Faithful Presbytery Process
Resources for Dialog

Well designed processes for “listening and discernment” in preparation for the vote on Amendment 08-B can not only help presbyters vote thoughtfully but also build relationships within the presbytery.

Please share ideas and experiences with National Organizer Tricia Dykers Koenig.

Models can include:

• a half-day or full-day conference or retreat
• an afternoon pre-presbytery event
• a series of one-hour pre-presbytery discussions, at each meeting over several months
• small, ongoing discussion groups around the presbytery

Some possible approaches include:

A presentation or panel on how Presbyterians understand the Bible's authority in their lives, followed by small group discussion of particular passages (which may or may not be about sexuality).

A "model" discussion, on an agreed topic, by four or five articulate and respected people with different points of view, followed by small group discussions of the same or related topic(s). Questions about the church can well engage all participants, for example:

• What does loving the church mean?
• What are your greatest fear(s) for the church?
• What that you love about the church is most at risk in the current controversies?
• What would you miss most without the church?
• Who belongs in the church? (and should gay and lesbian people  be allowed in the church?)
• Why do we need each other?
• What would we lose if (____) left?

The Brief Statement of Faith or the Six Great Ends of the Church can also provoke insights on our common beliefs and sometimes differing emphases.

A panel presentation, followed by small-group discussion  and a report-back, of

• the Reformed understanding of ordination
• the meaning of an ordained laity
• how individual elders, deacons, and ministers understand  their own ordination, and what difference it makes in their lives
• the ordination questions -- what do you mean when you say Yes?

All such exercises should appropriately begin with prayer and end with a worship service, ideally including the celebration of the Lord's Supper.

We strongly commend, as background and guidance for any conversation undertaken under this rubric, the "Guidelines for Presbyterian in Times of Disagreement," written by the Presbyterian Peacemaking Committee and adopted by the 204th  General Assembly. 

Resources on Biblical Interpretation

• Presbyterian Understanding and Use of Scripture/Biblical  Authority and Interpretation (the two statements adopted  by the "northern" and "southern" churches  at the time of the 1983 reunion).
• The Whole Bible for the Whole Human Family is a statement by a majority of all the  Bible faculty at Presbyterian seminaries, presented to the 213th  General Assembly (2001)
• Rules for Biblical Interpretation in the Reformed Tradition briefly summarizes the guidelines  for reading the Bible in both of the statements.
• Confessional Guidelines  for Biblical Interpretation shows what the confessions  say about how to read the Bible.