History and Purpose of the Covenant Network

We seek to live out the Reformed faith found in Scripture and our confessions, and in our life together to follow the principles laid out in the Call to Covenant Community. We strive to proclaim and embody the gospel as we have learned it from the life and ministry of Jesus; we affirm the centrality of the Bible in our church; and we value the dynamic tension between unity and diversity. The Call to Covenant Community has been affirmed by 20 former Moderators, more than 2,500 ministers, 2,000 other officers, 300+ sessions, and five presbyteries.

Covenant Network was founded in August, 1997 to support the passage of Amendment (97)-A, the "Fidelity and Integrity Amendment." Its founding Co-Moderators were Robert Bohl, Pastor of Village Presbyterian Church in Prairie Village, Kansas and Moderator of the 206th General Assembly, and John Buchanan, Co-Pastor of Fourth Presbyterian Church in Chicago and Moderator of the 208th General Assembly.

The Covenant Network's appeal to the "broad middle" of the church has attracted support from across the denomination.Its Board of Directors and Board of Advisors include distinguished pastors and theologians from all parts of the country, united in their determination to keep the church from either enshrining a narrow orthodoxy or splitting over non-essential matters. Deborah Block, Pastor of Immanuel Presbyterian Church in Milwaukee, and Laird Stuart, Pastor of Calvary Presbyterian Church in San Francisco, served as Co-Moderators from 1999 to fall of 2001. Joanna Adams, Co-Pastor of Fourth Presbyterian Church in Chicago, and Gene Bay, Pastor of Bryn Mawr Presbyterian Church in Bryn Mawr, PA, are the current Co-Moderators.

Executive Committee members Laird Stuart and John Wilkinson spelled out some core commitments in brief remarks to Covenant Network events at the 213th General Assembly. A year later, at the 214th G.A., Gene Bay laid out Covenant Network's ongoing role and plans following the defeat of Amendment 01-A. Joanna Adams at the 215th G.A. confirmed the Network's commitment to creating a climate for change through Informing, Networking, and Advocating.

Covenant Network's Program Commitments

We are committed to helping the church stay together in faithful ministry, even as we continue to study the Scriptures and seek the mind of Christ on the question of ordination standards and other matters. In addressing a broad range of theological, biblical, pastoral, and ecclesiastical matters facing our church, Covenant Network will

• Articulate a traditional, progressive, mainstream vision of the Presbyterian Church through publications, scholarship, and conferences;

• Organize local Covenant Networks for study, prayer, mutual support, and attention to church polity;

• Participate actively in our General Assemblies;

• Track cases in the church courts, and provide moral, legal, and financial support to officers and sessions challenged under G-6.0106b of the Book of Order ("Amendment B"); and

• Work for needed changes in the church, including the eventual removal of G-6.0106b. Toward this end, Covenant Network in 2001 actively worked for passage of Amendment 01-A.

Covenant Network was formed in 1997 to support passage of Amendment (97)-A to the Book of Order, the "Fidelity and Integrity" amendment intended to give sessions and presbyteries more discretion in discerning God's call for ordained office on particular people, within clear Biblical and confessional standards.

Amendment A was not affirmed by a majority of presbyteries in voting during the winter and spring of 1998. Consequently the former "Amendment B" remains in the Book of Order, the constitution of the church, as G-6.0106(b). Although the amendment failed to pass, 46% of the votes cast in presbytery meetings that year favored Amendment A.

Recognizing that the issues raised by that debate are representative of wider challenges facing the church as it seeks to be faithful in a time of controversy and change, Covenant Network is continuing and growing.

Covenant Network's History

Highlights of our first eight years include:

• Issuing A Call to Covenant Community
• Gaining the affirmation of the Call by more than 3,000 ministers, 2,000 other officers, 20 former G.A. Moderators, 350 sessions, and several presbyteries
• The popular Covenant Network Luncheons at G.A., with speakers Jack Stotts, Peter Gomes, J. Barrie Shepherd, Joanna Adams, Jon Walton, Tim Hart-Andersen, and Brian Blount
• The 1998 Covenant Conference in Denver on Living Faithfully in the Church When We Disagree, with Jack Rogers’s keynote address on “Reading the Bible the Presbyterian Way”
• The 1999 Covenant Conference in Atlanta on Jesus Christ and the Church, with Douglas John Hall and Barbara Wheeler keynoting
• The 2000 Covenant Conference in Pittsburgh on Biblical Authority and the Church, keynoted by Walter Brueggemann and William Placher
• The 2001 Covenant Conference in Pasadena on Christ Transforming Culture, with keynotes by Peter Gomes and Jack Rogers
• The 2002 Covenant Conference in Minneapolis on Confessing Christ Today, keynoted by Shirley Guthrie
• The 2003 Covenant Conference in Washington, DC on The Church We Are Called to Be and to Become, with a keynote dialogue between Barbara Wheeler and Richard Mouw
• The 2004 Covenant Conference in Chicago, Made in the Image of God: Thinking Theologically about Sex, keynoted by Luke Timothy Johnson and Jack Stotts
• The 2005 Covenant Conference in Memphis, Disciples in Community, keynoted by Kathleen Norris
• Publication of Renewing the Vision: Reformed Faith for the 21st Century, edited by Cynthia Campbell (Geneva Press, 2000)
• Publication of Far From Home: Tales of Presbyterian Exiles (2004)
• Production of Turning Points: Stories of Life and Change in the Church, named Best Educational Video of 2004 by the Religion Communicators Council
• Participating actively in local conferences on The Unity We Seek in Our Diversity
• Organizing to defeat proposed Amendment 00-O, the “Limits on Prayer” amendment
• Organizing two as-yet-unfulfilled campaigns to remove G-6.0106b from the Book of Order
• Beginning to organize local Covenant Networks in presbyteries and seminaries across the denomination