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Highlights of the 183rd General Assembly, Rochester, N.Y., May 17-26, 1971, side 1.
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- speakerIn 1558 John Knox wrote "The First Blast
- speakerof the Trumpet against the Monstrous Regiment of Women." It
- speakerwas a vicious attack on Rome in general and the person of Mary Tudor in
- speakerparticular. It has been a long conservative time
- speakersince that day and the 183rd General Assembly meeting in
- speakerRochester New York. [Stair, Lois H.] Well
- speakerhere I am,
- speakerfilled with amazement and gratitude and standing in the need of prayer.
- speakerHere I am. And, it is my paper that is unfolded and to be read to you when
- speakerI know there are three other acceptance speeches that should be heard. But here
- speakerI am. What have we done to put me here? We have set a
- speakerprecedent. We have taken a risk. You have said you trust me
- speakera layman, a woman,
- speakerto hold this high office. My hope is that I might merit your
- speakercontinued confidence in me. I must have confidence in myself
- speakeras well. What sort of confidence should I have? Should I be
- speakerlike the young black secretary made bold by the sign over her desk, "Think uppity."?
- speakerThink uppity. I must have been thinking uppity to have accepted this nomination.And, Milwaukee
- speakerPresbytery must have been thinking uppity to nominate me.
- speakerThis wasn't the first time they thought uppity. Back in 1930 when General Assembly was here
- speakermeeting, thinking about the approval of women elders. A young pastor had a duly
- speakerconvened and ready to go meeting of his congregation
- speakerat the moment that the assembly acted to have women elders.
- speakerWithin minutes of that action, there was a woman elder Sarah Dixon, elected,
- speakerordained and installed in that place. So they've been thinking uppity a long time in
- speakerMilwaukee. Yes we must have
- speakerconfidence in ourselves and in each other. As I read the Blue
- speakerBook in preparation for coming to Rochester, I became increasingly aware of a repeated
- speakertheme or lack of confidence. A loss of nerve. The
- speakerreports speak of pastors with low morale. Minorities and youth wondering
- speakerwhen equity will ever be a reality. Women feeling inferior and
- speakerleft out. Laymen fearing their voices go unheard. People seeking
- speakerself-development. And finding that process slow. Others finding
- speakerwork on restructuring and regional synods going too fast. In all these
- speakermatters we need confidence in ourselves and in each other. And we need
- speakerconfidence and trust as preconditions for reconciliation because
- speakerreconciliation can occur between equals only. We need to have this confidence and
- speakertrust. But is thinking uppity the source of such
- speakerconfidence? Hardly! Wishing won't make it so. This
- speakerconfidence is available to us here tonight. Very available. We
- speakerhave this confidence through Christ, through the assurance of God's forgiveness and love.
- speakerThrough Christ's presence with us. Through the Holy Spirit's working in us. This
- speakeris the source of our confidence. In fact with such confidence we can forget
- speakerourselves altogether. Christ is all sufficient and we have
- speakerthis further benediction. To him who is able to do so much more than we can ever
- speakerask for or even think of, by means of the power working in us, to
- speakerGod be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus. For all time
- speakerforever and ever amen. So be it.
- speakerThe votes that separated Mrs. Stair from John Peters [Petes, John Thompson] was scant.
- speakerThey were separated by only five votes on the first ballot. One vote on the
- speakersecond and she was elected by three hundred ninety two to three
- speakerhundred and eighty on the third ballot. It was a sign of the
- speakertimes. Never had this house seen the necessity for
- speakerso many divisions of the house. There were many issues before the house.
- speakerMost of them transitory, temporary, but there were
- speakertwo in particular, one of which has run through the last ten or more assemblies,
- speakerand that would be union or ecumenics. The other of which
- speakerwill be a large part of our future and that is women. These
- speakerhighlights will attempt to give some perspective to these two themes.
- speakerWe will begin with one person that embodies both ideas. [Wedel, Cynthia C.] Madame
- speakerPresident of the National Council of Churches.
- speakerFirst of all we're seeing every place, and I sense you're getting it right here in this Assembly, a
- speakergrowing demand for a much wider participation
- speakerin the decision making of the churches. We're seeing this from young people, from black people,
- speakerfrom people from the Third World, American Indians, Chicanos, women,
- speakerall the groups that have been kept out of the decision making up until fairly
- speakerrecently. Now this is disruptive. It often makes our nice smooth
- speakermachinery not run as smoothly as it used to. But can you help but feel that this
- speakeris exactly what God wants? That he wants every one of his children to have a chance to be
- speakerin the action, to help shape the institutions of society. And that, as we
- speakerlearn to work together and learn to operate by somewhat the same rules,
- speakerwe're going to be a much better church, a much stronger church, a much stronger National Council of Churches.
- speakerWe had to face this a little more abruptly than you have had had a little
- speakerearlier, in the National Council of Churches. I see it as a much better
- speakerorganization now because we have so much stronger voice of
- speakerthese formerly disenfranchised groups taking part in everything that is going on.
- speakerIt means that we're doing some things we never did before. But I think we're doing it happily
- speakerand recognizing that new things are the order of the day. So this is
- speakerperhaps the first thing that's happening. The second thing which I sense very clearly is
- speakerall over this country
- speakera wider and much more real concern on the part of all sorts of
- speakerpeople for Inter church, inter-religious, interdenominational, ecumenical
- speakerkinds of relationships. It used to be that we did a lot of this at the world
- speakerlevel. We had a good fellowship at the World Council of Churches. We did it at the
- speakernational level but you didn't see a great deal of ecumenical activity at the local
- speakerlevel. Today, that's where it's breaking out all over. clusters of
- speakerchurches. New ecumenical agencies being formed in local communities
- speakeracross this country. People getting together to do things together sometimes
- speakerthe traditional Protestant groups much, more often Protestants and Catholics, frequently including
- speakerJewish groups in their ecumenical activities. And this is coming from the grass
- speakerroots in a strong fine beautiful way. And, I believe, if again
- speakerwe who live at the national level we'll just not get too upset by the fact that sometimes local groups don't
- speakerfollow all the rules that we set up. We can begin to see that this is putting the
- speakerecumenical movement and eventually our national denominations and our National Council of
- speakerChurches on a much more solid basis. Then I begin to see also in
- speakermany places today a real honest facing of the
- speakertension which exists in every single one of our churches between two
- speakerpoles. And, I never quite know how to describe them, because you can use different terms. You can talk about
- speakerconservatives and liberals. You can talk about the Pietist and the activists. But there are
- speakerthese differing points of view in all of our churches and certainly in
- speakerrecent years we've been at one another's throats. And, this has been hard for churches and
- speakerdenominations. And, it's been very hard for the National Council of Churches. But I
- speakersense today in many places a growing dialogue between these groups. A
- speakerwillingness for the first time to listen to each other a little bit and a growing
- speakerrealization of what is so very basic and important that we've got to have both.
- speakerThe church must be a body of pious people. We must be people who
- speakerpray and read the Bible and go to church and care very much about our own
- speakerpersonal devotional life and the devotional life of our church. At the same time, the
- speakersame people must, we know, be out in mission to the people in need in God's
- speakerworld. And you cannot divide this and you cannot be half and half. If we're Christians
- speakerwe're both. And we have to be both conservative and liberal and we've got to learn to live with this
- speakertension within each one of us, within each of our churches, and not let it split us apart. T
- speakero me one of the most exciting and interesting things about the National Council of Churches is that for
- speakerabout the first 15 years of its life from 1950 to from 1965, we
- speakerwere under constant attack, as many of you know, from what I would have to
- speakerdescribe as a rather extreme right wing in our country. We were under attack for being
- speakertoo liberal, too far out front, too just doing too many things in the
- speakerworld and in society. For the last five years, with an increasing strength all
- speakerthe time,
- speakerwe're now being attacked from the other side for being stuffy, old-fashioned, conservative, not
- speakerdoing anything, not being out where the action is. The only response I can make to this is if you're being attacked
- speakerfrom both sides you must be doing something right. And I feel very good about this. Then we
- speakeralso I think.
- speakerNeed to be aware all of us who are in the church, and you wouldn't be here if you weren't in the church.
- speakerWe have to be aware of the fact that in spite of superficial signs to the
- speakercontrary, this nation and perhaps the whole world, is in the midst of a
- speakertremendous revival of interest in religion. You can see it every
- speakerplace. Religious books are on the best seller lists. News of religion is on the front pages
- speakerof our newspapers and our news magazines. Young people are demanding courses in religion in
- speakercolleges and universities. People are talking religion every place you go. There is a
- speakergrowing, a deep, a very exciting, real interest in religion.
- speakerIt isn't at the moment a great deal of interest in the institutional church. And this I
- speakerthink is the fault of those of us who are the institutional church. Because increasing
- speakernumbers of well-educated well-informed affluent interested people
- speakerare looking for meaning in life. They're looking for the transcendent. They're looking for
- speakersomething beyond the material. And as they look at us they often think
- speakerthey don't see this in the church. This is the challenge that we in the
- speakerinstitutional church and that includes the United Presbyterian Church of the United States, my
- speakerown beloved Episcopal Church, all of the other churches and the National Council of Churches. We
- speakerhave the responsibility today to remake these bodies to which
- speakerwe belong, into the kind of institutions that modern,
- speakerconcerned, interested, idealistic people, young and older
- speakerwill find a place where God really is at work, where the spirit of
- speakerJesus Christ can be seen and felt. And I have every reason to think we are going to do
- speakerthat and that within the next decade or so we are going to see the institutional
- speakerchurch change and come alive as perhaps it hasn't since the days of the early
- speakerchurch. Thank you.
- speakerThe National Council is just that, a council not a union.
- speakerThe quest for union is called CoCu. We know
- speakerit as the Committee of Consultation on Church Union. Dr. James I. McCord
- speakerof Princeton is chairman of that committee.
- speakerLet me in a few broad strokes sketch the background of the quest for the unity of the
- speakerchurch today and thus put this plan of union in perspective.
- speakerFirst it is a well-known fact that the search for unity in the
- speaker20th century the whole ecumenical movement grew out
- speakerof the missionary movement of the 19th century. In the
- speakerstruggle to fulfill the Great Commission, it became painfully
- speakerclear to our missionary fathers that the field is vast, that
- speakerresources are limited and small.
- speakerAnd the competition between Christian bodies is sinful and wasteful.
- speakerSecond. The response to this ecumenical
- speakerimperative articulated by the missionary pioneers in the
- speakerlate 19th and early 20th centuries was co-operative
- speakerChristianity. The churches said we shall not compete
- speakerbut where possible we shall co-operate. And this co-operative
- speakerresponse was institutionalized in councils of churches.
- speakerThat is to say, councils were formed in order that co-operation might follow.
- speakerAnd, there have come into being since then councils at every level, local,
- speakerstate, regional, national and world.
- speakerThird this conciliar age is coming to an end, certainly
- speakerfor Protestants. Councils have had a great
- speakerministry during their day. They have drawn the churches out of
- speakerisolation and into dialogue with each other. They have provided a
- speakercommon forum for discussion. In many instances they have
- speakerprovided an instrument for cooperation and common programmes.
- speakerBut councils today, at least among many Protestant
- speakerchurches, are in trouble. Fourth.
- speakerWe are summoned today to make a more realistic, relevant and
- speakercostly response
- speakerto the ecumenical imperative. We are increasingly aware that
- speakerco-operation is not enough. We have learned to
- speakercooperate best where the issues are unimportant or
- speakerwhere the issues are unprofitable. If we are to
- speakermake a more realistic relevant and costly response
- speakerthen it will mean that the churches must move beyond mere cooperation.
- speakerAnd the Consultation on Church Union is one suggested answer.
- speakerIt is an attempt to restructure Protestantism for mission in our
- speakertime. Let me add quickly that the
- speakerconsultation is not unique. It has parallels
- speakerin Canada, in north India and Ceylon, i
- speakern at least five African nations, in Australia, and in New Zealand.
- speakerIn all of these places a parallel movement is going on among
- speakerProtestant bodies, attempting to restructure the church
- speakerfor renewal and mission today. If anyone feels
- speakerthat the church today is doing all that it should do,
- speakerthat its health is good, and its mission is flourishing, that all
- speakeris needed is the press in the present crisis is to maintain the status
- speakerquo.
- speakerThen he will doubtless say that this enterprise is not worth while.
- speakerBut, if he feels that much remains to be done, then I believe
- speakerthat he will look closely at this scheme. And, if he does not like
- speakeraspects of it, he will suggest ways to improve it.
- speakerBut our agenda as responsible people of God has not been
- speakercompleted in 1971
- speakerand much progress remains to be made.
- speakerFor one thing we have discovered that unity is a mark of Christ's Church.
- speakerAnd where we live with this unity, the credibility of the witness of the
- speakerchurch to Jesus Christ as Lord is at stake. For
- speakeranother thing, we know that we are failing as fragmented
- speakerdenominations in our mission to our teeming,
- speakerdecaying cities and to our depleted countryside.
- speakerAnd in the third place we confess that we are continuing to export
- speakerour differences as burdens of struggling
- speakerminority churches overseas to bear.
- speakerWith this background, I hope you will
- speakercontinue to look carefully at this plan. And
- speakercontinue to respond as many of you have responded with
- speakervery helpful criticisms and suggestions to the
- speakermaterial that is before you. Let me repeat what I
- speakersaid last year in the report to the 182nd General Assembly.
- speakerYour responses will be taken very seriously by
- speakerthe Committee on the Consultation on Church Union. And
- speakersecond, in the 10 years since 1961 to
- speaker1971, you have not been asked to vote on
- speakeranything that changes either the
- speakerConstitution of the United Presbyterian Church or
- speakerany of its documents.
- speakerThe Committee of 24 is neither council nor union
- speakerbut re-union. Our church and the Southern church which parted in
- speaker1861 had also reached the point of offering a
- speakerplan for study. The next voice you hear is that of a
- speakerSouthern elder a lawyer by the name of Kenneth Hobbs and a tireless
- speakerworker for reunion. Now that there is a proposed plan it is our hope
- speakerthat it will receive a reasoned consideration in these presbyteries instead of being
- speakerrejected on a highly emotional appeal by those who seem steadfastly willing to
- speakersanctify the past
- speakerin order to and sacrifice the future. In addition we of course have a great deal of yet work to
- speakerdo in attempting to deal with the legitmiate concerns of our black membership to be
- speakersure that their position of integrity is maintained and that their leadership is preserved.
- speakerThis is particularly critical in some Synod, such as Catawba. By the same token we have
- speakerpeople in our church who are scared to death that you all are going to swallow us up. We
- speakerkeep hearing the phrase swallow us up. I could not help but think as I watched you debate this morning
- speakerwe're all going to get along fine. We can't stay any better organized than you can.
- speakerAnd finally we have some five special or ad interim committees at the general assembly
- speakerlevel that are working on everything from reorganisations to the drafting of new
- speakerconfessions. All of their work is important. It must somehow be molded into a total
- speakerplan to become effective. Those of us on the joint committee of 24 feel
- speakerstrongly that the union proposal we have presented is fundamentally a sound plan. That
- speakerwith your suggestions and improvements it can be a workable and a good plan of union.
- speakerIt is our hope that the study of the plan will be the catalyst that will ultimately result in a
- speakerrevitalized interest in both of our Reformed heritages. And, that we will together
- speakerdevelop a more creative way of sharing the love and the concern and the hope that is
- speakerours through Jesus Christ. That is what we as individuals and as churches are
- speakercalled to do. Thank you.
