GA Moderator and Vice Moderator Candidates: John Wilkinson and MaryAnn McKibben Dana

NOTE FROM THE DIRECTOR:

It’s Presbyterian Church (USA) General Assembly week on ecclesio.com.  All three of the candidates standing for Moderator of the General Assembly, meeting in Detroit, Michigan, June 14-21, 2014, have written responses to questions from the Office of the General Assembly, to introduce themselves to the Commissioners and Advisory Delegates.  One of the questions was on the Confession of Belhar, a matter that will come before this Assembly. I am grateful to serve on the Special Committee on the Confession of Belhar, and was particularly interested in the candidates’ responses to this question.  On ecclesio.com this week, those responses will appear, with responses of both the moderatorial and vice moderatorial candidates to three more questions I posed, based on the three themes of the Confession of Belhar:  unity, reconciliation, and justice.  I thank all six fine disciples of Jesus standing for election in Detroit for their willingness to respond quickly to my questions, and look forward to your insights in response.

Question on the Confession of Belhar from the Office of the General Assembly (OGA):

The Special Committee on the Confession of Belhar has approached the Confession of Belhar through the lenses of “justice, unity and reconciliation.”  How might the Confession of Belhar help Presbyterians both confess historic and current brokenness within the Church and seek authentic relationships for the present and the future? 

John: When I teach new member gatherings at Third Presbyterian Church, or conduct leadership training in our presbytery, I talk about the ways that ours is a “connectional, constitutional and confessional” church. A General Assembly is a great venue to witness our connectional and constitutional nature; this year’s General Assembly will also be a great setting to experience our confessional character.

As a confessional church, we have paused from time to time to write what we believe and given those articulations special status. Sometimes it’s been at the point of church union or reunion, or church conflict, or national or international crisis.

Apartheid in South Africa was such an occasion, and though the apartheid era has officially ended, racism in that country and ours remains a pernicious force. The Confession of 1967 speaks of the need for racial reconciliation within the life of the church, and rightly so. That confession called the church to confess its divisions and strive toward a greater unity. Though progress has been made in the decades following, does Martin Luther King, Jr.’s assertion that the United States is at its most segregated at 11:00 a.m. on Sunday morning still ring true?

The Confession of Belhar focuses outward, to a nation and culture plagued by the sin of racism. It calls the church to accountability, but it also calls the church to lead the way in transformation, “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….” Having lived in Indianapolis, Chicago and now Rochester, I can testify that racism — as it does in Detroit — continues to tear at our social fabric. A vicious cycle of crushing poverty, gun violence and failing public education is tinged with racial undertones. In Rochester I participate in community-wide conversations on race. The discussions are positive and the intentions are earnest. Yet the problem seems intractable.

I am hopeful that we as commissioners will consider Belhar seriously and send it to the presbyteries for their approval. It is not simply a powerful testimony from a recent era and an important ecumenical partner. It is a powerful testimony to the church now, and a mandate to the church to lead our culture to change now.

As we engage the words of Belhar, we will first confront our own racism — in our own souls and in the life of the church. That will empower us to provide leadership, to share a vision of racial reconciliation (and other kinds of unity) in the face of so much brokenness.

If we believe in hope, and we do, perhaps in this era we will see a more racially diverse Presbyterian church, And perhaps that church can lead the world toward reconciliation and unity — Belhar’s vision — and even more so, Jesus’ vision, “that they all may be one.”

Questions from ecclesio.com:

We live in a time when people can choose to hear news, commentary, comedy, and discussions about faith that agree with their own, confirming their own points of view.  Research shows that a majority of us do in fact make our viewing, listening and internet choices in this way.  We see this in politics and we also see this in the church.  How do we in the PCUSA confront this in ways that would work toward a more unified witness to Christ’s grace and mercy?

MaryAnn:         One of the reasons I support John Wilkinson for moderator is because of his experience on the Theological Task Force for the Peace, Unity and Purity of the Church. At the end of their time together, that group made a series of wise recommendations to the church, but their witness was broader than that. They exemplified a model of engagement across differences that should continue to challenge and empower us. This group worshiped and prayed together. They spoke frankly and listened well. They grieved one another’s losses and celebrated good news.

We are all prone to the tendency to cluster with people of like mind. My involvement in a church community keeps me from being retreating too much into my silo. In the church I serve, we are all over the map theologically and politically, yet we come together to love God and love our neighbor. And we learn that people are complex—political “opponents” on one issue may be allies in another.

An important caveat is needed. We in the church have been too quick to ignore or forgive boorish and abusive behavior in the name of unity and “niceness.” Welcoming all to the table does not mean we should tolerate bullying behavior. But our unity in Christ is part of our witness. In the words of the Task Force’s final report, “At a time when people readily kill one another over their differences, a church that lives and works for that kind of witness will capture the attention of a polarized world.”

John:     The Theological Task Force experience was transformative in so many ways for me personally, and I do hope we contributed something of helpfulness to the church over the long haul. I sometimes heard the comment, “Of course your task force had such a significant experience. You had the luxury of time and stepping out of your normal patterns.” That is true – people do forge significant relationships when placed in such an intense and intentional environment. Yet I would often counter that the real gift and opportunity happens locally, first in our congregations and then in our presbyteries, where we have the opportunity to build relationships over time. MaryAnn rightly says that a congregation includes a diversity that we often do not creatively explore. I’d say the same thing about presbyteries, our basic form of gathering. I have spent a great deal of time in our presbytery, the Presbytery of Genesee Valley, in one-on-one conversations and in small groups with people who disagree on a great number of matters across many spectrums. Yet we have the gift of being together over time, and therefore the opportunity to establish new patterns of connection. This has helped to unify our witness in our presbytery and in our communities.

One of the songs I grew up with was “We Are One in the Spirit/They’ll Know We Are Christians By Our Love.” I can even pound out the chords on my guitar (though not very well!). I am so grateful that it appears on our new hymnal.  “One in the Spirit…walk hand in hand…work side by side…and they’ll know we are Christians by our love.”  That seems like a good starting place – how do we love one another in the church, so that the world will know us by our love?

Comment on a few justice issues in which you feel God calling you to respond, and to which you understand the church being called to respond.

MaryAnn:         We will discuss a number of issues at GA this year, everything from marriage equality to gun violence to abortion. All of these connect with our faith and have implications for real people in our world. Two issues that captivate me personally that I hope the church will engage in coming years:

The gap between rich and poor. There is a yawning gap between rich and poor worldwide, but that gap is also growing in the United States—a fact that should concern all of us, regardless of our political persuasion. Inequality destabilizes society, leading to higher crime, lower educational attainment, and decreased trust in government and other institutions. I’d like to see the church address this issue in effective non-partisan ways. After all, Jesus’ spoke about economic justice more than just about anything else!

Environmental issues, especially global climate change. I am concerned by polls showing that religious folk are more likely to disregard the current scientific consensus around global climate change, specifically the role humans’ actions have played in it. Climate change is a stewardship issue—God gave us an abundant, beautiful creation. But climate change is also a justice issue—poorer countries and peoples will bear the brunt of the devastation when it happens.

John: Having grown up in small town and suburban Ohio, I still marvel at the work of the Holy Spirit in leading me to McCormick Seminary. Who knew that my entire pastoral ministry would be in urban settings: Chicago, Indianapolis, Rochester? I believe with the theologian Emil Brunner that a church exists for mission as a fire for burning, and for me, that mission has been urban. It has focused in large part on public education, hunger and housing. Third Presbyterian Church in Rochester offers many programs that provide hands-on support for those in need – whether kids needing tutoring support or people in need seeking food or housing. More recently, given the proliferation of gun violence in our city and nationally, we have also joined many others to speak out and work for reduction of gun violence in our city’s streets.

At the core of our work, we continue to discover the reality of poverty, crushing concentrations of poverty in pockets of our city. Address poverty and you address public education, hunger, housing, even gun violence.

My pastoral call, and the call of the communities I’ve been privileged and less to serve, has been to address this root scourge. It feels like a particularly biblical thing to do, and it feels like a particularly Reformed thing to do. Our forbear John Calvin believed that God called us to love and serve the city, and Calvin was involved in many aspects of Geneva life. We share that calling, and the particular call to me has been to seek the welfare of the city. As challenging as it is, I am grateful for that call.

How, after many congregations and pastors have left the PCUSA, can we work toward reconciliation?

MaryAnn:         It has to come through relationship. I was involved for many years with a theologically diverse group of pastors who intentionally engaged the divisive issues of the day. That experience was formative and it continues to impact how I minister today.

John and I are both involved in leadership with NEXT Church, which excites us for a lot of reasons, but one of the main reasons is this: we recognize that the renewal of the church will happen not primarily through top-down denominational efforts, nor from building better programs. It won’t even come primarily through GA decisions! Rather, transformation and reconciliation come through relationships. NEXT is a network, which means that a lot of our work happens through conversation—at regional events, during roundtable conference calls, and online through blog posts and comments.

I have roots in Houston, Texas which means I followed the vote of First Presbyterian Church in Houston very closely when they were deciding whether to leave the PC(USA). When they failed to clear the 2/3 majority needed to leave—barely—I felt the angst of that close vote. I don’t see things the same way the leadership of First Presbyterian does. Yet their church does good ministry in Houston, and I grieve any close vote, regardless of which way it goes. To their credit, the leadership has pledged to be a model for reconciliation and positive engagement moving forward, and I continue to pray for that congregation.
John:    One of my go-to biblical references is from Paul, that together we are the body of Christ. Yesterday, I preached from I Peter and was totally intrigued by the imagery of “living stones” and a “spiritual house.” All parts of the body are needed to make the body function. Every stone is needed to make the house strong and accommodating.

Last November, I moderated a meeting of our presbytery at which one congregation voted to depart the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) and one voted to stay. I was grateful that we had a good process in place, and good people willing to share their time and energy as each congregation engaged in that process. When this particular congregation departed, we gathered in prayer, and we also shared with them our hopes that they wouldn’t go far.

We need each other, and we are diminished whenever a congregation leaves our denominational family. My ministry and spirituality has been enhanced by sisters and brothers to the “right” and to the “left” of me, nurturing me, correcting me, supporting me.

Reconciliation is not simply good church practice; it is a gospel mandate. That’s why the Confession of 1967 has been so important to me, with its message of reconciliation from 2 Corinthians 5.

As we think about our shared baptism, our common calling, and the mutual mission to which we are called in this uncertain era, perhaps we can re-claim that vision, both to glorify God and to strengthen our witness.

The Rev. Dr. John Wilkinson is standing for Moderator of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (USA).  He has chosen the Rev. MaryAnn McKibben Dana as his nominee for Vice Moderator.  Learn more about John and MaryAnn at the following sites:

John Wilkinson for Moderator:  http://www.johnwilkinsonpcusa.com/

MaryAnn’s blog:  http://theblueroomblog.org/blog/

John’s Facebook page:  https://www.facebook.com/johnwilkinsonpcusa