The Twists And Turns Of Pursuing A Pastoral Call

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I am a ruling elder, not a minister of word and sacrament, so I don’t have any of my own stories of pursuing a pastoral call as the candidate.  Having served on my presbytery’s committee on ministry, and been the COM liaison to several pastor nominating committees, I have stories from the other side.  But with the increase in blogging there are numerous first-hand accounts of candidacy and seeking a call.

Adam Copland is regularly writing about his experience in seminary and his progress towards a call and ordination in the PC(USA).  He has a monthly “Seminary Reflections” piece on Presbyterian Bloggers (Adam’s contributions from October, November, and December).  He usually also posts these on his own blog, A Wee Blether.  Beyond the Seminary Reflections series he has other posts on his blog regarding the process and situation, including a recent post about “The huge problem of the clergy shortage that doesn’t exist.”  In summary the PC(USA) has roughly twice as many clergy as churches and while the number of churches is declining, the number of clergy is stable.  For churches-seeking-clergy and clergy-seeking-churches, it is not really a pure supply/demand problem, but a distribution, affordability, and experience mis-match.  And don’t just read the article, keep reading the comments.

Another blogger who is just finishing seminary and has been keeping us updated on his journey is Benjamin Glaser who writes the blog Backwoods Presbyterian.  While his blog is usually very theologically oriented, there are good insights into his journey as a student at Pittsburgh Theological Seminary and Reformed Presbyterian Theological Seminary, also in Pittsburgh.  He is under care of the Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church.

I also enjoyed the account by “Danny” of her time as a probationer in the Church of Scotland and the task of “hunting a charge” in her blog “Rumors of Angels?”  There are more great stories in that blog than for any other candidate/inquirer/probationer I can think of.  One that I have bookmarked, and can totally see happening after my time on COM, is her story about doing a neutral pulpit at a church for one pastor search committee, and being a “small world,” another search committee that was considering her out caught word of it and showed up as well.  I can tell you a bunch of similar stories about confidentiality not being kept and news getting back to home churches and presbyteries before the candidate.  As Danny puts it:

I mentioned the difficulties with confidentiality previously … about
being discussed on the golf course… in shops… and via the ‘old
boy’s’ network. Well add the dentist to that list!

The church
where I was preaching (for reasons of confidentiality) did not know
until this morning that I would be preaching instead of their regular
minister, but one of their members overheard all the details of what
was going down last Tuesday while in the dentist’s waiting room… hey
ho! I felt quite sorry for the interim moderator who was doing it all
‘by the book’ and trying her best to look after the interests of ‘her’
nominating committee… meanwhile this second committee were discussing
me all over town.

Is this a good thing or a bad thing? Well…
if nothing else you have to laugh… and so we did! For some reason the
thought of my being discussed in the dentist seems hilarious… surreal
even… when I go to the dentist I am too worried about potential pain
and discomfort… injections, drills and fillings… to talk to anyone.

While Danny has been successful, there are others who are not, and “Cavman” over at Cavman Considers has been between pastorates for a while and been giving us discrete glimpses of his search.  In a recent post he tabulates the churches that have rejected his application but are still without a pastor.  He concludes:

So, 5 churches think it’s better to not have a pastor than to have me
(and the other 50 applicants) as their pastor.  Interesting.

[With no judgment on Cavman’s situation, let me say that filling a pastoral position is not like filling a corporate position, it is a “God Thing,” a discernment process where both the search committee and the candidates are trying to sense the will of God and who He is calling to that position.  I can’t speak for any of Cavman’s rejections, but I have my own stories (from the other side) that I can and will share another time, about where I am certain God was, and was not, calling individuals to particular positions.]

And finally, if you think your candidates’ committee or denomination has unusual requirements, here is one that would keep a few pastors I know out of the pastorate.  I leave you with this:  A news item about the Mizoram Presbyterian Church‘s highest governing body, the Mizoram Synod.  In the meeting this week they have passed a requirement that:

“From now on someone who is tattooed will not be allowed to be ordained
as Probationary Pastors (of Mizoram Presbyterian Church).”

[For background, the Mizoram Presbyterian Church Synod is a constitutate member of the Presbyterian Church of India General Assembly.  Mizoram State is in the far northeast corner of India and through missionary work in the late 19th Century the population is predominantly Christian and the Presbyterian Church has a major influence.  Please keep praying for the violence in other parts of India where the Christians are a minority.]

Passings — Avery Dulles S.J.

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Yesterday Avery Dulles, Catholic Priest and theologian at Fordham University, passed to his eternal rest at the age of 90.  There have been numerous articles about him, but for a lot of information about his life I recommend the New York Times article.  There is also a press release from Fordham.

Father Dulles’ family heritage was in public service and Presbyterianism.  His father was John Foster Dulles, Secretary of State in the Eisenhower administration.  His grandfather was the Rev. Dr. Allen Macy Dulles, a Presbyterian minister and theologian and professor at Auburn Theological Seminary.   (Allen Macy Dulles’ book The True Church — A Study, published in 1907, is still listed by booksellers.  It is interesting that the work by Avery Dulles that is cited as his “best know work” , Models of the Church, seems to have a similar theme.)  But by the time Avery entered college at Harvard he had left organized religion and was agnostic.  In college he rediscovered religion, or God found him, depending on how you look at it.  In his rebirth of spirituality he joined the Roman church, eventually joining the Society of Jesus (the Jesuits) and being ordained as a priest.  His professional life was dominated by academic work and he became the first American theologian, rather than a bishop or archbishop, to be elevated to the status of cardinal.  (It was late in life in 2001 at the age of 82 that Dulles became a cardinal, a bit of an “honorary status” since the cutoff for participation in the College of Cardinals for pontifical voting is 80.)

I did not know a lot about Fr. Dulles before his death, but in reading through the articles two aspects of his life resonate with me as having a Presbyterian or Reformed nature, even though he left the Presbyterian branch.  The first was his dedication to vocation.  In his life and work he exhibited his dedication to the academic calling and was never elevated above the ordinary priesthood because that was not his calling.  This calling was recognized by Pope Benedict XVI this past spring in his visit to New York when in a special private audience requested by the pope, Benedict addressed Dulles as “Herr Professor” rather than “Your Eminence” (or the Latin equivalence of that).  Fr. Dulles knew his calling and lived into it.

The other part of his life that struck me was his role as an interpreter of tradition in a new age.  The official Vatican News Service article was headlined “Creativity in Fidelity.”  The New York Times article talks about this work:

His task as a theologian, the Cardinal often said, was to honor
diversity and dissent but ultimately to articulate the traditions of
the church and to preserve Catholic unity.

and

His tenure coincided with broad shifts in theological ideas as well
as sweeping changes brought on by the Second Vatican Council in the
1960s. These provided new understandings of how the church, after
centuries of isolation from modern thought and even hostility to it,
should relate to other faiths and to religious liberty in an age when
the church was gaining millions of new followers in diverse cultures.

Cardinal Dulles devoted much of his scholarship to interpretations of
the Vatican Council’s changes, which he said had been mistaken by some
theologians as a license to push in democratic directions. The church,
he counseled, should guard its sacred teachings against secularism and
modernization.

“Christianity,” he said in a 1994 speech, “would
dissolve itself if it allowed its revealed content, handed down in
tradition, to be replaced by contemporary theories.”

It struck me that he exhibited a “freedom of conscience” while promoting the “peace, unity, and purity” of the church.

I leave you with Cardinal Dulles’ closing lines (quoted here) from his Farewell Lecture this past summer, composed by him but read for him:

Suffering and diminishment are not the greatest of evils but are normal
ingredients in life, especially in old age. They are to be accepted as
elements of a full human existence. Well into my ninetieth year I have
been able to work productively. As I become increasingly paralyzed and
unable to speak, I can identify with the many paralytics and mute
persons in the Gospels, grateful for the loving and skillful care I
receive and for the hope of everlasting life in Christ. If the Lord now
calls me to a period of weakness, I know well that his power can be
made perfect in infirmity. “Blessed be the name of the Lord.”

The 400th Anniversary of the Birth Of John Milton

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Another quick note for today…

I could not let the 400th anniversary of the birth of writer and poet John Milton earlier this week go by unrecognized.  While I have generally had little contact with Milton in the past, it is interesting that over the summer I began reading Paradise Lost, and this fall my son, for a literature class, had to read Paradise Regained.  Paradise Regained is significantly shorter than Paradise Lost. (There is probably a theological commentary in there somewhere about the sovereignty of God and how much the adversary and humans did to try to mess things up but how God, just through Jesus Christ, was able to set things right again.)

Anyway, if you want some interesting reading on John Milton and his impact I can recommend:

An interview about Milton with Milton scholar Leland Ryken from Wheaton.  He points out that Paradise Lost is of such an epic style of epic poetry that scholars have coined the label “the Miltonic style.”

And one other — Ligonier Ministries has a post about the significance of Paradise Lost and their discussing the topic in the December issue of their publication Table Talk.

And I have some motivation to pick up the book and continue reading over the Christmas vacation.

Technology has made the last minute even later

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My posts to this blog have been a bit further apart this fall since I have been putting extra time into teaching.  And being a typical college professor, I’m not immune from waiting until the last minute on things.  Yesterday was the final exam for my class.  Exam was at 11:30 a.m.  I did a review of the test when I got into the office, started sending the one color figure to the color printer, and caught up on a bit of reading knowing that I had plenty of time to copy off the bulk of the exam.  What I did not count on was one of the department’s copiers being out of service.  When I started coping and discovered this at least I had just enough time to get it copied, assembled, and over to the exam room.  Barely.  Because of my taking technology for granted I was a bit rushed at the end, to say the least.

The effect of depending on technology and waiting until the last minute was even more pronounced today.  Next week is the biggest professional meeting of the year in my field.  I’m not going but part of my job is to help others get ready by helping them print out their poster presentations on a large format printer.  This used to be done as individual 8 1/2 x 11 pages with your text and figures tacked up on a bulletin board.  Now with large format printers you put it all on one 4′ x 6′  poster.  It makes setup and take down a lot easier at the meeting.

Well, because of the high percentage of the faculty and students in the department that go to the meeting we set up a schedule to use the printer.  When the schedule gets posted the latest times on Friday afternoon are the first ones to get claimed.  But there is now an alternative that allows you to put off the work even longer…  There is now a printing service at the meeting so if you have the cash you can wait even longer and get your poster printed just minutes before your session begins.  Not much more last minute than that.  I have had two other faculty members tell me today that they are not ready yet and someone else can have their printer times because they will print it at the meeting.

Coming in the middle of the Advent season I have thought of at least a dozen ways this could be a parable for our spiritual lives.  I’ll leave it as an exercise for the reader to figure some of these out for themselves.

But the other thing that this got me thinking about is technology in the church and how it has contributed to “instantaneous polity.”  For example, creating a Facebook group for your church — do you just do it, or run it by the session first.  Streaming or podcasting sermons — do you just do it, or is there some type of quality or content review to be sure it is appropriate for a world-wide audience.  Those of us that blog GA — I did the live blogging thing but afterwords I was pondering some questions of “what really did happen there?” because at the time my fingers were trying to keep up with the speaker’s comments and I was not always processing and analyzing as I went along.  And what about committee reports — with e-mail and word processors we are frequently putting the reports off to the last minute and reviewing and submitting them right before the meeting, because we can.

I have not been a big one for the “technology sabbath,” if for no other reason than Sunday afternoons are sometimes one of the few “empty” spots in my calendar, so I fill it up.  But my concern was raised recently when a medical study showed that children that grow up playing video games develop different neural pathways in their brains than those of us who did not grow up with video games.  Sorry, I have not found a link to that study yet, but I will point out that this week another study came out showing that video games help seniors keep their minds sharp.  Positives and negatives to any technology.

Anyway, some musings on the current trends in human response to technology.  I have made a commitment to continue the low level of blogging for the rest of December so that I can get some other reading done, spend time with family and not just in the same room as them, and think a bit about things.  See you next time.

Passings — Jane Parker Huber

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It is said “you can’t judge a book by its cover,” but I find that a glance at the indexes of a hymnal give a rapid assessment of the nature and tone of the book.  In particular, I look at the most frequently included authors and translators in the volume.

It should come as no surprise that the longest list of entries in the index of a Methodist hymnal is for the Wesley brothers, up to one-tenth of the hymns even for a current hymnal.  And while a Lutheran hymnal also has a significant contribution from the good Dr. Martin, as well as other German writers, frequently the single greatest source is Catherine Winkworth, a prolific translator of Western European hymns into English.  Likewise, an Anglican hymnal like Hymns Ancient and Modern will often be dominated by translations of classic Greek and Latin hymns by John M. Neale (such as O Come, O Come, Emmanuel).  And if you are looking at an independently published non-denominational hymnal, don’t be surprised if it comes from the revival tradition and has Fanny Crosby as its single largest source.

It is probably no surprise that in the classic 1933 Presbyterian Hymnal the single largest source is Isaac Watts, who alone is responsible for about 4% of the hymns in the book. 

All this introduction to explain why I find it significant that in the current Presbyterian Hymnal Jane Parker Huber is in the top ten individual writers of hymns in the volume with ten, just slightly behind the numbers from Issac Watts and Charles Wesley.  The recognition is mutual — her work helps define the denomination’s worship and the church recognizes her gifts and talents to God’s glory and praise.

Jane went to be with the Lord on November 15, but leaves the church with both an advocacy and literary legacy.

I will not repeat the various tributes to her — for those check out articles from the Presbyterian News Service and the Witherspoon Society.  There is also an earlier article when she was honored in 2002 for her work in the Women’s Ministries program.  She would fit the description of being a “Presbyterian of Presbyterians,” having been born to missionary parents, served the church for many years along side her husband Bill, and in her own work with Women’s Ministries, Presbyterian Women and her hymn writing.  And it is significant that her work was with the Women’s Ministries and the song writing was something that flowed out of that, originally writing many of the songs for Presbyterian Women events.

While time will be the judge of which of her hymns is the most enduring, my choice is “Called as Partners in Christ’s Service.”  This is a hymn frequently used across denominational lines that has had its first line used as the title of a book on PC(USA) missions.  I last used it as the concluding hymn of the closing worship service for our Synod Assembly meeting just over a month ago.  It is a great “sending” hymn.  But however her musical work is remembered we can give thanks for a life lived in service to God through service to the church.

[Postscript:  Various sources, including the Witherspoon article above, cite Jane with eleven hymns in the Presbyterian Hymnal.  In the index of my copy I count ten so I can’t account for the discrepancy.  In the end it really does not matter because the beauty and solid writing of her hymns make her works significant whatever the final count.]

A Different Sort Of Lord’s Day In Ghana

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This coming Sunday, December 7, has presented a bit of a challenge for churches in Ghana, including the Presbyterian Church of Ghana and the Evangelical Presbyterian Church, Ghana.  This Sunday Ghana will hold national elections and the churches are encouraging their members to be responsible Christians in both the spiritual and the civil spheres.  In addition to being sure that members can participate in both worship and voting, the situation is complicated in many communities because the churches are used as polling places.  The circumstances have led the denominations to consider the alternatives of moving worship to Saturday, or doing it earlier or later on Sunday.

It appears that PCG is discouraging the Saturday alternative, as an article from the Accra Daily Mail suggests.  In this case, the early alternative is encouraged, and by early they mean at least an hour before the 7:00 a.m. opening of the polls.  This information is echoed in an article on GhanaDot.com.

On the other hand, based on the Ghana Elections 2008 blog, the national recommendation for the Evangelical Presbyterian Church, Ghana, is to hold worship on Saturday evening before the elections.

Which ever alternative churches take, it is clear that they are also encouraging their members to vote responsibly and to pray for the elections.  The GhanaDot.com closes with the sentiment from the Moderator of the PCG General Assembly:

Rt. Rev.
Dr.
Frimpong-Manso
urged
Christians
to
continue
to pray
for
peaceful,
fair and
transparent
election.

A Look At Some Details In the PC(USA) Membership Changes

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I have long had a curiosity about some of the nuances of the changes in the membership of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.).  I mentioned this in my analysis last June when the 2007 statistics were released and again in a discussion I had in the comments section of a recent post.

The questions is:  How much of the PC(USA) membership decline can be attributed to churches departing to other denominations versus how much is individual departures?

To attack this question I used as my basis for churches departing two complimentary lists.  The first is the one published by the Layman Online.  The second comes from the PresbyLaw site.  The Layman List is a bit more up-to-date than the PresbyLaw list.  The PresbyLaw list goes back much further, further than I wanted to check, and has the events broken out and linked in a more detailed fashion.  But in major details there are no significant details that differ between the two lists.  The information on these lists was checked against the PC(USA) Congregational Directory.  I checked a few other web sites and articles to try to refine some of the information.  And in my working with the numbers below I did not include membership changes due to deaths —  membership transfers to the Church Triumphant are an acceptable loss.  However, the “net” membership changes do have the deaths included.

First, the results for 2006 and 2007 as best as I could piece them together.  While it is tempting to reproduce my research into another table in this blog I’m not sure my time or your patience justifies it.  So what is listed are summary statistics.

2006
According to the official statistics, from 2005 to 2006 there was a net loss of 56 churches.  Within the loss in churches there were 56 dissolved and 6 dismissed.

From the Layman and PresbyLaw lists there were 7 churches that left the denomination.  While these were usually marked as “dismissed,” from looking at the individual statistics it is often not clear or consistent how the members were lost so I lump the two together throughout.

So, with 62 churches gone, of those 7 “departing” for other denominations, 11% of the church loss can be accounted for in departures of this nature.  That means that 89% are churches dissolved for other reasons.  Around my area it is declining membership.

Between 2005 and 2006 the net loss in membership was 46,542.  In the losses column there were 27,900 certificate losses, that is transfer requests to other denominations, and 102,125 “other” losses.  The total of these two is 130,025.

Based upon the seven churches listed as departing their total membership was 901, or 0.7% of the total and 1.9% of the net.

To this we can add the churches on the list which I will call “distressed.”  I did not research the circumstances of each one, but some of these show a year-after-year decline and some have a one-time decline when the church was declared in schism, a group left the church and the PC(USA) could identify a “continuing” church.  There appear to be two of these on the list for a total loss of 261 members.

So, the total loss in 2006, as best as I can reconstruct, from “denominational concern,” is 1126 members.

2007
From 2006 to 2007 the net loss of churches was 83 on the official rolls.  In the loss column there were 71 dissolved and 12 dismissed for the total of 83.

From the lists there were 16 fewer churches so in 2007 19% appear to be denominationally related.

Total denominational membership dropped by 57,572.  In the loss column 30,329 were certificate losses and 102,714 were “other” losses for a total of 133,034, or 3018 higher than in 2006.

From the 16 departing churches there are some significantly higher memberships than in 2006 with the total being 6832 or an average of 427 per church.  The average church size, according to the PC(USA) statistics, is 205 members, so these include larger than average churches, the largest being 1900.

There are also nine “split” churches in the list that have listed a loss of 965 members between transfers and other.  That brings the total losses on these lists to 7797 or 5.9% of the PC(USA) total for transfers and losses and 13.5% of the denominational net.

Discussion and Conclusions
Well, the first conclusion seems to be that the vast majority of people who leave the PC(USA) are not leaving with a particular church or splinter group but are just leaving as individual families.  Based on these lists, even a major flaw in my methodology would not increase the numbers dramatically relative to the totals.

So this seems to bring good news and bad news.  The good news is that the defections to other denominations are not a major outflow.  The bad news is that there are much larger issues to consider in the loss of membership.

One interesting finding is the relatively close correlation between the
official number of churches dismissed and the number on the lists. 
While some of the departing congregations were dissolved it is good to
know that a majority were dismissed.

Two interesting items about the PC(USA) methodology did jump out at me.  The first is that as far as the membership numbers are concerned a church and its members have not left until the PC(USA) says that it has left.  While a church may vote to leave the presbytery or civil legal process may hold up their “recognized” departure for months to years.  This means that churches appear in both the PC(USA) membership directory and the Evangelical Presbyterian Church directory simultaneously.  For example: First Presbyterian Church, Thibodaux, LA — PC(USA) and EPC.

The second is that reporting of membership statistics for churches in schism is sometimes, shall we say, questionable.  While some churches were clearly showing the sudden drop in membership from those that moved on with the departing group, in other cases the membership is being kept level, sometimes just filling in the static number with no gains or losses.  Examples:  Londonderry, NH and First PC Torrance, CA.

It would be expected that in both of these cases the statistics would get caught up at some time in the future.

One area these do not address, and I do not presently have the time to pursue, is the concentration in specific presbyteries.  There are some concentrations, such as Pittsburgh, Heartland, and Sacramento Presbyteries, so departures will have more impact on a local level.

A final observation:  In several communities where churches departed and the vote was not overwhelming I looked at the membership statistics for near-by PC(USA) churches.  In no case could I find any membership increase in a local church corresponding to the departure of the other church.  If not all the members went with the departing group they did not transfer to local PC(USA) churches.

This is not a problem with record keeping at Louisville, but a problem at the local level where the membership reports come from.  On the one hand it makes me wonder how far off some of the other numbers are.  But I am also thankful for numbers at all since the PC(USA) is one of the few Presbyterian branches there has generally reliable reporting that they make available to the general public.

Commentary
Why do we care about this?  Personally it has been a curiosity to me and I did this to see how large of an affect this is on the PC(USA) membership statistics.  While it is noticeable it is not significant.

In a larger sense we care because the loss of members is not a good thing.  If this tide can be stemmed it will not in itself stop the denominations slide, but it will be a step in that direction.

But maybe the thing I personally find troubling is how small a contributing factor this really is.  How much time, money, energy, polity, and concern has been poured into 6% of the lost membership.  In so many conversations this has been the focus.  What if we took the same energy for the other 94% who just leave the church?  Could we get a better return on our efforts there?

I’ll keep playing with these numbers and it will be interesting to see if the trend continues to accelerate.  It probably will because I stopped my 2008 list after the first six months and I already had 12 churches on the list.  And if you see a flaw in my methodology please let me know where I slipped up.

Being Synod-cal

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Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses,
let us also lay aside every weight and the sin that clings so closely,
and let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us,
looking to Jesus the pioneer and perfecter of our faith [Heb. 12:1,2a]

Or

“What a long, strange trip it’s been”

I
started this post just over two years ago and since that time have
returned to it and revised it three other times, not counting this final one.  Such is my faith journey and evolving
thinking on the place of synods in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). 
Well, my thinking is still not complete or fixed, but I figured that I
was at a milepost that probably needed an annotation.  So here it
goes…

Over a decade ago I had my first introduction to the
Synod of Southern California and Hawaii as a commissioner to its annual
Assembly.  At the time the Synod was working through some financial
challenges, especially with its camps and conferences program.  At that
meeting the Assembly concurred with the recommendation to sell a
conference center many considered the “crown jewel.”  (Think property
near Malibu.)  While that was clearly not the beginning of the decline,
since the program was becoming tight on cash and the objective was to raise some, in the Synod it is still
remembered as a major mile-marker in the history of the organization’s
slide.

Fast-forward to 2006 and I’m back at Assembly as a
commissioner.  The Synod is in the midst of a transition process and
there are concerns among many commissioners about the slow pace and nature
of the transition.  The office building is probably going to be put on
the market.  Mission giving has declined and per capita monies are dropping. 
The Synod is under stress and it is the view of many, correctly or
incorrectly, that the transition is simply reorganizing to do things
the way they have always been done.  (I stepped into this in progress
so do not personally have a good feel for what was actually happening in that transition work
but a couple of people I trust highly were not optimistic about the progress and direction.)  At the Assembly a substitute motion was adopted that
would hand the transition back to more direct input and control of the presbyteries for a series of
consultations and visioning meetings.  As the Moderator of my
Presbytery I was one of those to participate in the consultations.  All
of this is the background that got me thinking about the place and
future of synods as middle governing bodies of the PC(USA).  And based upon my past experience and the information I had received from others I entered the process with more than a little cynicism about the value of synods.

There are currently sixteen synods in the PC(USA) and as
many of you are probably aware, the place of synods in the denomination is
not just something that I am thinking about but is a topic of
discussion for the PC(USA) as a whole.  Over the last few years there
has been national activity to study, and possibly do away with synods. There was an overture to the 218th General Assembly.  Part of the national funding system for synod support will change, if not disappear.  And the Synod of the Southwest and two of its
presbyteries had serious issues resulting in a national consultation
in February 2007 about the nature and financial viability of the present Middle Governing
Body system.

It is interesting that in the midst of this there
are groups. principally Presbyterians for Renewal, that are looking at
a model for coexistence in the PC(USA) that would have like-minded groups move into a “Seventeenth Synod” that is national and parallel to
the present structure.  (Analysis by Pastor Lance at Full Court Presby)

On the one hand, there are several
strikes against synods in their traditional sense.  They are part of
the earliest structure of the American Presbyterian church, established
before the General Assembly.  But with the advent of faster
transportation and communications the need to have a regional governing
body to improve interaction and connectionalism has disappeared. 
Considering the number of observers that now attend General Assembly a
rough calculation would suggest that more people attend GA than all the
Synod Assemblies combined.  With the decrease in general mission giving
it seems that Synods are being squeezed out between the presbyteries’
and the national budgets.  In light of the lack of resources and
program, do synods still serve a purpose?

In thinking through
this question, working with the consultations, and closely watching our
Synod in operation, I have come to the following conclusion:  The Synod structure currently mandated in the PC(USA) Constitution is not specifically necessary, but there are desirable functions that should be done in “synod-like” entities.  Basically, I do see a need for certain things to be done on a scale above the presbytery but below the General Assembly.  If the synods were to go away these functions could be done by entities that are not individual middle governing bodies, but could be something like “super-presbyteries” or “General Assembly sub-regions.”  So what are these functions?

One group of functions is the ecclesiastical duties, specifically including judicial process and records review.  And this group is recognized in the New Form of Government where the draft includes synods, but allows for “reduced function” to cover only these duties. (3.0404)

I think that the argument for a division of labor in the review of records is fairly straight forward.  At the present time the 16 synods review the records of the 173 presbyteries.  Eliminate the synods and a GA committee would be responsible for the review of all 173.

The concern with the judicial process is partly the same argument.  Eliminate the synod and the GAPJC hears appeals from all 173 presbytery permanent judicial commissions.  But with judicial cases there are some added complexities when you start looking at appeals.  To have a remedial case against a presbytery be heard first by the GAPJC means that it is the court of first impression and the details of having the case reviewed on appeal would need to be worked out.  In addition, to have cases coming from the presbytery PJC’s reviewed twice as appeals, once by the synod PJC and again possibly by the GAPJC, I think helps crystallize the thinking of the final GAPJC decision which can stand as Constitutional interpretation for the denomination.

The other group of functions the synods have is in the area of mission and ministry.  In reviewing what our synod does it struck me that it was a point of collaboration or catalysis for the really big stuff and the really small stuff.  The former are ministry projects that are large enough that they cross presbytery boundaries and having a central point of contact has been helpful.  It is clear from coalitions that have developed on their own that synod involvement is by no means required.  But a case could be made that having the synod as a point of contact makes them more efficient.  (And I can think of a couple of people who might argue that getting the synod involved would make them less efficient.)

Maybe the more important function is working with ministries that are small, a few members from churches scattered throughout the synod.  No church or presbytery has enough involvement to sustain it, but across the whole synod there are enough individuals that they can gather in a meaningful and vital way.  A similar function that I have seen is in matching experience to needs across presbytery lines.  It provides a place for connecting knowledgeable people to more distant points where they can be helpful.  Again, neither of these activities requires the synod — the connections for ministry could be made across presbytery lines without the existence of the synod.  But the hope is that the synod could make the connection more efficient.

Finally, in our connectional system I wonder if we can feel connectional if the governing bodies immediately jump from the presbytery to the General Assembly.  I commented on this a little while back when I asked if the PC(USA) is too big.  In that post my thinking was not specifically that a synod was needed to foster a feeling and understanding of connectionalism on a regional level, but a synod could serve that purpose.

The question that is behind this and must be answered is whether these functions, if they do continue, must be done by a “governing body.”  Could they be done by other affiliated entities?  Under our theory of church government records review and judicial process needs to be conducted by a governing body.  But this could be satisfied by a change to the constitution that would allow ecclesiastical functions to shift from synods to GA to be conducted by regional commissions that are administered by the Office of the General Assembly.  This would approximate the synod system while reducing administrative levels and creating cost savings with economies of scale.  And while we presently understand there to be one court per governing body this cold be structured and viewed as one court with different branches.

Ministry and mission on the synod level is not as closely tied in our polity to being conducted by a governing body so it could be shifted in a number of ways including back to the presbyteries, up to GAC, or to networks, collaborations, or coalitions of presbyteries.  The problem is that without oversight or facilitation will the mission be done or die on the vine?  The flip side is that it would put pressure for the fulfilling of G-9.0402b:

b. The administration of mission should be performed by the governing body that can most effectively and efficiently accomplish it at the level of jurisdiction nearest the congregation.

This is partly just a though exercise in how the system could be stream-lined if that is what it needs financially, administratively, or practically.  At the present time the GA has chosen not to make changes to the system.  The question that I can not answer at this point is whether for the other 15 synods this is what will need to happen.  For the Synod of Southern California and Hawaii it is not something that is required at this time.  But the thinking is necessary, because going forward even five years there could be the need for radical restructuring in multiple synods, possibly including mine.

So where does that leave me?  After two years of participating in consultations, visioning and redesign of our synod I have become convinced that synods can play an important part in our connectional system.  By no means does this mean they are indispensable — I am also convinced that given the apparent realities of the future in a decade the PC(USA) middle governing body structure will look different than today.  It will be seen how radically different the structure looks and that different structure may or may not include synods.

My personal journey with my synod has taken many twists and turns, both in my thinking and my activity.  As I outline above, I have revised my thinking somewhat and think that there is a place for synods at the present time, although there will have to be some serious evaluation in the near future for some of the synods and the denomination as a whole.  And this thinking and activity on my part will continue:  The redesign work I helped with created a radically reorganized ministry unit which I was then asked to chair and “get off the ground” in 2008.  One of the implications of this service is that in 2009 it means that I will serve the synod as the Moderator, a job I am truly looking forward to.  So my “long strange trip” continues.

As a programming note, don’t expect much more about my synod Moderatorial work here.  As usual, if polity items arise or I want to revisit the nature and necessity of synods, that will appear here.  But to help facilitate the communication within the Synod of Southern California and Hawaii I will also have a moderators blog — Everything in Moderation.  In a sense, this blog will continue in chronos time w
hile the other will focus on the kairos time of the Moderatorial year.  The journey of faith continues and it will probably be as interesting as the journey that got me here.

An Interesting Trend In PC(USA) Amendment Voting

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I was checking out the redesigned web site of The Layman.  It is a clean looking site that uses ASP and CSS and no longer uses the frames.  It is a nice design, navigation seems good, and I like the “Other Headlines” section where they have consolidated all their news together.  I’m not a big fan of having that top navigation bar big and black, but that is my opinion.

Anyway, I was checking out the web site and having a look at their chart on the voting for Amendment B and noticed an interesting trend.  No, it is not the fact that the vote currently stands at no presbyteries for and six against.  What I noticed, and have now crunched the numbers on, was the total number of votes cast and how it differs from the last go-round.

Briefly, if you compare the number of votes cast in each presbytery with the total number cast in 2001-02 you find that the numbers are all between 72% and 87% of the votes cast last time.  Why?

The two obvious culprits are the drop in PC(USA) membership and “issue fatigue.”  I think it is probably a combination of the two.

If you consider the statistics between the end of 2001 and the end of 2007 you find that in 2007 the number of churches was 97% of what it was in 2001 and the number of members was 89% of what it was in 2001.  The number of commissioners to presbytery will reflect both of these numbers since each church is assured of two, the pastor and an elder, but larger churches have extra commissioners.

[OK, this is a “back of the envelope” calculation and I am well aware of several other issues that make my description above not as simple as I have presented.  These include:  The fact that a church with an empty or shared pulpit may only have an elder commissioner.  That presbyteries may have “extra” clergy because of seminaries, retirement communities, larger numbers of ministers in validated ministries, that sort of thing.  That would be adjusted under the redress of imbalance.]

The drop is larger than the membership drop so that can’t be it alone.  To address the “issue fatigue” I looked at the changes in the numbers of Yes and No votes.  I consider it interesting that every count of No votes declined, and it falls in the same range as the total vote decline.  On the one hand, this is not surprising since each of these presbyteries voted “No” so the majority of no votes will have the greater influence on the total numbers.  But there is some variability with the drop in negative votes sometimes higher and sometimes lower than the drop in total.

This is in marked contrast to the affirmative votes where in some cases a small number of votes causes the percentages to swing wildly.  The votes range from 22% of the number from last time to 106%, but in the case of the 22% and a 44%, these are less than 10 votes so small changes can be amplified.  Two of the other four are in the range of the total decline, and one shows only minor decline (98% – one vote) and one showed a slight increase (106% – one vote).  In general, the affirmative votes are holding steadier than the negative votes.

To summarize, negative votes show a fairly consistent decline in excess of the membership decline, the more substantial yes votes show a change that is at worst in the range of the negative vote decline.

I do realize that there are numerous other explanations for the drop in voting.  It could be because these are early votes and “get out the vote” campaigns have not been active yet.  It could be because these presbyteries have implemented an “active participation” policy among the honorably retired ministers under G-11.0101b and so have a smaller “redress of imbalance.”  (You will probably see this in my presbytery.)  Anyway, membership decline and “issue fatigue” may not be the only reason numbers are down.

What does this mean?  I’m not really sure yet but I’ll keep an eye on the trend.  It at least reflects the decline in the membership of the denomination.  But since the numbers are in excess of the decline there appears to be something else going on here which I would attribute to “issue fatigue.”  It would make sense that both of these effects would show up more in the negative votes since those are the churches realigning or thinking about it.

Churches Leaving The PC(USA) And The Status Of Women’s Ordination

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One of the continuing challenges, and discussions, for churches that are considering departure from the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) is about the ordination of women as deacons, elders, and clergy.  The problem is that as churches look to leave the PC(USA) because of concerns symbolized by one debate over ordination standards, they by necessity step into another debate on ordination.  No Presbyterian branch in the United States, besides the PC(USA) and the Cumberland Presbyterian Church, uniformly accepts women to ordination as officers of the church, and in all but one of these branches it is completely prohibited.

As I have discussed before, the branch with “local option” is the Evangelical Presbyterian Church, which probably helps explain why for departing PC(USA) churches this is the denomination of choice to realign with.  For churches who realign through the New Wineskins Presbytery of the EPC, associated with the New Wineskins Association of Churches, the ordinations are not a problem since that presbytery recognizes the ordination.  But this is to be a transitional presbytery which will disappear in five years and the churches in it are to transfer to standard geographic presbyteries.  (Then again, the PC(USA) has had several “transitional” Korean language presbyteries which were supposed to have a limited lifetime but don’t seem to be going anywhere yet.)

We now receive news, through an EPNews Special Edition news item, that a permanent non-geographic affinity presbytery may be considered by the 2009 EPC General Assembly.  The recommendation was made by the NW/EPC Transitional Presbytery Commission to the EPC Committee on Administration (COA).  The article has a nice run-down of the status Of EPC presbyteries at this time:

In its discussion about the proposal, the COA noted that much of the
energy driving it was the sensitive issue of the ordination of women as
teaching elders. In the EPC, we currently have two presbyteries that
prohibit women teaching elders, two that will not use gender as a
consideration in approving ministers and candidates, two others who
have a procedure in place that allows consideration of women ministers
and candidates without violating conscience, and two that are still
working on the issue and will have come to a conclusion by the second
week of February 2009. One of these, Mid-America Presbytery, will
consider an overture asking the 2009 General Assembly to approve an
affinity presbytery within its boundaries as a response to women
teaching elders.

Note that only teaching elders are discussed since the ordination of ruling elders and deacons is local option on the congregational level.

The article goes on to say:

In its written response to NW/EPC Transitional Presbytery Commission,
the COA declared, “We recognize that an affinity presbytery is one of a
number of possible solutions to the dilemma of women teaching elders in
the EPC. While we do not believe it is the ideal solution,
nevertheless, it may be the ultimate solution. In the EPC, it has been
more than a decade since we have engaged in serious discussions about
establishing an affinity presbytery. An affinity presbytery certainly
has attractive features. However, we believe there are significant
issues that need to be addressed and resolved before a proposal such as
this can be advanced to the General Assembly. We would like to work
with you to address those issues as we pursue this as a possible
solution for 2009 General Assembly consideration.”

So, in the EPC the possibility of an affinity presbytery is being discussed as a way to accommodate this disagreement between churches over ordination standards while in the PC(USA) the same accommodation has been rejected by the General Assembly multiple times (2006, 2008) but is still one of the options talked about for keeping churches in the PC(USA).

I would note that the concept of affinity presbyteries is almost as old as American Presbyterianism itself, and was a way that the Old Side and New Side branches of the church could facilitate a reunion in 1758.  (Yes, within the first fifty years of American Presbyterian history the church went through a split and a reunion.)

It is also interesting that there is news today from the Living Church News Service that Anglican dioceses that have realigned away from the Episcopal Church are beginning a planning process for a new North American Anglican Province.  While not a parallel structure within the Episcopal Church, it would be a parallel Province within the Anglican Communion.

Going forward we will have to see where this leads us.  But it is interesting how this conservative group within the PC(USA) is requiring both the PC(USA) and the EPC to wrestle with these ideas even if they are in slightly different forms.