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A Witherspoon member offers calm, clear
thoughts on the Confessing Church movement
[7-5-01]
My reaction to the so-called Confessing Church
"Movement" is one of caution.
It has been initiated by a small group of folks who
are unable to accept the entire Book of Confessions - and in particular
the Confession of 1967 - as "normative" for a diverse church
within the Reformed tradition. Their claim is that there are three and
only three particular affirmations - somewhat intellectually succinct -
which sum up and enclose the central beliefs of orthodox Presbyterian
Christians.
Although the claim is that these statements are
"confessional" on their face (because they claim to be that),
that claim is not necessarily correct. They are value-based assertions
only. They do not represent in any complete way the full range of the
confessional literature to which the Presbyterian Church subscribes.
The reduction of our wide range of confessions to
these three assertions is not unlike the effort in the 1920's to reduce
the entire Christian apologia to five so-called
"fundamentals." While it is the nature of
"confessions" to be enlarged, augmented, and re-written, it is
not in their nature to be condensed, reduced, abridged or
compacted, as the so-called confessing church "movement"
claims to be about.
The old hymn, "There's a Wideness in God's
Mercy" will have to be excised from our hymnals if the confessing
church movement folks expect all Presbyterians to assent to their
reductionist proposal. I say: caution, friends. The issue, as always, is
that of who has the power to declare "right belief," and with
that power, to then define apostasy, heresy, and initiate the next
inquisition.
If the Presbyterian Layman can
"re-imagine" the whole of the Book of Confessions, then the
rest of us can certainly re-imagine a God big enough to give God's Son
to all humankind, since "He Has the Whole World in His Hands."
(excuse the sexist title).
- Alan Pickering |
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Some blogs worth visiting |
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PVJ's
Facebook page
Mitch Trigger, PVJ's
Secretary/Communicator, has created a Facebook page where
Witherspoon members and others can gather to exchange news and
views. Mitch and a few others have posted bits of news, both
personal and organizational. But there’s room for more!
You can post your own news and views,
or initiate a conversation about a topic of interest to you. |
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Voices of Sophia blog
Heather Reichgott, who has created
this new blog for Voices of Sophia, introduces it:
After fifteen years of scholarship
and activism, Voices of Sophia presents a blog. Here, we present the
voices of feminist theologians of all stripes: scholars, clergy,
students, exiles, missionaries, workers, thinkers, artists, lovers
and devotees, from many parts of the world, all children of the God
in whose image women are made. .... This blog seeks to glorify God
through prayer, work, art, and intellectual reflection. Through
articles and ensuing discussion we hope to become an active and
thoughtful community. |
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John Harris’ Summit to
Shore blogspot
Theological and philosophical
reflections on everything between summit to shore, including
kayaking, climbing, religion, spirituality, philosophy, theology,
politics, culture, travel, The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), New
York City and the Queens neighborhood of Ridgewood by a progressive
New York City Presbyterian Pastor. John is a former member of the
Witherspoon board, and is designated pastor of North Presbyterian
Church in Flushing, NY. |
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John Shuck’s Shuck and Jive
A Presbyterian minister, currently
serving as pastor of First Presbyterian Church of Elizabethton,
Tenn., blogs about spirituality, culture, religion (both organized
and disorganized), life, evolution, literature, Jesus, and
lightening up. |
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Got more blogs to recommend?
Please
send a note, and we'll see what we can do! |
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