Call for "leaner constitution"

"A leaner constitution"

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:

	The Book of Order, which through most of the church's history has been "a very slim document of essential principles (not unlike the U.S. Constitution)," has become a voluminous "manual made for a regulatory agency model of church life."
	The church has "a growing group of churches in open defiance of our Constitution."
	"We have congregations and groups seeking to uphold or to change our Constitution by means never envisioned in our Form of Government: withholding funds, threatening to withdraw, demanding adherence to specific tenets not outlined in our Constitution."
	"We have movements in many of our presbyteries to circumvent the provisions of our Form of Government (especially chapter 14) as they work with new immigrant congregations or manage the succession of pastors."

He observed, "Our Constitution is not designed to handle these kinds of behavior."

As a solution, Kirkpatrick suggested the maintenance of "a culture of respect … for our Constitution in its fullness," based on "the glue that holds us together as Presbyterians" - Jesus Christ. "This glue," he said, "finds expression in the body of Christ through a common and voluntary commitment among all the church's officers to be governed by the church's polity and abide by its discipline."

To be part of this culture of respect, he said, Presbyterians must:

	Uphold Jesus Christ as Lord, and affirm the essential tenets of the Reformed faith;
	Abide by the provisions of the Constitution, "even if seeking to change them";
	"Seek correction first through pastoral approaches and conciliation and mediation";
	Honor constitutional processes for seeking change and for bringing about discipline or remediation.

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.