37 articles from 26 issues, 1996 to 2024
The Presbyterian ChurchThe Westminster Confession is unambiguous: God alone is Lord of the conscience. Goodloe shows how the Olympia Presbytery's overture to the 2024 General Assembly threatens that bedrock principle, and why every Presbyterian, whatever their view on the underlying issues, has reason to defend it.
Nixon walks through what actually happened with POL-01 (the Olympia Overture) at the 2024 General Assembly, why the split-vote outcome is more ambiguous than either side claims, and what congregations and sessions need to think about as the amendments now move to the presbyteries.
Theology Matters joins a public pledge for Presbyterian officers facing an overture that would compel them to affirm what they do not believe. Reading like an open letter, the piece calls clergy and elders alike to stand on the historic doctrines of creation and redemption rather than yield.
Andrews preaches 2 Corinthians 5 to the 222nd General Assembly: from now on we regard no one from a human point of view. The vertical reconciliation God has accomplished in Christ creates and shapes every horizontal one. A sermon for a denomination tempted to invert the order.
After two decades of asserting that theology matters, Burnett asks the harder question: has it actually mattered? He surveys the major debates in the PCUSA over sexuality, the sanctity of life, and Book of Order revisions, and asks how often theology has actually shaped the outcomes.
The 220th General Assembly's overtures to redefine marriage are the next logical step after 2011's repeal of fidelity-and-chastity ordination standards. Wisdom walks through the proposed changes, the constitutional process they would require, and what the church teaches that all of them quietly assume isn't binding.
How can a church hold to its teaching on sexuality and still show real love to gay and lesbian people? W. P. Campbell calls conservatives and liberals to keep truth and compassion together, then answers the common arguments for changing the church’s position.
Which votes do the presbyteries face after the 219th General Assembly? Theology Matters recommends a no vote on three amendments and warns of a fourth issue, the Board of Pensions, that presbyteries will not vote on and that touches every congregation.
What would presbyteries be approving if they replaced the whole Form of Government? Carol Shanholtzer reads the new Foundations section, the rewritten chapters and the advisory handbook, and warns of a more hierarchical church and a loss of ordination standards.
Should presbyteries vote on a confession they have barely read? Jerry Andrews welcomes a church-wide conversation about the Belhar but argues that the voting timetable leaves no time to examine and test it, and recommends neither yes nor no.
Could every congregation be made to fund benefits for same-sex partners through the mandatory pension plan? James Tony explains what the 219th General Assembly urged the Board of Pensions to do, why presbyteries will not vote on it, and what members can do.
Where does the Presbytery of Denver’s overture leave same-gender partnerships in the church? Three members of the special committee on civil unions and Christian marriage answer from Scripture, the confessions and the Constitution that the church cannot bless them.
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