Practically, we greatly benefit from our various perspectives applied to a unified purpose of ministry. In order to do this, we must know the people to apply God’s word to their felt needs. God’s people are commanded to love one another. So then, what purposes do our various personalities, attributes, perspectives, experiences serve? What value is our one new humanity?įor Love - God loves, and therefore we love. a diverse city is our context), to reconcile those who are diverse under the name of Jesus. It is made relevant and useful for the kingdom in diverse contexts, (i.e. Our Purposes - Having diversity is not a goal unto itself. His people, from tribes and nations, are called out of darkness, given the same sonship rights, responsibilities, and privileges in His kingdom. He has created mankind as His image bearers. God hates sin…and so must we - Partiality, in the form of racism, deceives people into thinking more or less of themselves and others, therefore rejecting the definitions that their Creator has already made. Ultimately, as we have gleaned and summarized in a biblical foundation on this subject (Section II), these matters are important to God and central to His mission- He cares, so we must care. There are many valid reasons, including but not limited to, the repeated pains and grief experienced by our members. Why we care - We first ask ourselves why these matters ought to be important to all of God’s people. Our hope is that the work of this committee would provide the tools necessary for us to examine ourselves individually and corporately in the light of scripture, and to make us more loving, holy, and unified in our Kingdom work. We believe, in order for Tenth to be an effective witness in Philadelphia, diversity of ethnicity is an important attribute which should be a high priority. God’s design for His kingdom includes all these same diverse attributes. Philadelphia is a city with ethnic, gender, age, political and socioeconomic diversity at this moment in our history. Our goal is to foster a corporate culture through biblical thinking, policy, and personal investment in evaluating where we are in context to understanding how diversity plays its role to serve our sole purpose- proclaiming the Gospel. To provide an action plan for Session approval that would facilitate conformance with biblical truth and practice. To review our church’s current practices and ministries relative to the biblical standard and, 3. To prepare a formal, biblically-based position statement on racism 2. The committee was tasked with three primary objectives: 1. With current national attention placed on racial injustice, this committee was tasked to utilize the pre-existing efforts at Tenth on racial reconciliation over the past 2 years, and to develop a framework that produces biblical perspective and subsequent recommendations for church-wide initiatives on this important church matter. At the June, 2020 Session meeting, the Session appointed a committee, comprised of an ethnically diverse group (Co-chairs RE Phil Scribano and RE Steve Forde, and members of the committee: TE Liam Goligher, TE Enrique Leal, RE Miguel Pulido, Signe Spragins, Joan Veterano, and Joshua Uy). The Session of Tenth Presbyterian Church has considered the weighty matters surrounding race, and ethnicity, and recognizes they are experienced, seen, and felt, to varying degrees because of our diversity. Review recommendations provided by the committee for consideration of being implemented in the new year The Session commits to communicating to the Tenth congregation the progress made on this issue as we strive together, as a church family, to glorify our Lord, and demonstrate our love and devotion to one another, all made in His image.Request to the specific leadership of each ministry (Worship, Discipleship, Outreach, Mercy) to survey their respective ministries for the purpose of evaluating current efforts in affirming the biblical standard pertaining to racial unity and reconciliation in the church and,.Ongoing review of the details of the Report.Instead it sought to follow the timeless sufficiency of biblical text and the catechisms of the church to thereby present a thoroughly Christian response to the issues facing us today.īased upon this report, the next steps Session will take will include: It was quite deliberate in avoiding secular trends like ‘Woke’ culture or utilizing societal frameworks like critical race theory. The committee spent significant time in prayer and in the Word as it developed the report. We endorse this report as a framework in creating a culture that reflects Christ’s Kingdom, and we give thanks to our Lord and to the committee for their work. The Session of Tenth Presbyterian Church received the Report on Racial Unity, Reconciliation, and the Church from the Session committee at the NovemSession meeting.
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