Council says it has no standing to discipline speaker or make theology

by John Filiatreau, Presbyterian News Service

Louisville -- February 24, 2001 -- The General Assembly Council (GAC), responding to a controversy over a conference speaker's statements which some critics have alleged to be heretical, on Feb. 24 approved a document that affirms "the Lordship of Jesus Christ and our salvation through Christ," but also defends "the propriety of open dialogue at GAC-sponsored conferences."

The controversy developed after the Rev. Dirk Ficca of Chicago, a speaker at last summer's Presbyterian Peacemaking Conference in Orange, Calif., suggested that an omnipotent and merciful God might provide other avenues to salvation for Jews and Muslims and other non-believers in Christ. Ficca is the director of the Chicago-based Parliament of the World's Religions.

You can read Ficca's address for yourself.

Twenty-one sessions of the Presbyterian Church (USA) and one presbytery had called for the GAC to discipline Ficca or disavow the views he expressed.

The GAC unanimously approved a motion put forward by the Rev. Adelia Kelso of the Southern Louisiana Presbytery and Neal Presa of the San Francisco Presbytery.

GAC Chair Peter Pizor said before the discussion that the council lacks authority to take judicial action against Ficca or to "make theological statements on behalf of the church."

Pizor said he had discovered, in his travels around the church, that "women and men of good faith disagree on this matter."

Kelso observed in presenting her motion that "the presbytery has disciplinary jurisdiction over its minister members," and that "the GAC does not initiate and cannot alter the theological statements and beliefs of the PC(USA)."

Sara Lisherness, director of the Peacemaking Program, responded to a council member's question by outlining the processes by which church-wide conferences are planned and evaluated. She noted that the group's 1999 conference was about the person and ministry of Jesus, and said it was purposely scheduled that way to help Presbyterians become more grounded in their faith before engaging in inter-religious dialogue. She said that conference "was planned with the understanding that Jesus Christ is our Lord and Savior."

The wording of the motion was changed slightly at the suggestion of council members, but no one objected to its substance, mounted an effort to materially change its meaning, or opposed it on the floor.

Mike Gillespie, of the Cincinnati Presbytery, who chairs the council's Education and Leader Development subcommittee, said that in his opinion the Peacemaking Program's leaders do their work "with theological competence and spiritual integrity." Presa asked council members to refrain from "divisive assertions and vitriol" and to "rise above the fray" between church conservatives and liberals. After the vote, Paul Masquelier of the San Jose Presbytery expressed satisfaction that the council had "raised up this most important issue and affirmed the Lordship of Jesus Christ," and thanked his fellow members for their "careful consideration of this most important issue."

Parker Williamson of the Presbyterian Lay Committee and The Presbyterian Layman, who had called for disciplinary action against Ficca, distributed a statement after the vote in which he charged that the council had "violated its sacred trust and abandoned its fiduciary responsibility" and asserted "its determination to showcase ideologies that deny the Gospel," thereby demonstrating that it is "no longer fit to lead" the PC(USA).

The full text of the council's statement is available online. 

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