Posted on 06/19/2006 5:16:34 AM PDT by Lee N. Field
The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), severely split over homosexuality, would maintain its ban on gay clergy but allow some leeway in enforcing it under a proposal headed to a national assembly vote on Tuesday.
A key committee, which divided 30-28, proposed keeping on the books a church law mandating that lay officeholders as well as all clergy restrict sexual activity to heterosexual marriage.
But another bill would give local congregations and regional "presbyteries" leeway on whether to require that rule in all cases.
. . .
Another bill that could prompt intense debate would encourage gender- neutral worship language for the divine Trinity _ for instance "Mother, Child and Womb" _ alongside the traditional "Father, Son and Holy Spirit."
This month, the denomination reported a net loss of 48,474 members since last year, the 40th annual decline in a row.
(Excerpt) Read more at breitbart.com ...
While all eyes here are on the Episcopal Train Wreck, the PCUSA marches on.
Not counting canon law of course.
I have no experience in synagogue politics, but I can't imagine for an instant that a rabbi out-of-sync with his congregation would last a year. If nothing else, folks would just leave and go "across the street".
The ineffective passivity of folks in the pews is distressing.
You have to understand, the Presbyterian Church did not fall to liberalism in a day, nor did they march down the center aisle with their banners brightly waiving. This has been a systematic takeover going back really more than a century, but moreso in the past 80 years. At each major point, those dedicated to Biblical truth have departed the congregation for the most part. What is left of that church is Presbyterian in structure only and certainly not in doctrine.
When you pass a rule and then pass a rule that you do not have to follow the rule - well then, you have no rule at all.
If nothing else, folks would just leave and go "across the street".The ineffective passivity of folks in the pews is distressing.
A lot of them do leave. Note that this is the 40th straight year of decline in membership. There are also renewal movements (probably unlikely to prevail against an entrenched denominational bureaucracy, liberal seminaries, etc.)
This is the background I come out of, which is why I pay any attention to it at all.
That's fair. I guess I got to this "game" in the late innings....
>> Another bill that could prompt intense debate would encourage gender- neutral worship language for the divine Trinity _ for instance "Mother, Child and Womb" _ alongside the traditional "Father, Son and Holy Spirit." <<
Worshipping the divine Uterus? Ick. I'm going to hate to see the marketing logos that come from THAT decision.
grpl alert
The presby's are digging a hole.
Fru's correct. This did not happen overnight. It was a systematic, targeted take-over by well-financed, determined miscreants.
"CROSSED FINGERS: HOW THE LIBERALS CAPTURED THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH" should be mandatory readying for every Christian.
"Except the LORD build the house, they labour in vain that build it: except the LORD keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain." -- Psalm 127:1
It's really a shame; it's my understanding that the vast majority of attenders of PCUSA are along the lines of "?WTF?"
For my part, that my church even wastes the Lord's resources debating this crapola, has given me cause to research area churches this weekend, i.e. PCA. I've discussed this with my pastor who is kind of resigned to the "front office" mentality. It really is a shame. Next session I here they are debating the virtues of "midget tossing" for the Eucharist. It's just a big, fat, stinking joke.
"CROSSED FINGERS: HOW THE LIBERALS CAPTURED THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH" should be mandatory readying for every Christian.
Free at:
http://www.freebooks.com/docs/html/gncf/table_of_contents.htm
The same way they did my Methodist Church. They analyzed its polity and organization and saw that they couldn't take individual churches, so they took seminaries, agencies, etc.; that is, they took the hierarchical structure.
They did so by keeping their mouths shut initially, and simply volunteering for jobs/positions that others were not paying attention to.
"CROSSED FINGERS: HOW THE LIBERALS CAPTURED THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH" should be mandatory readying for every Christian.
This thing has been going on for more than a century. It's more than your average conspiracy.
Judging by the denomination's loss of nearly 2% of its membership in one year and a string of 40 consecutive years of membership losses, it appears that members of the Presbyterian Church (USA) are indeed leaving and going across the street. If there is passivity in the pews, it is probably because most theologically conservative Presbyterians have long since left the denomination for the Presbyterian Church in America and other evangelical churches. A good amount of the membership decline is attributable to death and the lack of new members. The rest is probably due to one too many outrages on issues such as opposing investments in Israel or homosexual clergy. Many of those leaving may not be Calvinists or even evangelicals, but they do not like the constant "in your face" liberalism coming from denominational headquarters or their own pastor.
Yep. Follow the money that initially financed the deconstruction of solid, Scriptural Presbyterianism and which continues to this day.
And that is a negative?
Exactly right. They also tied up the church in lawsuits, forcing them to sell off property.
But you're right; it began with the institutional corruption of places like Princeton which once were bastions of orthodoxy.
Money buys control of anything.
http://www.Freebooks.com is one of the greatest resources around. Thank you for the reminder.
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