Conservative Presbyterians are steaming. I recognized that the attempt to delete the fidelity and chastity clause and the AI was going to stir their pot but I missed the idea that the revision to the Heidelberg Confession was to delete prohibitions against homosexuality. Aren't they sneaky?
Of course, a lot of this weeping and wailing went on after the 217th and a bunch of churches left and so it's unclear if this will run off a lot more. If the PUP report didn't get you, will the Heidelberg Confession?
I do think that there will be more withholding of contributions to the denomination. The Presbyterian Global Fellowship is positioning itself as a conservative alternative to the PCUSA. Their idea is that you can still be Presbyterian but you don't have to fund the denomination. You can fund mission through an organization that supports your views.
Vic Pentz is pastor of Peachtree Presbyterian, the largest church in the denomination and a leader in the Presbyterian Global Fellowship. (And a member of maybe the most liberal Presbytery) Here's what he says on his blog: "In PGF we treat the PCUSA for what it is: a relic of a Christendom that is disappearing before our very eyes."
It is disappearing. There's no doubt about that.
1 comment on The disappearing denomination
Add a comment
To add comments without entering your email and image verification, you must be logged in. Login or Join Blogster
Conservatives keep calling the Heidelberg changes a "revision". The truth is that it's a correction - to bring the text back in line with the original German. In 1962 a biased translator added "homosexual perversions" to the text - something that has been verified by others on the translation team.
It's time for the conservatives to stop using this correction to further their agenda.