Retired & Thinking

The Presbytery of Twin Cities became the vote to push the PCUSA's overture over the top. The Book of Order will now read, Standards for ordained service reflect the church’s desire to submit joyfully to the Lordship of Jesus Christ in all aspects of life (G-1.0000). The governing body responsible for ordination and/or installation (G.14.0240; G-14.0450) shall examine each candidate’s calling, gifts, preparation, and suitability for the responsibilities of office. The examination shall include, but not be limited to, a determination of the candidate’s ability and commitment to fulfill all requirements as expressed in the constitutional questions for ordination and installation (W-4.4003). Governing bodies shall be guided by Scripture and the confessions in applying standards to individual candidates. A couple of obvious changes for my former denomination will be:  Self-avowed practicing homosexual persons will now be openly and proudly ordained in congregations and presbyteries....

Just noted the recent tallies on voting for 08-b and seeing how badly it was passed this past weekend by the Presbytery of the Cascades. The vote wasn't a surprise; the presbytery is blue across the votes. What did catch my eye was the number of those voting. I couldn't help but wonder why a loss of 210 voters over 11 years. We have had a number of deaths among retired ministers but have also gained more than a few who want to come to the Pacific Northwest. Maybe people are just tired of the fight. Some are just too busy being a pastor to their members. Saturday afternoon I ran into one member of Presbytery who didn't attend the meeting at an event for one of his members because being with his member was more important. Sadly, I might assume that some figure if they don't go they're not to blame for what happens. With a presbytery of some 65,000 square miles the place where the vote is held might be an issue as well. The largest turnouts for meetings take place in ...

Jack Haberer wrote an interesting piece on the PC(USA)'s ongoing vote. In the interest of full disclosure, I no longer have a dog in this fight, but if I were still part of the PC(USA) I'd push to change the wording and here's why? 1. It would stop the fighting. The liberals would have finally won and the denomination would have a pretty clear picture in what direction lies its future. 2. It would stop the spin cycle from the right. There will be NO constitutional reason to deny ordination to practicing gay and lesbians, Buddhists or anyone else. 3. Many congregations will face the hard choice which they have not wanted to face before. Leave or stay and be less than they were called to be. 4. Some "tall steeple" pastors will have to decide if they are willing to spend the energy, time and theological work to lead their congregations into a new place or to wait out their years till retirement. Here is what I pray happens in the PC(USA). First, as the amendment pass...

Alternative titles for this posting included: "Thank you very much sir, may I have another" and, my son's option, "So long and thanks for all the fish." GA is at lunch. I imagine many will have a hard time holding food down after the debacle this morning. I outlived being a conspiracy theorist but I can't help wonder at what happened. Last night we undertook a new mission initiative to raise 2 million dollars so we might, in the words of the commissioner from Denver, "litigate in a graceful way". This morning we started off by being fair and limiting debate to one minute. This is because there's a lot of stuff to get through. [ side note: didn't they see this coming when they authorized guest speakers, ecumenical greetings and DVD's months before the GA? ] Yeah Gradey was elected moderator which might be like getting promoted to captain April 15, 1912 on the Titanic. His election was overshadowed by all that followed. In just over 90 ...