Pacific Cleansed Feet

I just went to the Pacific Ocean for the first time!


The YADs went to Santa Cruse to have a cookout, see the beach, and ride rides at a carnival-type place nearby.


It was really fun. : )

Since I couldn't find my sunglasses before I left, I've been looking for a pair ever since I got here. I suggested a store and it turned out that everyone wanted new sunglasses:

Belhar Notes

For worship today, we had a Korean man preach about racism. He was very profound and just to give you a taste of what he was like, he cited Reverend Jeremiah Wright as a valid source to be listened to. I really liked what he had to say. He was on the line, but he never crossed it. It was profound.

So wouldn’t you know then, that when I get to my committee meeting, the first on the agenda, is the approval of the Belhar Confession, that arose from apartheid in South Africa, and now serves to speak against racism and for the unity of all.

It's hard to pass a confession and many things must be considered before passing one. It is our book of beliefs, so passing a "belief," must stand the test of time. One advocate asked if the confession's truth could be found outside of the history it was written in. In other words, is it and will it be relevant for future churches?

We haven't finished the vote on it yet, but I think we will end up proposing to the floor of GA that a committee be formed to study the Belhar Confession and distribute study guides on it for the presbyteries in our church with the hope that further action to pass will be considered at the next General Assembly. (This is the fastest process for getting it passed.)

The process for Presbyterians is a good one. It might take awhile to get things passed, but it is a necessary task to keep ourselves in check.

I mean, who would want to put their thoughts or beliefs out there for the world to see without carefully thinking about and deciding on them? ;)

The Belhar Confession

Today in my committee we are discussing the Belhar Confession, more on it later, but here is a copy of it from the Uniting Reformed Church in Southern Africa web site:

"This is a translation of the original Afrikaans text of the Confession as it was adopted by the Synod of the Dutch Reformed Mission Church in SA in 1986. This followed the declaration of a status confessionis in 1982, in connection with the rejection of the defence of apartheid on moral and theological grounds.

1. We believe in the triune God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, who gathers, protects and cares for his Church by his Word and his Spirit, as He has done since the beginning of the world and will do to the end.

2. We believe in one holy, universal Christian Church, the communion of saints called from the entire human family.
We believe:
that Christ’s work of reconciliation is made manifest in the Church as the community of believers who have been reconciled with God and with one another;
that unity is, therefore, both a gift and an obligation for the Church of Jesus Christ; that through the working of God’s Spirit it is a binding force, yet simultaneously a reality which must be earnestly pursued and sought: one which the people of God must continually be built up to attain;
that this unity must become visible so that the world may believe that separation, enmity and hatred between people and groups is sin which Christ has already conquered, and accordingly that anything which threatens this unity may have no place in the Church and must be resisted;
that this unity of the people of God must be manifested and be active in a variety of ways: in that we love one another; that we experience, practice and pursue community with one another; that we are obligated to give ourselves willingly and joyfully to be of benefit and blessing to one another; that we share one faith, have one calling, are of one soul and one mind; have one God and Father, are filled with one Spirit, are baptised with one baptism, eat of one bread and drink of one cup, confess one Name, are obedient to one Lord, work for one cause, and share one hope; together come to know the height and the breadth and the depth of the love of Christ; together are built up to the stature of Christ, to the new humanity; together know and bear one another’s burdens, thereby fulfilling the law of Christ that we need one another and upbuild one another, admonishing and comforting one another; that we suffer with one another for the sake of righteousness; pray together; together serve God in this world; and together fight against all which may threaten or hinder this unity;
that this unity can be established only in freedom and not under constraint; that the variety of spiritual gifts, opportunities, backgrounds, convictions, as well as the various languages and cultures, are by virtue of the reconciliation in Christ, opportunities for mutual service and enrichment within the one visible people of God;
that true faith in Jesus Christ is the only condition for membership of this Church;

Therefore, we reject any doctrine
which absolutises either natural diversity or the sinful separation of people in such a way that this absolutisation hinders or breaks the visible and active unity of the church, or even leads to the establishment of a separate church formation;
which professes that this spiritual unity is truly being maintained in the bond of peace whilst believers of the same confession are in effect alienated from one another for the sake of diversity and in despair of reconciliation;
which denies that a refusal earnestly to pursue this visible unity as a priceless gift is sin;
which explicitly or implicitly maintains that descent or any other human or social factor should be a consideration in determining membership of the Church.

3. We believe that God has entrusted to his Church the message of reconciliation in and through Jesus Christ; that the Church is called to be the salt of the earth and the light of the world that the Church is called blessed because it is a peacemaker, that the Church is witness both by word and by deed to the new heaven and the new earth in which righteousness dwells.
that God by his lifegiving Word and Spirit has conquered the powers of sin and death, and therefore also of irreconciliation and hatred, bitterness and enmity that God, by his lifegiving Word and Spirit will enable His people to live in a new obedience which can open new possibilities of life for society and the world;
that the credibility of this message is seriously affected and its beneficial work obstructed when it is proclaimed in a land which professes to be Christian, but in which the enforced separation of people on a racial basis promotes and perpetuates alienation, hatred and enmity;
that any teaching which attempts to legitimate such forced separation by appeal to the gospel, and is not prepared to venture on the road of obedience and reconciliation, but rather, out of prejudice, fear, selfishness and unbelief, denies in advance the reconciling power of the gospel, must be considered ideology and false doctrine.

Therefore, we reject any doctrine which, in such a situation sanctions in the name of the gospel or of the will of God the forced separation of people on the grounds of race and colour and thereby in advance obstructs and weakens the ministry and experience of reconciliation in Christ.

4. We believe that God has revealed himself as the One who wishes to bring about justice and true peace among men; that in a world full of injustice and enmity He is in a special way the God of the destitute, the poor and the wronged and that He calls his Church to follow Him in this; that He brings justice to the oppressed and gives bread to the hungry; that He frees the prisoner and restores sight to the blind; that He supports the downtrodden, protects the stranger, helps orphans and widows and blocks the path of the ungodly; that for Him pure and undefiled religion is to visit the orphans and the widows in their suffering; that He wishes to teach His people to do what is good and to seek the right;
that the Church must therefore stand by people in any form of suffering and need, which implies, among other things, that the Church must witness against and strive against any form of injustice, so that justice may roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream;
that the Church as the possession of God must stand where He stands, namely against injustice and with the wronged; that in following Christ the Church must witness against all the powerful and privileged who selfishly seek their own interests and thus control and harm others.

Therefore, we reject any ideology which would legitimate forms of injustice and any doctrine which is unwilling to resist such an ideology in the name of the gospel.

5. We believe that, in obedience to Jesus Christ, its only Head, the Church is called to confess and to do all these things, even though the authorities and human laws might forbid them and punishment and suffering be the consequence.

Jesus is Lord.
To the one and only God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, be the honour and the glory for ever and ever."

Overture

People bring things called "overtures" to the floor, that are like proposed amendments or suggestions about certain issues. The overture that we are submitting to the floor of General Assembly (which, if it passes there, will then proceed out into the church in the form of synods and presbyteries) is as follows:

"The Presbytery of Newark overtures the 218th General Assembly (2008) to correct translation problems in five responses of the Heidelberg Catechism as found in The Book of Confessions and to add the original Scripture texts of the German Heidelberg Catechism. The following changes are proposed:

1. Amend the answer to 4.019 as follows: [Text to be deleted is shown with a strike-through; text to be added or inserted is shown as italic.]

“A. From the holy gospel, which God himself revealed in the beginning in the Garden of Eden, afterward proclaimed through the holy patriarchs and prophets and foreshadowed through the sacrifices and other rites of the Old Covenant ceremonies of the law, and, finally, fulfilled through his own well-beloved Son.”

2. Amend the answer to 4.033 as follows: [Text to be deleted is shown with a strike-through; text to be added or inserted is shown as italic.]

“A. Because Christ alone is God’s own eternal Son natural son, whereas we are accepted adopted for his sake as children of God by grace.”

3. Amend the answer to 4.055 as follows: [Text to be deleted is shown with a strike-through; text to be added or inserted is shown as italic.]

“A. First, that believers one and all, as partakers of the Lord Christ, and all his treasures and gifts, shall share in one fellowship. Second, that each one ought to know that he is obliged to use his gifts freely willingly and with joy for the benefit and welfare of other members.”

4. Amend the answer to 4.074 as follows: [Text to be deleted is shown with a strike-through; text to be added or inserted is shown as italic.]

“A. Yes, because they, as well as their parents, are included in the covenant and belong to the people of God. Since both redemption from sin through the blood of Christ and the gift of faith from the Holy Spirit are promised to these children no less than to their parents, infants are also by baptism, as a sign of the covenant, to be incorporated into the Christian church and distinguished from the children of unbelievers. This was done in the Old Covenant Testament by circumcision. In the New Covenant Testament baptism has been instituted to take its place.”

5. Amend the answer to 4.087 as follows: [Text to be deleted is shown with a strike-through; text to be added or inserted is shown as italic.]

“A. Certainly not! Scripture says, ‘Surely you know that the unjust will never come into possession of the kingdom of God. Make no mistake: no fornicator or idolater, none who are guilty either of adultery or of homosexual perversion, no thieves or grabbers or drunkards or slanderers or swindlers, will possess the kingdom of God.’ Certainly not; for as Scripture says no unchaste person, idolater, adulterer, thief, greedy person, drunkard, slanderer, robber, or anyone like that shall inherit the kingdom of god.”"

Committee Meetings Continued

Committee meetings.

They bring out the worst in people, I think.

I think my room is full of talented, strong-willed and -minded people of varying views. I think they are all trying to make the church what it should be in their own faithfully thought view. I think they want to do things by the rules, to the last comma. I think they are passionate.

However, sometimes that can be an intimidating and heated atmosphere, and that's exactly what my committee is.

For example: yesterday we had our first meeting. I knew it was a tough crowd when we couldn't even approve the agenda.

There appeared to be a study guide that was already made but just needed an overview by the committee to be approved. The Moderator of our committee and the planning team decided that rather than sit and read the study guide, it would be more effective and entertaining to actually discuss it as a study guide and use it for the overview. Knowing how much mail we would be receiving, the leaders decided that the study guide would be passed out the day that it was to be reviewed. After all, there was no reason to read it before we reviewed it, the very reading of it was the review. Sounds considerate of them, right?

People were infuriated.

One women got up and commented on how the leadership had undermined her ability to make decisions and that she was mature enough to make the decision of whether or not to read the study guide herself. Not presenting it to her in the mail was an insult to her intelligence, so she said.

Hey guys, remember the people in Africa dying of AIDs?

Why are we wasting our time and energy on this? That's a hard thing to deal with here: the pervasive idea that the work we do here is so tedious, that is means nothing and we should be spending our energies somewhere else.

---------------------------------------------

Today, our main issue was that of the Heidelberg Catechism.

It concerned a few mistranslations and an addition made during the English translation in the 1960s to the original German text.

There was much deliberation of which I would love to elaborate on including an advocacy speech by both Dr. Jack Rodgers (to whom I adamantly introduced myself--I don't ever remember being so excited, I think, to meet someone as when I saw he had entered the room) and Dr. Robert Gagnon (to whom I would have liked to introduce myself again, but unfortunately he had left before the meeting was at a break session), but the night is rather late and my eyes are rather fuzzy again. Basically it was debated, to the fullest extent all day. There were moving and convincing testimonies to both sides. There were good questions and tedious ones.
The issue was between whether or not it was a "restoration" or a "revision," and whether or not this was simply a ploy to be one step further in the homosexuality debate, or indeed to return a sacred confession to its original content.

I voted in favor of the amendments each time. Of my table, Jay was in agreement, but the rest were not.


It should be noted though, that the room, despite its adamant differences, was still able to laugh with each other. Laughing was present throughout the day, albeit a stiff laughter at some points.

The real thing that I loved though was that after everything was finished, we had a short time to read Scripture together and sing in a worshipful manner. The opposing tables were joined for the singing. Every person, snaked through the round tables, had a hand to hold. We were a committee. A group. A community. A church. One.

BRC Videos

Bruce came to YAD caucus tonight and I recorded a little of what he said.
The first is him discussing how he "felt called" to run for Moderator.

I'm trying to upload this one.

The next is a response to how it feels to be Moderator. He began saying that some people would come up to him and say, "oh, you should be Moderator, but you won't be..."

I'm trying to upload this one.

And here's a little extra... :)