Word from the Clerk

Our church is governed by a board of elders called the Session. Each Session has a clerk whose duties include communicating information from the Session to others. Last week, our clerk, Greg Nichols, sent out a letter to the congregation on behalf of the Session. It was the one page summary of my seven page letter that was sent at the same time. Here is Greg's letter:

May 10, 2011

Dear Friends,

The national Presbyterian Church is on the verge of a historical event. If it has not happened already, our denomination is about to make the headlines. On behalf of your Session (the board of elders) I wanted you to hear how your church is responding to what is happening.

The issue of the moment is related to ordination standards. The denomination has decided to remove language from our church constitution that requires ministers, elders, and deacons to “live either in fidelity within the covenant of marriage between a man and a woman or chastity in singleness” and replace it with more general language about submitting “to the Lordship of Jesus Christ in all aspects of life.” The effect of this is that it opens the way for our denomination to ordain non-celibate gay and lesbian people as ministers, elders, and deacons.

The Session met last night to discuss this issue at length and want you to know several things in response to what has happened.

• Nothing changes at St. Andrews. We will continue to uphold the “fidelity and chastity” standard. The new language, though lacking the clear expression of “fidelity and chastity,” does not require us to violate our understanding of biblical standards.
• The Session will make recommendations for what to do next. We have options and will weigh each prayerfully. That is the role of the elders of the church.
• We will band together with other like-minded believers for a way forward. One group is meeting later this summer to consider options that include separating into theologically like-minded groups. We will monitor that group’s work closely.
• We will not get sidetracked from our primary mission. St. Andrews will continue in our quest to make extraordinary followers of Jesus Christ. We will continue our journey towards being inwardly strong and outwardly focused.
• We uphold love and truth here. We are commanded to love God and love others while upholding truth. Truth without love is abuse; love without truth is hypocrisy. We will uphold both because we love God, we love people, and we love truth.

If you are interested in more information about this, including a helpful history of the issue, the Session has endorsed and now commends Pastor John’s enclosed letter to you. If you have any questions for me, please contact me.

In Christ,

Greg Nichols

Clerk of Session, on behalf of the Session

Mourning for the Church

"There is a time for everything, and a season for every matter under the heavens...a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to laugh."
Ecclesiastes 3:1, 4

Yesterday, I sent out a letter to the congregation reacting to troubling news of the larger church body of which we are a part, the Presbyterian Church (USA). I will write more on this in the future, but for now, I appreciate the way one group explained the position of those who see this as a departure from truth:

This is a time for grieving for the Church of Jesus Christ. In recent years we have seen one denomination after another forsake its commitment to Scripture, and thus to the Savior and Lord we know only through God's revelation of Jesus Christ in Scripture. With the passage of Amendment 10-A, the Presbyterian Church (USA) has joined that inauspicious list. By a majority vote of its presbyteries, the church has removed its ordination requirement of "fidelity within a covenant of marriage between a man and a woman or chastity in singleness." We have now become one of the denominations that have effectively removed any distinction between truth and falsehood by permitting what Scripture and our confessions call sin.

As a result of this action, we believe that the PC(USA) faces a grave threat to its unity, as well as its peace and purity. By this vote, the denomination has chosen to break the unity of the larger body of Christ in time and space, defying the wisdom of the Scriptures, the continuous witness of the Church through time, and the overwhelming majority of believers worldwide.

These are troubling times in the Presbyterian Church (USA), but followers of Jesus must continue to speak the truth in love, promote peace, unity and purity in the PC (USA), and invite others by our words and actions to unity of mission in Jesus.


I came to know Jesus in a personal way through a member church of this denomination and I've happily stuck with the PCUSA because of that witness to me. I am not happy about what I predict will happen: we will be significantly smaller and even more deeply divided as a result of this. I am in mourning for the Church of my spiritual awakening.