Synonyms: Unity & Uniformity?

Grace Presbytery includes a period of planned theological discussion in every presbytery meeting. Looking ahead to the forthcoming release of the report of the Task Force on Peace, Unity, & Purity of the Church, they have chosen to focus on the meaning(s) of peace, unity, and purity in three successive presbytery meetings. In June the presbytery will reflect together on unity. Two papers from pastors of different theological perspectives will serve as resources and discussion starters for the presbyteries. With their permission, we share them here. To read, "Jesus, Son of God—Bringer of Unity, Preserver of Persons" by The Rev. Warner M. Bailey, H.R., please click here.

The unity was not for baseball team affection; the unity was love for the game, baseball

Growing up in Chicago, regardless of where you lived, it was a segregated city; this is no reference to race, let alone creed. One was either a White Sox fan, or a Cub fan. Diversity?  Yes, of course. Pick: one rooted for the Southside Sox or the hapless Northsiders, the Cubbies. The unity was not for baseball team affection; the unity was love for the game, baseball—then called “America’s past-time.”  Diversity was the rabid focus of the particular aficionados. How was I to know it would prepare me to live in the unity-diversity quagmire of contemporary Presbyterianism.

Years ago, a friend of mine and Moderator of the Yankee General Assembly, Chuck Hammond, as our divided denominations moved to reunion, spoke to the church when he said, our unity per the command of Christ does not rest in our uniformity, or our sameness, but in our common creed: “Jesus Christ is Lord.”  This comes to mind when Dr. Bailey rightfully reminds us, “Our unity rests in our common confession.”  This is an indelible, immutable, commitment we do well to remember. Yet how soon, historically, we forget.

...we have forgotten our unity rests in common confession when we add to it looking like one another, a.k.a., uniformity.

Time and again in our American Presbyterian history various polarities within that common creedal confession assert that unity really also includes significant uniformity. When I ponder raging debates such as that surrounding The Plan of Union of 1801, better remembered internecine warfare called the Old School-New School wrangling, even the Old Light/New Light debates—right up until our contemporary tribalism—it never fails, that one or both polarities in such debates adds to the unity of creedal conformity, particular pet issues or stances that become definitive whether one is truly orthodox. It does not matter whether the polarity focuses on evangelism methods, or social gospel vs. personal piety agendas—we have forgotten our unity rests in common confession when we add to it looking like one another, a.k.a., uniformity. Unity is the issue, not uniformity. We risk the well-being of the body ecclesiastical when we press for our pet, albeit important, issues taking on confessional gravity. Schism happens, diversity becomes disunity when we stumble into this much-repeated error. Concord prospers when we look across the polarities that divide us and reaffirm that which unites, the Lord of the Church, Jesus Christ. We may never concur in agreement on what constitutes proper evangelism strategies, or proper preparation for ministers of Word and Sacrament, but God help us when the unity surrounding common confession is ignored in lieu of secondary uniformities.

Could it be the church is never more at risk when with well-intentioned passion one of us rises and says...

Could it be the church is never more at risk when with well-intentioned passion one of us rises and says, “It’s not Presbyterian unless we __________,” and in that blank is anything but affirming the Lordship of Christ?

NRS 1 Corinthians 1:12 What I mean is that each of you says, "I belong to Paul," or "I belong to Apollos," or "I belong to Cephas," or "I belong to Christ." 13 Has Christ been divided? Was Paul crucified for you?

Beware when unity becomes a synonym for uniformity; rejoice when we together exalt Jesus Christ as Lord. They who do such is my sister, is my brother.