accident in California in 1971. In the aftermath, they dropped production of the show, and their family life deteriorated. To try to mend things they bought a yacht, bundled their three children aboard, and sailed the world for two years in a vain search for happiness. In March, 1974, the family settled in Easton, Maryland. Financial disasters wiped out almost everything they had, and there were more fights.

But suddenly, Treena changed. No more arguments. And she was noticeably happy and at peace within. Only later did Kerr discover that Ruth Turner, the family’s 34-year-old black domestic worker, a happy-eyed Pentecostal, had been counseling Treena and had quietly led her to Christ. She was secretly baptized in December.

Meanwhile, Kerr’s secretary, Michelle Dubois—a self-described “backslidden Christian”—had been led back to the faith by Patricia Rich, a temporary food assistant Kerr had hired from California.

Not knowing that everybody around him was praying for him, Kerr grew increasingly restless and turned to prayer himself as a way out. Finally, in a hotel room in Canada on March 13, he accepted Christ as Saviour.

Things are better now, says Kerr, who was baptized on April 13. He and his family are members of a Church of the Brethren congregation in Easton whose pastor is into the charismatic movement (Kerr says he received the gift of tongues on Easter Sunday). His new, lower-keyed TV series—“Take Kerr”—is doing well, and he has plans for a cookbook in which he will include some food for thought about faith in Christ.

EDWARD E. PLOWMAN

Books, Yes; Remedial Reading, No

The U. S. Supreme Court upheld a Pennsylvania law providing the loan of textbooks to students in parochial and other private schools, but it struck down as unconstitutional the lending of instructional materials and equipment. The court also banned the provision of such auxiliary services by the state to private school children as counseling, testing, and remedial classes.

In another action, the high court decided not to hear after all a Tennessee case involving public tuition grants to students enrolled in the state’s colleges and universities, including church-related ones. The case was returned to a lower federal court for reconsideration because an amendment was added to the grant plan specifying that the schools must use such funds “solely for secular purposes.”

Printed Matter

Annual awards were handed out at the annual meetings of the three major religious press associations last month.

Campus Life, a 160,000-circulation monthly published by Youth for Christ International, was named grand prize winner in the “Awards of Excellence” competition at the twenty-seventh annual convention of the Evangelical Press Association in suburban Chicago. CHRISTIANITY TODAY was a close second, placing just ahead of 30,000-circulation His, the Inter-Varsity Christian Fellowship monthly.

Divisional winners included Success (Baptist Publications), The Standard (Baptist General Conference), CHRISTIANITY TODAY,Cable (Overseas Crusades), Good News (independent United Methodist), Campus Life, and Youth Illustrated (Scripture Press).

At the Associated Church Press meeting in New York, the top divisional awards went to A.D. (United Church of Christ and United Presbyterian Church), Mennonite Reporter, The Virginia Churchman (Episcopal), World Encounter (Lutheran Church in America), Journal of Current Social Issues (United Church of Christ), and Youth (United Church of Christ).

The Catholic Press Association, also meeting in New York, gave its top newspaper award to the National Catholic Reporter, an independent weekly published in Kansas City, Missouri. St. Anthony Messenger and U.S. Catholic won the most first-place awards among magazines.

Dozens of other winners in various categories were announced at the three meetings.

Sneak Preview

More than 100,000 advance tickets—believed to be a record for any movie—were sold for sneak previews of The Hiding Place in the Minneapolis area last month. Unlike other films released by the Billy Graham organization, no counseling was to be done in theaters following performances. Follow-up was to be done through literature and reply cards.

RELOCATING THE REFUGEES

Among the Vietnamese who fled their country just prior to the Communist takeover were hundreds of evangelical Christians. They left behind some 400 churches in South Viet Nam and some 120,000 other believers.

Spokesmen for the Christian and Missionary Alliance, which has taken on the responsibility of sponsoring the Christian refugees, say they may number as many as 1,000.

The CMA was until recent years the only American mission board with workers in Viet Nam. Its missionary efforts resulted in the establishment of the Evangelical Church of Viet Nam.

CMA president Nathan Bailey told a press conference held in connection with his denomination’s annual General Council in Cleveland that a drive has begun to raise $500,000 to assist in the resettlement of the refugees and in the relocation of more than 100 of its missionaries who had been serving in Viet Nam. Churches and individual members are being asked to locate homes for the refugees and help them find jobs and learn English. A number of other church bodies and para-church groups are also offering extensive aid to refugees.

Among the first CMA churches to offer to accommodate the Vietnamese was the Cathedral at the Crossroads in Castro Valley, California. The church has long been known for its ministry to servicemen. Its extensive facilities include quarters that will be used to care for refugees for three or four weeks until homes can be found for them.

The CMA refugees were being processed at the centers set up in California, Florida, and Arkansas. Some were expected to proceed to the center established last month near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, the state in which CMA churches are most numerous.

One of the dozen or so Vietnamese pastors who fled was the Protestant patriarch, 81-year-old Le Van Thai, president emeritus of the Evangelical Church. His successor, Doan Van Mieng, chose to stay in Viet Nam.

The only one of the refugees who was able to attend the council meeting in Cleveland was Le Hoang Phu, who was the dean of an evangelical Bible school in Nha Trang. Phu speaks English well, having been educated in the United States. He attended Nyack and Wheaton Colleges and earned a doctorate from New York University.

Phu said that his fellow Vietnamese Christians in the refugee camps were engaged in evangelistic work, and that a number of conversions were being reported.

Most of the refugees are said to be people who were originally from the north. They were fleeing Communism for the second time. Very few of the tribespeople sought evacuation.

Tom Stebbins, the last CMA missionary to leave Saigon, said he tried to get helicopters to go to the CMA-operated International Protestant Church there, inasmuch as some 200 persons had assembled in the building in hopes of being picked up. Stebbins was unsuccessful, and was himself forced to climb a wall to reach a helicopter.

The CMA has also had missionary work in Laos, Cambodia, and Thailand. Its missionary force in Laos, which had numbered more than a dozen, was ordered to leave in mid-May.

DAVID KUCHARSKY

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