The passage of Amendment 10-A deleting the “fidelity and chastity” standard has strained Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) relationships with many overseas partner churches. But two leaders of PCUSA-related mission groups urged attendees at the Fellowship of Presbyterians gathering to maintain and deepen the relationships whenever possible.
“At a time when many of our global partners feel the PCUSA has turned away from them, you do not have to turn away from them,” pleaded the Rev. Rob Weingartner of the Outreach Foundation. Weingartner spoke together with the Rev. Bill Young of the Presbyterian Frontier Fellowship at an August 26 seminar during the Minneapolis gathering. The Outreach Foundation and Frontier Fellowship are independent organizations that cooperate with PCUSA World Mission in promoting international evangelism.
Much on the minds of seminar attendees was the recent decision of the National Presbyterian Church of Mexico to break its 139-year-old mission partnership with the PCUSA. In an “clarifying communiqué” in Spanish addressed to “the Presbyterian people of the United States of North America in general,” top officials of the Mexican church stated their conviction that the adoption of Amendment 10-A “separates them [the PCUSA] completely from loyalty and fidelity to the principles of the Word of God.” They explained, “It was because of this decision [deletion of the ‘fidelity and chastity’ standard] that our National Presbyterian Church of Mexico did NOT consider it prudent to continue this relationship [with the PCUSA], so as NOT to accept NOR to be participants in what we consider to be sin and aberration in the light of the Word of God.”
The Mexican Presbyterians indicated that the relationship could not be restored until Amendment 10-A was rescinded. But they held out “open arms to maintain all kinds of fraternal relations, of work and joint collaboration, with all churches, presbyteries, and synods—not only in the United States of North America but also in any country of the world—that maintain their adherence, fidelity, and faith in the principles of the Word.”
The two seminar speakers shared the distress at this rupture with the Mexican church. They expressed the hope that even though the partnership at the national level may have been severed, joint mission projects between local U.S. and Mexican congregations and presbyteries might still go forward in many cases.
“It grieves me,” Weingartner said, “to hear people apparently hoping that more partner churches” would follow the Mexicans’ lead in breaking relations. The Outreach Foundation executive predicted that many other partner churches would “remain in relationship” with the PCUSA while being “concerned” about the direction of the U.S. denomination. He quoted one anonymous African church leader who had asked, “Why would we break relations with you [the PCUSA], when you are our mother, just because you are confused in these matters [of sexuality standards]?” Another African leader had confided: “We have our own sins too, and some of them are sexual. We are all sinners.”
Weingartner stressed that partner churches “are not just concerned about sexuality.” They also raise issues about U.S. attitudes toward power and money. In all these areas, Weingartner said, what the international partners see “is often a cultural default that they experience as [American] arrogance.”
In response to a question about why U.S. Presbyterians did not listen better to their worldwide Christian kin, Bill Young stated that “there is no mechanism for that” in the PCUSA. Communications with partner churches are carried on by PCUSA World Mission; however, policy decisions such as Amendment 10-A are made by the General Assembly and presbyteries. Young also remarked that “you can’t assume everyone here would listen” even if the views of overseas Presbyterians were communicated to them.
The Frontier Fellowship executive advised the Minneapolis seminar audience that the key to durable, mutually beneficial mission partnerships was “build[ing] trust through long-term personal relationships.” Such relationships, in which overseas church leaders know the theological and ethical integrity of their U.S. partners, would be able to survive strains such as those produced by Amendment 10-A.
“God is doing amazing work around the world,” Weingartner affirmed, “and it is our privilege to participate in God’s work. How we participate has become a new question in light of the decision of the presbyteries to approve Amendment 10-A.” He voiced his belief that “God is using the global church to renew the church in the U.S.” That is one reason why the two U.S. mission leaders felt it was so important to maintain the mission partnership links wherever possible.
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