Guest Viewpoint by The Rev. Dr. Doug Harper

A number of my colleagues are in churches either seeking to leave the PC(USA) or have already left. They have left for many of the same reasons that we are leaving, which I have articulated in previous posts. We are not new to ministry, but we are also not able to see the issues from the experience of a lifetime of ministry, which means that we are at risk of what C. S. Lewis calls chronological snobbery. To keep myself in check, I value the ideas of Teaching and Ruling Elders with far more experience than me. On the matter of seeking dismissal, what I hear from respected "elder statesmen" is that leaving is a faithful and right choice. FPC Douglasville heard from two of our retired pastors, Leon Jeffords and Sandy Fox, that leaving is a faithful and good decision. I have heard that same affirmation from many other elder statesmen of the church. I thought it would be helpful for you to hear from another retired pastor, in particular my father. He has watched the denomination drift for a long time and he has worked for decades towards its renewal. He has never before endorsed leaving, but that has changed. He believes that the PC(USA) has crossed a rubicon. If you know my father's history of dedication to the denomination, you know he does not arrive at this position lightly and you know that the problems are quite serious. His perspective his helpful for my own thoughts on leaving and may help you as well.


One Step Too Far
by Dr. M. Douglas Harper Jr.

After 60 years of ordained ministry in the Presbyterian Church U.S. and in the Presbyterian Church (USA), with great sadness I have concluded that if I were Pastor of a congregation today I would be willing to lead that congregation so seek dismissal to another Reformed denomination.  Specifically, I would advocate their becoming part of ECO. This conclusion is all the more surprising because from 1978-1981 I worked diligently as a member of the Joint Committee on Church Union to end the 120+ year-old Civil War-induced split between the major Southern and Northern branches of the Presbyterian Church.

What has happened to make me reach this conclusion?   I believe that recent judicial proceedings as well as an action of the 2012 General Assembly have turned authority in our denomination upside-down.  This is what I mean:  I was taught and still believe that the Bible is our final authority in all matters of faith and practice.  I was taught and still believe that the Book of Confessions is our secondary authority, always subject to correction by Scripture.  It was with that understanding that I helped write the Brief Statement of Faith, the most recent addition to our Book of Confessions.

This means that, as I was taught and still believe, the Book of Order as well as all actions of assemblies and commissions rank third in authority after the Bible and the Book of Confessions. Their actions must conform to these two higher authorities.  However, the 2012 General Assembly received a motion to amend the Book of Order and debated it in spite of a point of order that the motion was clearly in conflict with the Book of Confessions.  The proposed motion was defeated. This does not change the fact that by this action a sitting General Assembly, as James Goodloe notes, “knowingly and willingly rejected the confessions as having any say so about the faith, life or government of the church.” (Paper, “The Church One and Holy”, p. 13)  This is consistent with the decision made by the General Assembly Permanent Judicial Commission earlier in 2012 in a case originating in San Francisco Presbytery.

This turns authority in the church upside-down!  The order is no longer the Bible, then the Book of Confessions, and only after that the Book of Order and the decisions of commissions and councils.  Now the decisions of the General Assembly and commissions and councils outrank both the Confessions and the Bible. They may not – and I pray they will not—follow the logic of their own decisions.  There is, however, no longer any constitutional barrier to their doing so.

Clearly, these are perilous times for the faith and spiritual life of members and congregations in the PC (USA)!  When I was a Pastor (I am now retired) I did my best to nurture the faith and life of the congregations I served. This meant faithfully following the teachings of Scripture and upholding the Reformed faith in accordance with the confessions of our church.  I do not believe that pastoral faithfulness means allowing the decisions of the most recent General Assembly or the latest decisions of various Permanent Judicial Commissions to  define what we should believe and how we should live.

For that reason, with great sorrow I must conclude that if I were presently the Pastor of a congregation I would seek an orderly way to unite with a Reformed body that still holds to the Bible as its supreme authority for faith and life and the confessions as authoritative insofar as they follow the teachings of Scripture.