The General Assembly (GA) of the Presbyterian Church USA recently established and provided funding for a Study Team to develop proposals on gun violence prevention (GVP) to be presented to the 2010 GA meeting. The Team is made up of 8 Presbyterian clergy and laity from across the country, plus two staff persons (a staffer from the PCUSA Committee on Social Witness Policy and a consultant Presbyterian pastor/professor at Philadelphia Lutheran Theological Seminary to work continuously with the Team and do most of the required writing).
The Team met for the first time over the May 1 to 3 weekend, at the beautiful Lutheran Theological Seminary in the Mt. Airy neighborhood of Philadelphia. It was an extremely interesting, encouraging and exhausting meeting, running from Friday afternoon to Sunday afternoon.
It's relatively early in the process, but there appears to be (happily!) a consensus to eschew proposing the GA make yet another strong statement about gun violence and its prevention - the GA has made several such statements over the years (as have almost all denominations) - to little effect. Rather, the Team seems to be taking its theological base from I John 3: 18 "Little children, let us love, not in word or speech, but in truth and action," and is eager to propose an action plan to the GA, that would instruct Presbyterian clergy, laity, congregations and regional bodies to become actively involved in local, interfaith GVP campaigns and how to do so.
My fellow Team members heard much about Heeding God’s Call, an emerging faith-based campaign to prevent gun violence that began in recent months in Philadelphia and is growing apace. I would not be surprised if the Team ended up using Heeding as a model in some way for its proposal to the GA. Here's hoping...
The Team expects our consultant to provide us a rough draft of a proposal in the next month or so. We will meet again in September to flesh it out.
This may hold out possibilities as a model for other denominations, as well. We shall see, but we’re hopeful.
