Can’t join us on the day, well you can still have your say!

5 thoughts on “Can’t join us on the day, well you can still have your say!”

1. Thankyou for setting up the BP meeting last night. As Zoom attendees, although we missed the initial speakers due to an unforeseen problem, and then could not hear the speakers from the floor in the Plenary Session, we benefitted from sharing our feelings & concerns with other like minded folk in the small group to which we were assigned. Pain,sadness, frustration, anger & despair about ongoing issues in PCI were widely expressed – in particular about the negative attitudes of many PCI clergy to the ordination of women, and indeed to women in general, and also to those in same sex relationships.
   For us 2 interrelated threads emerged:- firstly the need to challenge the literal, narrow & stultifying interpretation of Scripture by many in our church. Then as the opponents of women’s ordination & same sex relationships are not shy in stating their case, we wondered could we appoint a spokesperson from our group to articulate our feelings & views in the media. We need to be proactive, imaginative & ‘smart’ to help rescue our beloved church from a fate worse than death!

2. I feel that Ministers and teachers of PCI doctrine should teach the beliefs of our church and should not be alliwed to cop out of this using the conscience clause. If you are teaching and preaching the PCI position on women elders and Ministers then personal views must be set aside

3. The last few years have seen the rewriting, usually from a considerably narrower point of view, of church statements. The ‘Brief statement concerning faith and order’ has become the latest in need of ‘updating’. This document got many of us over the line to become elders (before we resigned in disgust) and we await its new version with some trepidation. There has also been a practice run on the Rule of Faith.

   Will those of us in favour of the ordination of women also be granted a conscience clause? How constricting does the report on decision-making-and-dissent seem likely to be?

   There are three tiers of courts (four if we include Synods) in the Church but when last was anything sent down to kirk sessions for consideration, debate and report? On the other hand, Kirk Sessions seem to debate matters less and can become fora where the inadequate and the thoughtful are browbeaten by the zealous and the righteous.

   Can we / How can we repair the relationship with the Church of Scotland or the United Reformed Church?

   Our Church grows smaller partly because young people are turned off by recent Assembly decisions and middle-aged people are just walking away in disgust.

4. Very concerned about the new Moderators stance on women

5. Being Presbyterian was set up In the aftermath of the GA that cut links with the Church of Scotland and refused communion and baptism to same sex couples. There was much anger and upset about it and the un democratic procedures used to bring these about. That is why people came together at that time and the leadership of being Presbyterian was tasked with developing a strategy for dealing with this but apart from initial hand wringing I see little evidence of these issues being addressed. Now women in the ministry and eldership are under attack. Something has to be done to oppose these mysoginist homophonic and undemocratic moves. Unless there is I see little point in Being Presbyterian.