Newsletter

A network for Action, Faith, Fellowship, Intercession, Renewal, and Mission within the Presbyterian Church of Aotearoa New Zealand

AND THE

National Association of Presbyterian Evangelical Churches

( N.A.P.E.C. )

PO Box 84-133, Westgate, Waitakere City, Auck. 0657

NATIONAL EXECUTIVE AND COUNCIL: Steve Jourdain and Stuart Lange (Co-Chairmen), Cynthia Tracey (Administrator), Brian Brandon, Peter Bristow, Peter Cheyne, Heather Coster, Peter Dunn, Keleva Faleatua, Mark Farmer, Ian Hyslop, Emma Keown, Martin Macaulay, Colin Marshall, Wilson Orange, Ann Owen, Rhys Pearson, Tom Phillips, Ralph Penno, Alistair Smales, Stuart Vogel.

NATIONAL CONFERENCE FOR PRESBYTERIAN EVANGELICALS!

A national conference for evangelical Presbyterians is being held on 3-5 November, 2006, at St. Alban’s Palmerston North. This will be a great time of fellowship, encouragement, and stimulus. We are putting together an appropriate array of speakers and workshop leaders, mainly people who have wrestled with growing and leading churches in our various types of New Zealand contexts. Keynote speakers include Garry Marquand, Moderator of the Presbyterian Church, and Brian Winslade, National Leader of the Baptist Churches of New Zealand. Put the dates in your diary, and plan now to come. Registration form in next newsletter (September)!

HAVE YOU BEGUN PRAYING FOR ASSEMBLY? !

It is crucially important that we pray for this year’s General Assembly, which meets in Auckland from 28 Sept.-2 Oct. Among other things, the Assembly will make an extremely important decision: whether or not to confirm the ruling of the 2004 Assembly, “that this church may not accept for training, license, ordain or induct anyone involved in a sexual relationship outside of faithful marriage between a man and a woman.” To become the binding law of the church, the rule now needs to be ratified by Assembly. For that to happen, Assembly needs to vote at least 60% in favour.

· If the rule is confirmed, it will become the legislation of the whole church, and the shameful controversy of the last decade and a half will largely come to an end: the issue of homosexual behaviour among church leaders will not

disappear, but the denomination will be able to move ahead in relative peacefulness and confidence. It will be able to concentrate on matters of mission and renewal. It will be spared the ordeal of having to debate biblical authority and sexual morality at virtually every Assembly. (Such a relatively peaceful situation has prevailed in the church since the last Assembly, when the rule was adopted for the interim. Part of that peacefulness is that – as a compromise - the rule made an exception for persons who are already in ministry and are potentially affected.)

· If the rule does not achieve 60% support, it will lapse, and the PCANZ will be left with no rule relating to the sexual behaviour of those in ministry. Such an outcome – after so many years of struggle - would be an unmitigated tragedy for the PCANZ. So many ministers, elders, and congregations would be profoundly disappointed and dismayed. The PCANZ would again be propelled into serious turmoil. Nobody knows what might happen, but the risks must include major dissent and disruptions, the collapse of central authority (including the finances), the loss of many individual leaders, youth, and congregations (including many ethnic congregations), and severe overall decline. Who wants any of that?

So we ask: have you, and your local church and home groups and prayer groups, started serious prayer for Assembly? Some may want to fast and pray – and why not, given the seriousness of the choice that the PCANZ faces?

Why is this issue important? Because it signals whether we are willing to accept the authority of Scripture, soundly understood and responsibly applied. We believe that Assembly’s decision will have long-term consequences for the future spiritual health and unity of the denomination. If you want to belong to a church that you/your children need not be ashamed of, one faithful to the Word of God, you better start praying!

(But don’t expect to see this issue highlighted in pre-Assembly papers or in any official publicity material. Many people will studiously pretend it is unimportant).

Assembly will be asked to adopt a brief “Focal Identity Statement” and Commentary as the new Subordinate Standard of the PCANZ, replacing the Westminster Confession, and Larger and Shorter Catechisms.

This is a highly significant proposal: the Westminster documents (dating from the 1640s) have been the confessional standards of the Presbyterian Church in this country from the very outset. Generations of ministers and elders have subscribed to them. They are a classic, comprehensive statement of the reformed faith.

The Focal Identity Statement is eloquently worded, more-or-less orthodox on most points it addresses, and silent or weak on some other matters. It is very brief. Our concern is that it is not adequate as the church’s sole subordinate standard. Our next (pre-Assembly) newsletter will discuss this issue in greater detail.

THE DRAFT BOOK OF ORDER

The draft new book of order contains dozens of very significant changes, with considerable implications for church doctrine, ethical standards, and policy. AFFIRM will comment further on these in the next, pre-Assembly newsletter. The proposal that Assembly trial “consensus” in deciding on this is unlikely to help produce a fair process.

AFFIRM accepts a national church requires some funding from local churches, to support essential administration and some agreed mission projects. But if the parish levies are too high, congregations are burdened, and local staffing and outreach is curtailed. AFFIRM believes that parish levies to the national church are currently too high, and that Assembly needs to impose a maximum.

The evangelical stream in the PCANZ has rarely been fairly represented in the councils and committees of the national church: we are almost always a minority that can be out-voted. That has been the case for many decades. Other theological streams are often strikingly over-represented. The Council of Assembly, for instance, has until very recently had three members from one very liberal Auckland parish (and still has two). All this cries out for reform. What the Council of Assembly will be proposing is just more of the same, but with a few less members. AFFIRM supports an alternative proposal that the Council be directly elected by Sessions, through Assembly, after the circulation to parishes of nominations and supporting information. A similar system is already used for choosing moderators. With such a fair and open system of election, the Council would be much more likely to win the wider church’s confidence and trust.

MAKING A STAND TOGETHER: JOIN NAPEC!

80 parishes (so far) have publicly nailed their colours to the mast, by declaring their membership of NAPEC: the National Association of Evangelical Presbyterian Churches. NAPEC is not about schism, or being separate or divisive, but about like-minded parishes making a united stand within the PCANZ. It is about encouraging one another. At this stage NAPEC is still essentially a register of parishes making a stand, rather than a separate organization. So if your parish has not yet joined, now would be an excellent time to do so! To get the application form, email us at (PresAffirm@xtra.co.nz).

Ø To keep receiving this newsletter, please advise us of changes. The newsletter can be either e-mailed or snail-mailed, or both. It is over to you - just let us know what you want. (If you prefer e-mail version only, we like a street address as a back-up).

Ø We want contact with NAPEC churches to be primarily by e-mail. But already many e-mail messages have been bouncing, presumably because of changed addresses. If you have had a change of address or key contact in the

last few months, please let us know. Please check that your minister and eldership and church people still have access to this newsletter

Presbyterian AFFIRM - our commitment to you…

to be a voice within the Presbyterian Church that speaks up for biblical truth, grace and integrity, and to encourage anything that promotes faith, fellowship, intercession, renewal, and mission

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