News From The Assembly

Issues Forum Centers on Discussions of Subjects Important to Disciples 
July 23, 2007 - Disciples News Service - Fort Worth, Texas

All of humanity is made in the image of God, concluded several dozen Disciples who participated in a discussion about poverty at the 2007 General Assembly. The discussion was part of “From Our Doorsteps: A Journey Towards God’s Transforming Call,” a continuing education event.

One of four major learning tracks entitled, “Issues Forum: What’s Faith Got to Do With It?” took place on the afternoon of July 23 at the Worthington Renaissance Hotel in downtown Fort Worth, where the Assembly is being held at the convention center.

The more than 200 Disciples who attended the forum listened to theologians expound on three important issues: global warming, poverty, and interfaith dialogue. The workshop was led by Rick Lowery, interim dean at Lexington Theological Seminary.

The forum began with a 40-minute conversation about theological reflection in the Disciples tradition led by Serene Jones, associate professor of theology at Yale Divinity School, and D. Newell Williams, president of Brite Divinity School and incoming Moderator of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) in the United States and Canada. One of the goals of the learning track was to model respectful, theologically informed dialogue on some of the important issues that face us and threaten to divide us.

“There’s a need to think about how we as Disciples can think theologically about the issues of our day,” said Lowery, who is on loan to LTS from Phillips Theological Seminary in Tulsa, Okla., where he is the Johnnie Eargle Cadieux Professor of Hebrew Bible. “Our gift as Disciples is to be the body of Christ in a broken world.”

Jones, just back from the General Synod of the United Church of Christ (UCC) that took place in Hartford, Conn., last month, declared that “we are in the midst of a stirring revival of the mainline Christian church, which she witnessed both at the Assembly and Synod. “God loves the world. That’s the most profound thing you can say is God loves the world, and he wants a relationship with that world.”

Williams spoke about the dispute over the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850. Alexander Campbell, founder of Bethany College and one of the early leaders of the “Disciples of Christ,” recommended obedience to the law, a law that Campbell believed would eventually be rejected by the American people.

However, according to Williams, Ovid Butler, an Indianapolis Disciples lawyer, took issue with the law. Said Williams, quoting Butler: “As… a Disciple of Jesus, I am constrained to regard its provisions as violations of the principle of humanity, and as contravening the statutes and institutes of the Lord Christ.” Most of the Disciples in the room sided with Butler’s position.

Participants in the Issues Forum Learning Track also broke into small groups to further discuss the Monday issues. On the second day of the learning tracks, participants looked at the issues of war, health care and immigration.

By: James Patterson, writer

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