And the schism begins ….

January 17, 2007 by
Filed under: Religion 

The New Wineskins Association has published a proposed Strategy Report (warning – large PDF – over 150 pages) calling for a schism from the PC(USA) denomination.

Well, OK.  It doesn’t actually SAY that this is a schism.  In fact the report goes out of the way to avoid calling it a schism.  But let’s face it – what they want is the wholesale departure of a large number of PC(USA) congregations to another denomination.  That’s a schism.

What this group is pushing is for all New Wineskins congregations to leave the PC(USA) and go to the Evangelical Presbyterian Church.  The New Wineskins group will ask the EPC General Assembly next June to allow for non-geographical presbyteries.  They will then ask to create a New Wineskins EPC presbytery to contain all New Wineskins PC(USA) congregations that want to leave.  That presbytery will be self-governing, and all officers and congregations will be required to the Essential Tenets of the New Wineskins Association AND their Ethical Imperatives.  It should be noted that “destructive speech, unforgiveness” are listed in their Ethical Imperatives, though they use PLENTY of such speech in their Strategy Paper.  At some point this presbytery can either be folded into the EPC or possibly create a new denomination – the EPC and this presbytery will hold discussions over time on which way to go.

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Those interested in the roots of this schism should read a document from Perspectives (published by the PC(USA) Office of the General Assembly) titled Presbyterians and Separatist Evangelicals: A Continuing Dilemma.   This is admittedly written by from a leftward leaning point of view, but it is a very scholarly document that shows the roots of our ongoing controversies and splits.

And for God’s sake – let’s get this over with and move on.

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Comments

2 Comments on And the schism begins ….

  1. jim on Wed, 17th Jan 2007 4:09 pm

    2. While I count a few of my friends within their ranks, I think you’re absolutely right. Nothing is to be gained by fighting to keep them, their churches, or their property within the fold.

  2. jodie on Fri, 19th Jan 2007 12:14 pm

    3. I agree.

    Its like they live in a self referential closed universe. There seems to be no way to get through. It was curious to note that once again there is a paper that talks about the Gospel (what they are for) without ever saying what it is (do they even know?), yet page after page trying hard to explain what they oppose: Basically the refusal of the PCUSA to engage in bibliolatry and the refusal of the PCUSA to dictate a policy of non-ordination of Homosexuals, celibate or not.

    There have been branches of the Church obsessed with sex and gender issues for almost two thousand years. Can’t fix that. And there have been branches of the Church claiming their way of reading of the Scriptures is the only orthodox way of reading them for even longer. Can’t fix that either. The time honored solution is mutual excommunication. Sigh…

    Jodie

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