Conservatives see the movement as the future of their church, but liberals are downplaying it as insignificant. The first plank of the platform comes in reaction to a step taken in February by a council that runs the church between General Assemblies, the annual national meetings of church delegates. The council said it was proper for a denominational meeting to sponsor a talk by the Rev. Dirk Ficca that suggested salvation occurs apart from faith in Jesus Christ. Ficca, a Presbyterian, directs an interfaith organization based in Chicago, the Parliament of the World's Religions. The third plank came in response to the result in March of nationwide voting within the church that allowed local congregations to conduct ritual blessings for same-sex couples if they aren't called marriages.
Proponents say the Bible plank supports the other two.
The lay committee wants legislation to bind denominational officials and programs to the three points. The text, posted on the Internet on May 1, has been endorsed by several hundred individual Presbyterians. The Rev. Parker Williamson, leader of the Presbyterian Lay Committee, thinks the Confessing Churches point toward the future of the denomination. There won't be a Presbyterian schism, he said, because the left-right split already exists within the church. The Brainerd Daily Dispatch, Central Minnesota's Daily Newspaper.