Mission Yearbook: New confession in the works ahead of this year’s General Assembly

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.

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Dr. Edwin Aponte is co-moderator of the Special Committee to Write a New Confession.

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.”

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Dr. Margaret Aymer is co-moderator of the Special Committee to Write a New Confession.

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)

Let us join in prayer for:

Barbara Betts, Manager, Presbyterian Distribution Services, Administrative Services Group, A Corporation
Beverly Bewley, Customer Service Representative, Operations, Presbyterian Publishing Corporation

Let us pray:

Faithful God, please lead the church to deeper faithfulness and help us live out the good news we proclaim. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

Mission Yearbook: ‘Persevering Toward Wholeness’ will be the theme of next summer’s General Assembly

The General Assembly planning team has announced the theme of next summer’s 227th General Assembly, which will take place online and at the Baird Center in Milwaukee from June 22 through July 2. The theme is “Persevering Toward Wholeness.” The guiding Scripture for the gathering will be Revelation 22:2, "and the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations."

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The Baird Center in Milwaukee will house the in-person portion of the 227th General Assembly (photo courtesy of Visit Milwaukee).

According to Kate Trigger Duffert, the director of General Assembly Planning and an associate stated clerk, the theme for each General Assembly is chosen by the Stated Clerk of the General Assembly through a discernment process that includes consultation with other church leaders, including in this case the Moderators of the 226th General Assembly, the Rev. CeCe Armstrong and the Rev. Tony Larson. The theme selection is also informed by the Stated Clerk’s relationships with mid councils, ecumenical partners, and others throughout the church and how those relationships shape the Stated Clerk’s perception of where the PC(USA) and where it is called to be.

Reflecting on this, the Rev. Jihyun Oh, Stated Clerk of the General Assembly and Executive Director of the Interim Unified Agency, said, “Since the last General Assembly, in conversations about the work the church is called to in this time, peace or wholeness in the fullest sense of the word continued to emerge as a way to hold all of the ways the broader denomination has been discerning our call.”

The theme of each General Assembly is intended to offer guidance to those tasked with organizing various components of the gathering, including members of the worship planning team as they develop meaning and reflective worship services, as well as Assembly planners charged with developing resources and messaging around the Assembly, including prayer guides, newsletters and online resources.

The theme will be present throughout the Assembly for consideration, reflection and discernment by participants as they engage in the business of the church. It also offers an opportunity for the larger denomination to participate in the Assembly by embracing the theme in their own contexts.

The theme reflects a desire to bring together the work of the church at large. Oh specifically lifted up racial justice, economic justice, gender justice and climate justice as crucial work to which the church is called.

Oh also highlighted the call to reflect on what it means to seek wholeness as a covenant community and to seek wholeness for the world as the church moves toward a fuller understanding of discipleship and Christian witness.

Duffert said part of the theme-selection process also involved recognizing the larger political and social context for the church and the need for encouragement. With fraught national and global politics and the rise of white Christian nationalism, Duffert said the theme offers reminders of the church’s need to persevere and stand in opposition to narratives of hate and isolation, and for communities to persevere in the face of brokenness, trusting in the promise that “we are in this together as the body of Christ.”

Finally, the theme and accompanying Scripture intentionally center nature imagery and the wholeness of God’s diverse Creation, recognizing that the complex realities of our time require all the components of ecological cultivation and health, including growth, pruning, healthy soil and controlled burning. This component of the theme was inspired by conversations with the Presbytery of Milwaukee, where seeking wholeness includes using land held by rural congregations to grow fresh food to support those in human-made food deserts.

“The Assembly theme provides a broad framework that undergirds the Assembly, inviting all those in the PC(USA) to consider what it means to be the church in this time and place,” Duffert said. “As the theme continues to be woven into the worship and practice of the Assembly, we will all be challenged to reflect on how the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) is particularly called to persevere towards wholeness amidst a world that often feels fractured.”

Duffert added she is “grateful for the Clerk’s discernment and the input of the Moderators of the 226th General Assembly, as well as the witness of the larger church body, in influencing a theme which will provide a platform for being empowered in our ongoing reformation.”

Layton Williams Berkes, Communications Strategist, Interim Unified Agency (Click here to read original PNS Story)

Let us join in prayer for:

Amanda Craft, Manager, Immigration Advocacy, Mid Council Ministries, Interim Unified Agency
Octavia Craig, Treasury Assistant, Treasury Office & Central Receiving Services, Administrative Services Group 

Let us pray:

Lord Jesus, thank you for answered prayer! Continue to provide for and bless us as we grow in faith. Amen.