Monday, April 25, 2005

Resolutions for the Assembly

In some ways this may be an oversimplistic post. Nevertheless, here's my observation. The major resolutions before the Churchwide Assembly in Florida are as follows:

1) Sexuality statement
2) Full communion study with United Methodists
3) Renewing Worship materials
4) Our "mission" proposal (which has mostly to do with structures and finances)
5) Diversity statement

By and large, I am not opposed to us pursuing these topics and studies and making statements on them as a church. But my frustration lies in the fact that they all focus exclusively on church practice, as if the most worthy things worth talking about as a church are ecumenical agreements, church structure, etc.

When I look at the confessional documents, they consistently start with confessions about the doctrine of the faith (Chief Articles of the Faith). In fact, that is their focus. Issues of practice are placed at the end of AC, in the area entitled "Abuses Corrected".

So, my question: Why do we not discuss in assembly the Articles of the Faith?