A "Brief Statement of Faith," an 80-line document summarizing the beliefs of Presbyterians, has undergone several years of study and will likely be further scrutinized before finally being adopted.
The 202nd General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), meeting in Salt Lake City through Wednesday, is scheduled to discuss the statement at a plenary session at 9 a.m. Tuesday in the Salt Palace exhibit hall.Several hundred commissioners, those with voting power, and youth delegates and theological seminary delegates will receive a report at the Tuesday session from an assembly standing committee.
If the assembly approves the statement or an amended document, it will then be reviewed by the church's 169 presbyteries - geographic governance units - two-thirds of whom must give approval. If the presbyteries (Utah has one) give their approval, the statement will be submitted to the 1991 General Assembly in Baltimore.
The main theme that seems to run through the statement is that in life and death "we belong to God. We begin with that statement, and we end with that affirmation," said Jack Stotts, president of the Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary.
"Through the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit, we trust in the one true God, the Holy One of Israel, whom alone we worship and serve," the statement reads.
An ordained minister, the Rev. Stotts headed a 21-member committee that began initial drafts of a statement after the northern and southern branches of the church were reunited in 1983. The Rev. William Skinner, pastor of the First Presbyterian Church, Sioux City, Iowa, was chairman of a 15-member group charged with recommendations to this year's assembly.
Traditionally, Presbyterians periodically prepare statements on their beliefs about God and his relationship to them and the rest of the world.
"It was John Calvin, a primary (Christian) reformer who suggested to us that it is the responsibility of the church to say what it believes . . . So from generation to generation we will restate ancient truths in ways that are pertinent to today's situation," the Rev. Stotts said in an interview.
The latest draft of the statement of faith contains a line that says Jesus was "unjustly condemned for blasphemy and sedition." Among other things, the statement also reflects a belief that the Holy Spirit " . . . calls women and men to all ministries of the church" and reflects Presbyterians' concerns about acts that " . . . threaten death to the planet entrusted to our care."
Bernard Weiss, a University of Utah professor of Arabic and Islamic Studies and an ordained Presbyterian minister, says he likes the statement on faith but raised concerns with line 19 in the statement.
Weiss, who is not an assembly delegate but who was among theologians, Bible scholars and others discussing the statement at an assembly meeting Friday in the Marriott Hotel, said that part of the statement "could sound anti-semitic to some people."