General Assembly “Deciding Point”

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31764, 22 August 1968, Page 16

General Assembly “Deciding Point”

This year’s general assembly would be the deciding point for many Presbyterians on whether they chose to stay within the Presbyterian Church, the president of the New Zealand Presbyterian Laymen’s Association, Mr R. D. Arnold, of Wellington, said last evening.

Mr Arnold, who is a senior lecturer at Victoria University, was addressing a meeting of the Christchurch branch of Presbyterian Laymen attended by 45 persons. He said that since Professor L. G. Geering had made his statements about the basis of the Christian faith, there had been considerable confusion in the Presbyterian Church and many had felt that Professor Geering should not have been allowed to make such statements.

“What Professor Geering has said refutes all past teaching of the church and has left us, if he is to be believed, with no doctrine on which to base our faith. “Matters are made worse when he is permitted to make these statements by the church. We now want the church to affirm, through the General Assembly, that what we have held for years as the doctrine of faith, still is the doctrine held by the church. “We do not want to be hasty about this and to those who are considering leaving the church, I would counsel patience," Mr Arnold said. “The opinions within the

church are very strong on this issue and many ministers are not aware of the feelings of some of their congregations. Many ministers are behind the laymen in their efforts to have this issue clarified, but I think that many others have not yet cottoned on to what Professor Geering has been saying. “His book does not make all his matters clear and I can say that since the publication of his book, his standing as a scholar has gone down as that was not a scholarly work. “It is now up to the assembly to deliver a clear directive on the substance of faith so that we know if we have a doctrine or not on which to base our faith or to see if the church still holds something for persons with views opposite to those of some modern scholars,” Mr Arnold said. Mr Arnold and Mr R. Gardinpr, president of the Otago Branch of the Laymen’s Association, have been touring South Island towns and cities in the last two weeks giving background explanations on the petition at present being circulated by the association, which will be presented at the church’s general assembly in Wellington later this year.