Assembly is a good time for meeting friends and sometimes saying goodbye to them. One friend from my intervarsity days is annemarie Klassen, who is stepping down from her good work as associate secretary of stewardship and education in mission; another is Pauline brown, who is nearly a legend as a missionary, serving over 55 years in India and who has always encouraged me through my years at the renewal Fellowship. Pauline, although retired, will return to India and continue to do the work she has been doing, now on a volunteer basis. The three or four standing ovations indicated the high respect, love, and deep honour the church holds for her. another friend in the leaving mode is Jim Czegledi who worked as associate secretary of evangelism and Worship for most of the last decade. Others and I have deeply appreciated his leadership in this field. Finally, my friend Hans Kouwenberg was elected moderator of assembly and we wish him every blessing in the year ahead as he emphasizes grass root ministry in congregations as the core ministry in the church's mission.
Overall the assembly was amiable. The most contentious issue came from the ecumenical and Interfaith relations Committee who were asking for a new mandate with special reference to their work with other faiths. The words they chose, however, were ambiguous at best. The mandate they wanted was to encourage Presbyterians to acknowledge, understand and appreciate other faith traditions, and to help Presbyterians to live in good relationship with persons who belong to other religions. as a minority report stated, the problem was that the words as defined by the committee were not dictionary definitions. For example Oxford defines acknowledge as “agree to the truth of, own, recognize the authority or claims of.” The committee's own definition was simply to “accept the existence of.” There is a world of difference between the two.
In my view one puts the mandate in agreement with Living Faith and our other subordinate standards and the other is in conflict with them. It seems then that the statement with the words as redefined by the committee can be acceptable to our present standards. but the direction in which the committee chair said they wanted to lead the church in effect says all faiths are equal, would not. In the end the motion carried without ever having had the real substance debated. The long line-up at the microphones to register dissent demonstrated the deep frustration with both the process and the outcome.
Some people expressed concerns that the wording was too ambiguous, awkward, and imprecise; others said they felt uncomfortable that there was no clear understanding in the proposed mandate, that there was only salvation through Jesus Christ; others felt concern that the mandate only directed us about how we spoke to ourselves and not how we addressed people of other faiths; others were concerned about the ominous warnings from the chair that if this wasn't passed all dialogue with others would have to cease. Two Young Adult Reps spoke but their advice was not heeded (alas!). One shared that dialogue with people of other faiths was a common occurrence for his generation and that you could have dialogue without compromising your own faith; the second one suggested from what she heard we were not ready to come to consensus on this issue and that it should be referred back for more consideration and brought to a future assembly.
In all that assembly did, this issue regarding the uniqueness of Jesus as the only Saviour and Lord is the one that will not go away. It threatens to be even more divisive for us as the blessing of same sex unions and ordination of gay priests and bishops has been at the Anglican General Synod which met shortly afterwards.
This issue is the 'deal breaker' for the church. If we cannot keep this faith expressed in the creeds and doctrinal standards of the church then where do we go from there? Will there be a separation? If so will it be acrimonious or gracious? This is not the issue facing Canadian Presbyterians alone but it is one that wise Christians will begin to prayerfully consider as they seek to form a faithful response.
Some days I think we've got to stop meeting like this and other days I want us to meet and not avoid the hard questions facing us. Whatever happens it is my hope that every day we will pray that the glory of God will be manifest through us and through our church.
