A Postmodern Moment

The denial of the Stated Clerk and the Moderator of the New Wineskins Initiative's request for a moratorium on action against congregations that wish to sever with their properties is proof that the Authoritative Interpretation of the 217th General Assembly concerning Recommendation 5 of the PUP Report is bad policy, bad theology, bad everything. The Stated Clerk has written previously in an Advisory Opinion that governing bodies have leniency in the application of the Fidelity/Chastity Clause. Here, however, he writes (along with the Moderator): "The 212^th General Assembly (2000) made it explicitly clear that even the General Assembly lacks authority to declare a moratorium on upholding the provisions of the Constitution." Yet, that's exactly what the 217th General Assembly did. When it voted the Authoritative Interpretation concerning Recommendation 5, it declared a de facto moratorium on upholding the fidelity/chastity clause of the Constitution. By giving governing bodies the leniency to 'scruple', the General Assembly exercised authority to declare a moratorium, the very thing the Stated Clerk (via the 212th GA) states it cannot do.

We are presently in a potential Constitutional crisis. My prayer is that we maintain dialogue and fellowship until the 218th General Assembly rights this wrong. That's the only way the potential crisis will be prevented from becoming kinetic.