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Since Jesus calls Christians to make disciples of all nations, in this blog we'll consider how we might better share the gospel to the world around us.
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In 2022, the 225th General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) approved an overture from the Presbytery of Arkansas calling for the formation of “a special committee to write a new confession for the PC(USA) to be considered for inclusion in the Book of Confessions” (TWE-08). Committee members have been quietly and steadfastly pursuing the mandate they were given for the last year and a half and recently convened for several days in Louisville to move forward in producing a draft confession to be considered by the 227th General Assembly this year.

The committee consists of 16 at-large members from presbyteries across the country who were appointed by the co-moderators of the 225th General Assembly, the Revs. Shavon Starling-Louis and Ruth Faith Santana-Grace. It is intentionally diverse, consisting of teaching elders, ruling elders, and church members of various backgrounds and identities. One committee member, Byungil Kim, speaks Korean, with simultaneous interpretation technology allowing him and the rest of the group to communicate with one another. The group is co-moderated by teaching elders Dr. Edwin Aponte and Dr. Margaret Aymer, who respectively serve as dean of Drew Theological School and academic dean of Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary.
The committee was tasked with drafting a new confession that contends with the intersection of faith and the contemporary challenges facing the church and the world, with the committee’s draft to be considered by the 227th General Assembly for possible inclusion in the Book of Confessions. In accordance with TWE-08 and two other overtures brought before the 225th Assembly, the committee was directed to consider the destructive impact of racism, white supremacy, and colonialism, while affirming unity and diversity in the church and the image of God in all people and rejecting oppression.
“The writing of a confession that speaks of the intersection of our faith with the challenges of contemporary culture is one of the most important tasks to which a church is called,” said the Co-Moderators of the 225th Assembly. “We are grateful for these saints who will put their hearts and pen to paper in an effort to offer words reflecting those values for a time such as this.”

The discussions have been rich and expansive but also intentional and slow by necessity. The committee has divided itself into subcommittees several times throughout the process, ranging in focus from theological questions to communication strategy. As the subcommittees have evolved, the make-up of committee members has also intentionally shuffled, allowing various voices to be in conversation with one another.
When the full committee gathered together at the Presbyterian Center in Louisville recently, the subcommittees brought their work to be considered by everyone, and the committee worked to compile the various components into one cohesive document. The committee still has a lot of work ahead. One challenge the group is still contending with is the limitations of language. A smaller group of committee members met after the formal gathering ended to reflect together on the process and discussed how “current language of the day can be a fault line.” The confession will somehow have to find words that are both timeless and descriptive. Much of what the group will focus on now is the work of honing the specifics of word choice and other particulars.
Even when the committee’s draft is complete, the process of getting the confession finalized and approved will likely include revisions and reviews and will require approval at multiple stages from multiple future General Assemblies, followed finally by ratification from at least two-thirds of presbyteries. This complicated process reflects the significance of adding a new confession to the doctrinal standards of the denomination.
If this new confession is ultimately added to the Book of Confessions, it will be only the second time a confession written by members of the PC(USA) is formally adopted. A Brief Statement of Faith was drafted by a committee appointed by the 195th General Assembly in 1983 and was approved for inclusion in the Book of Confessions in 1991.
Despite the lengthy process and the challenges yet to come, members of the Special Committee to Write a New Confession share a common conviction that their undertaking is a sacred calling and worth the effort.
Layton Williams Berkes, Communications Strategist, Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) Click here to read original PNS Story)
Barbara Betts, Manager, Presbyterian Distribution Services, Administrative Services Group, A Corporation
Beverly Bewley, Customer Service Representative, Operations, Presbyterian Publishing Corporation
Faithful God, please lead the church to deeper faithfulness and help us live out the good news we proclaim. In Jesus’ name. Amen.
The Rev. Jihyun Oh gave a message on the second day of the Young Adult Advocacy Conference that served as a reminder that justice was a central part of Jesus’ ministry and should be a guiding force for Christians today.
There is a “whole movement of people who call themselves Christian” who say that God’s justice and the good things of life are only for a particular segment of people, said Oh, Stated Clerk of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). To counter that, “we must talk about and act on and advocate for justice where there is injustice and negate that message as being something that comes from Jesus because it doesn't.”

Oh, who also serves as executive director of the Interim Unified Agency of the PC(USA), spoke those words during a morning worship service in Michigan at the “Jesus and Justice” conference, which has been held by the PC(USA)’s advocacy offices for the past three years to teach young adults to do social justice advocacy.
“I think it’s of vital importance that you continue to remind us in your local congregations, but also on the national level, that the voices of young people need to be heard,” PC(USA)’s advocacy director, the Rev. Jimmie Hawkins, told attendees gathered at First Presbyterian Church of Lansing for a day of worship, workshops and networking. “We are a church that, right now, is seeking new ways that we can engage with young people.”
Oh read from Luke 4:16–30, a passage that harkens to a time when Jesus was at the beginning of his ministry and ready to declare that a new day had come.
In that passage, Jesus visits a synagogue in his hometown of Nazareth and stands up to read a scroll containing words from the prophet Isaiah.
Jesus “unrolled the scroll and found the place where it’s written: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, and to set free those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”

After rolling up the scroll as all eyes were on him, Jesus declared, “Today, the Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing,” and the people were amazed at his gracious words, though they eventually became offended and drove him away.
Jesus’ goal had been to share a particular vision of his ministry that was directed not just for the people he’d grown up around but “anyone who has been bound and pressed down and treated as less than,” Oh said.
That includes “anyone who has felt powerless in the face of the rich and powerful, in the face of unjust economic and social systems, in the face of unjust health care systems” as well as “anyone who has been made to bow down, made to feel crazy, made to feel like they don't matter in society and to God,” Oh said.
Jesus’ reading of the words from Isaiah was a message of justice is everlasting. “It’s a reminder that God has always been about justice, and that the vision of the reign of God is a vision of justice yesterday, today and tomorrow,” Oh said. “God has been and God is, and God always will be about justice.”
And what does that kind of justice look like? It means “all needs are met,” Oh said. “Nobody is hungry, nobody is suffering because they can’t pay for care and healing. Nobody is jailed because they can’t pay a debt or pay a fine. There are fair scales and fair wages and ways for people to dig out from enormous economic hardship.”
Oh also explained what God’s justice is not. For example, in Jesus’ ministry, “religion isn’t used to keep people from wholeness.”
Jesus knew that “justice only for us and not for anyone else is perhaps vengeance, but not God’s justice,” Oh said. “Justice for us at the expense of ‘them’ is not God’s justice.”
Oh went on to encourage conference participants to “act with humility and compassion,” remembering that “God’s justice, God’s love, is for everyone.”
Darla Carter, Communications Strategist, Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) (Click here to read original PNS Story)
Jon Baxter, Chief Engineer, Building Services, Administrative Services Group, A Corporation
Serrita Bell, Directory of Communications and Marketing, Presbyterian Foundation
God of justice and mercy, you proclaim good news to the poor, freedom to the oppressed and hope to all who feel forgotten. Shape our hearts to reflect our compassion and guide us to seek justice for others. Amen.
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