General Assembly: Fear Factor

Tuesday

The highlight of Tuesday morning was the Ecumenical Relations Committee report.   Iver Martin’s committee does a lot of good work, and they deserve our thanks.   Trips to New Zealand to the International Conference of Reformed Churches being one of the more arduous tasks they are charged with – but their involvement in the European Theatre of Operations makes it all worth while.   They have, for the last few years now, been involved in “talks” with the Church of Scotland.   To quote the CofS Ecumenical Relations report, “There are uncertainties about the goals of [this] conversation.”   Dr. Ian D. Campbell agreed with this.   He wanted to suspend discussions (perhaps for a year) to allow both parties to take stock of the situation, perhaps even to find a purpose for the talks.   Jedi Rev suspects that this amendment was defeated because of fear:

• Iver spoke of his fear of what the press would make of it if we broke of discussions right at this point.
• He spoke of the fear that we would be abandoning evangelicals in the CofS who are thankful for our conversations with the denomination.
• Some commissioners spoke of their fears that local evangelicals would no longer partner with them in the Gospel, if we broke of high level talks.

Jedi Rev thinks these fears are red herrings:

• The press will maul us whenever we get round to breaking off talks with the CofS – a virtual certainty, unless the CofS is radically transformed (something which will not – despite Iver’s suggestions – be due to our involvement in these talks).
• The CofS evangelicals Jedi Rev knows – arguably not leaders, but rank and file guys like Jedi Rev – keep asking why the Free Church is talking to the CofS, but not any of the various evangelical groups within the CofS: that would be far more profitable.
• If we were to take a pause in our discussions, that would be simple thing to explain to our evangelical neighbours – and I suspect we do them a great disservice and slur by suggesting they will break off partnerships with us as some commissioners suggested.

It is a long standing Jedi tradition that fear leads to the Dark Side – but on this issue, Jedi Rev thinks the Free Church was motivated by fear.   Iain D’s amendment was voted down, so the talks with the CofS will go on.

Jedi Rev’s verdict: Jedi Rev is all for closer partnerships with other evangelicals.   But Jedi Rev is sceptical about the purpose of high level talks with the CofS.   There are other Christians we could be more closely involved with – the APC denomination for one!   There is serious prospect of removing the scandal of that division, yet it is disappointing that so much energy is directed to a conversation that has produced a disappointing “Joint Statement” and now a confusing report on dialogue.    It is more disappointing that the arguments of fear held so much sway in this debate.

Jedi Rev thinkis it will be really bad if we break off talks with the CofS after they approve of homosexual ministers.   It makes us look like homophobes.   And what can we hide behind?   The argument that this is an unprecedented departure from the authority of Scripture?   We’ve been saying that for years already.   What makes the present crisis any worse – is it because this time it’s a gay guy?   Jedi Rev thinks voting against Iain D’s amendment will land the Free Church with real difficulties.

General Assembly: An impenetrable Church court

Jedi Rev is just back from the General Assembly of the Free Church of Scotland.   After a mostly relaxed weekend – three services in a pulpit swap with Daniel Sladek, two helpings of really nice venison at lunch with friends and one broken timing belt – Jedi Rev is now ready to put some thoughts on the web about a week that was maybe a bit of a let down.

Monday Night

The opening night of the GA is supposed to be a fairly formal affair, with the retiring moderator preaching, the moderator designate being dragged to the chair by the wary previous holders of this esteemed office and the clerks get us to do the first of a long series of “rubber stamps”.   Jedi Rev has come to dislike rubber stamps.   Rubber stamps are moments when you are asked to approve a decision by stamping your feet, but when no serious alternative option is presented.   The first rubber stamp is normally the approval of standing orders – stamp stamp stamp – but would anyone ever dare propose a different set of standing orders?   Jedi Rev wonders what a GA would be like if standing orders required all speakers to to use iambic pentameter when addressing the house.

Surprisingly, Iain Gill and Jedi Rev seemed to have taken it upon themselves to make Monday night a slightly more interesting affair, with two addenda to the Assembly Arrangements Committee’s deliverance.   This committee normally meets to, unsurprisingly, arrange the Assembly.   So they tend to thank people for some genuinely hard work, e.g. Sharon Fraser at the church offices, who is just great – one her jobs is putting the Commissioners reports together (that’s 80, 200-page ring binders).   This committee is however responsible for the orderly arrangement of these reports in advance.   So, for Iain Gill there was an issue about one committee using their “deliverance” (the points they ask the Assembly to approve, and take action on) to instruct another committee to do something.   You might think this was a minor, utterly insignificant point, but as we’ll see, it was anything but.   Blood, sweat and tears were going to be shed on this point.   Jedi Rev had a different concern – nobody outside the Committees knows what the committees are discussing until they report, and as they only report once a year (the afore mentioned 200-page ring binder), it’s like a blocked pipe being cleared.   The volume of information is overwhelming.   Nobody can be expected to read all of it (contrary to some opinions, Jedi Rev didn’t read every page of the reports!), let alone understand everything.   So, Jedi Rev asked if the AArC would consider changing the reporting system – give us smaller, more regular updates.   Then there’s the issue of confidentiality – some committee members have a problem with this.   There’s one well documented instance involving unfreezing some bank accounts – a clearly private matter, but thanks to some buffoon the other party with a claim on the money got wind of the plans, and the money remains frozen in a HBoS account to this day.   Jedi Rev asked the AArC to sort this out – but he used much more polite language than that.   And then Jedi Rev did the unthinkable – he asked the AArC to find a way of allowing the wider membership of the church to see, and have some input into the committee room.   Jedi Rev is not in favour of committees operating under a blanket of secrecy.

As you can see, Monday night was riveting.

Jedi Rev’s verdict: unless the Free Church’s proceedures become more accessible, the lack of interest will continue to deepen, and that will contribute to more people feeling that what happens in “Edinburgh” has little or no bearing on thier local church.   Presbyterianism does not need to be impenetrable.