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Press Releases
September 1, 2004 An announcement for Evangelicals from Rev. Gary Starkey of Westpark UMC, in Yakima, WA. follows. In preparation for the meeting (see information below), please read the “Options For The Future” document written by Good News Board Members Mark Dicken, Scott Field, Phil Granger, and Tom Lambrecht. For further information, please see the News Release of Good News on August 26, 2004: http://www.goodnewsmag.org/news/083004Unity_Seperation.htm September 1, 2004 Note: Cornerstone UMC is located at 20730 SE 272nd. St., Covington, WA 98092. The pastor at Cornerstone is Rev. Daniel Foster and the church phone number is 253-630-5868. Following is a map from Yahoo! Maps, see the red star for the location. Traffic in Seattle is heavy on work days, so plan for extra travel time if your route takes you through Seattle. Go to the following site for help in directions to the church (click map):
April 19, 2004
News Release http://www.faithfulchristianlaity.org/discussion/viewtopic.php?t=80 http://umc.org/interior.asp?ptid=2&mid=3471 We concur with United Methodist Bishops Lindsey Davis and Mike Watson, who have stated: “We are profoundly disappointed in the recent church trial court decision in the Seattle area. It is a clear sign of rebellion when a group chooses to flagrantly ignore The Discipline, substituting their own perspective for the corporate wisdom of the General Conference.” The decision of the jury in the Dammann case is symptomatic of much deeper problems which must be addressed by the General Conference of the United Methodist Church in 2004. Though we did not author the following letter, we fully agree with, endorse, and support the content. We are endeavoring to make it available to the 2004 General Conference Delegates, all concerned United Methodists and Christians everywhere.April 17, 2004 Easter Saturday To our fellow United Methodists in the United States and the world, We ask for your prayer - prayer for those of us in the Western Jurisdiction (and the Pacific Northwest Annual Conference In particular), for the ecumenical unity of the Church in truth, and for the upcoming General Conference (GC). We are convinced that the 2004 GC in Pittsburgh will be decisive for the future of United Methodism in the United States. The GC will either deal firmly, decisively and faithfully with the spillover of the "culture wars" into the North American Church -- and with the UMC in particular - or we will deservedly die a painful death from our timidity and charitable half-measures. Again, if we do not deal faithfully with this situation, this cancer will now quickly spread and eventually kill the rest of the body. We seriously wonder whether it is too late to deal with the crisis, especially since most people are currently fixated on the symptoms (e.g., the Sprague and Dammann court decisions) when the underlying spiritual, doctrinal and disciplinary causes of our malady are largely ignored or only lightly handled by The General Conference. Indeed, we are now harvesting what has been sown for at least the last five or six decades. Lamentably, we are now convinced it is too late to reverse the deeply entrenched heretical and schismatic tendencies in the Pacific Northwest Annual Conference (PNWAC) -- and perhaps the whole Western Jurisdiction. Those of you in other jurisdictions 'who think that the theological "liberals" among you can be trusted because they "make nice," have not taken with sufficient seriousness the danger in which you find yourselves. And make no mistake: you are in danger. We in the PNWAC have learned from painful and bitter experience what it is to be deliberately used, co-opted and betrayed -- all the while clergy leaders at the Annual Conference "levers of power" invoke the various names of their deities, and mouth the platitudes of diversity, inclusivity, and tolerance. If you remain even a little passive -- or are deceived by their facile and duplicitous assurances and "go along to get along" - so that you fail to clean and rightly order your own houses now, then you too will find yourselves surrounded by "colleagues" and "sisters and brothers in Christ" who think it their spiritual duty to shamelessly twist and desecrate the Gospel our Lord has entrusted to his one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church.We must finally accept the uncomfortable truth that those among us who have given themselves over to the obsessive promotion of homosexual practice as "good, right, holy and an occasion for thanksgiving to God" -- as well as those among the clergy who, as it were, "play fast and loose" with the revealed truth of God enshrined in the core articles of our Christian Faith -- are simply enemies of the cross of Christ. Given what is now taking place in the larger North American culture, i.e., the advent of gay "marriage,” we do not think we have four more years to hope against hope that those who are determined to advance "the gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgendered" and Unitarian agenda among us will relent and desist. They will not quit - they will not repent. They will not "be nice” but only make nice like "a cuckoo in the nest."We ask you not to think that we have a choice between the continued flourishing of sub-Christian teaching and ecclesial division. Do not think that the sustained tolerance of what can only be called "heresy" will enable us to preserve unity and avoid schism in the United Methodist Church. Indeed, to tolerate doctrinal heresy and disciplinary laxity to thrive among us is to allow the growth of conditions that can only lead to schism. It is as Richard John Neuhaus has noted, "When orthodoxy becomes optional it will soon be proscribed." That statement should be received as a prophecy, for that prophecy is now in danger of being fulfilled before our eyes. Indeed, John Wesley's fears - stated so long ago -- have proved prescient: “I am not afraid that the people called Methodists should ever cease to exist either in Europe or America. But I am afraid lest they should only exist as a dead sect, having the form of religion without the power. And this undoubtedly will be the case unless they hold fast both the doctrine, spirit, and discipline with which they first set out." We now find ourselves in the midst of our Western culture's headlong rush to invert the verities of God's revealed will for his creation. If we have any hope to "spread scriptural holiness over this land," we must now rediscover our Bibles, re-appropriate the classical creeds and our own doctrinal and liturgical standards, find our voice, and once again firmly proclaim the whole counsel of God on precisely those delicate topics we have avoided for unity's sake. Again, we will need to regain our grip on "the doctrine, spirit, and discipline" actually articulated by our General Conference. The unhappy alternative is that what is now a defacto schism through the hearts and minds of many laity and not a few of our clergy will unquestionably become a rupture in which the clergy and laity who seek to be faithful to God in the Wesleyan tradition will be driven from the United Methodist Church by consciences that cannot abide with overt and willful apostasy among its clergy and episcopate. Pray for spiritual discernment of God's truth and a holy courage to make the necessary but difficult decisions. Pray that the General Conference will together find the fortitude to follow the whole truth as it is in Jesus. Pray for the faithful laity of the splintered Church in North America ~ and especially of the United Methodist Church - that they (we) be awakened, renewed, patient and resolute in the face of the spiritual darkness in which we all struggle. March 23, 2004Eight clergy members of the Pacific Northwest Annual conference of the United Methodist Church met in Ellensburg, Washington today to begin the process of briefing and strategizing in response to the recent trial verdict of the Rev. Karen Dammann. We gathered to share our pain and disappointment, and to discuss potential responses to the betrayal of covenant within our Annual conference. We stand in solidarity with the National and Global United Methodist Church in its clear and unequivocal stance against the practice and validation of homosexuality. We are stunned that our colleagues would blatantly ignore church law, both in its letter and its clear and unambiguous intent, and render a verdict that is in clear defiance of church law and scripture. We celebrate and support the emerging witness of national and local voices that decry this move. Among these voices are United Methodist Bishops Lindsey Davis and Mike Watson, who offered the following statement:
After spending three hours in consultation, we agreed to the following points:
Seeking God’s Truth in a spirit of Love,
Rev. David Parker Central United Protestant Church, For the Ellensburg Gathering February 1, 2003Seattle, Washington United Methodist Church Members Begin Uniting To Provide Faithful Christian WitnessFor a number of years there has been growing
concern by many United Methodist Church (UMC) Members over the increasing
lack of moral, ethical, and sound doctrinal teaching, practices, and worship
in the Pacific Northwest Annual Conference (PNWAC). The UMC is a mainline
Christian denomination founded on the basic tenets of the Christian faith
and governed by its sacred Scriptures, historical Confessions of Faith, Book
of Discipline and General Conference. However, many pastors and leaders in
the PNWAC have failed to uphold and abide by the doctrines and laws of the
Church. The Bishop, Cabinet, District Superintendents, Board of Ordained
Ministry, Committee on Investigation, and others, have failed, either by
choice or through ineffectiveness, to appoint pastors for many local
churches who honestly agree with and teach Christianity in the Methodist
tradition. In addition, when there are pastors who do not maintain the
highest standards of holy living and/or disseminate doctrines contrary to
the established standards of doctrine of the UMC, there has been little or
no enforcement of obedience, which effectively condones their beliefs and
behavior. THE FAITHFUL CHRISTIAN LAITY OF THE UNITED METHODIST CHURCHMISSION STATEMENTWe, The Faithful Christian Laity of the United Methodist Church, have joined together in love for God and for the United Methodist Church to help revive and maintain faithful Christian witness and service in our local churches and Annual Conferences. We provide meaningful avenues for faithful Christian lay voices to be heard and opportunities for action as a means to that end.
THE FAITHFUL CHRISTIAN LAITY OF THE UNITED METHODIST CHURCHUNIFIED STATEMENT
We, The Faithful Christian Laity of the United Methodist Church (Faithful
Christian Laity), believe in and affirm the United Methodist Church’s
Articles of Faith, as written in ¶103 in The Book of Discipline of the
United Methodist Church (Book of Discipline). We believe that the sacred
Scriptures received through and from the early church, affirmed by the
Protestant Reformation, and passed down to the United Methodist Church, is
the inspired and authoritative witness for Christian life and doctrine. Like
John Wesley, we believe that Bible is the “final authority in all doctrinal
matters.” The Bible says that all have sinned, and all can be cleansed of
their sin and reconciled to God by the death and resurrection of Jesus
Christ. We, as Christians, are called to “go now and leave your life of sin”
(John 8:11). This calls for repentance and an earnest desire to turn from a
sinful life. We believe that “no Christian whatsoever is free from the
obedience of the commandments which are called moral” (Article VI of the
Book of Discipline). We believe that we are called to sanctification, “that
renewal of our fallen nature by the Holy Ghost, received through faith in
Jesus Christ, whose blood of atonement cleanseth from all sin; whereby we
are not only delivered from the guilt of sin, but are washed from its
pollution, saved from its power, and are enabled, through grace, to love God
with all our hearts and to walk in His holy commandments blameless.” Both
the Holy Bible and the Book of Discipline (1 Timothy 3, and ¶304.3,
respectively) call for church leaders to maintain the highest standard of
holy living in the world. 1. Remain true to our calling to empower people to become transformed
disciples of Jesus Christ to proclaim to each other, the community, and
the world, that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God. We are
united in the desire to serve the poor, the hungry, the naked, the
stranger and prisoner, focusing on others’ needs rather than our own. We
will provide a sanctuary where the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit are
worshipped in holiness and where the saints are instructed in the ways of
the Lord. We believe that God’s grace extends freely to all who would receive it and
it is the responsibility of the church to minister to all who seek God
without regard to age, gender, marital status, or sexual orientation. We
stand firm in our belief that once justified through faith in Jesus Christ,
the regeneration of the Holy Spirit calls to us to repent of our sins and
reject the lifestyle choices that would keep us in bondage to sin, with sin
clearly defined for us by God in the Bible. It is the responsibility of the
church to gently lead those who would continue or fall back into sin after
justification towards repentance. If the person is unrepentant, as evidenced
by openly living a life contrary to God’s Word and fails to respond by
private and group counsel of the Church (Matthew 18:15-17), we are commanded
to expel the immoral brother (1 Corinthians 5:9-13). And when the immoral
person has repented and responded to the “punishment by the majority” we
will “forgive and console him, so that he may not be overwhelmed by
excessive sorrow” (2 Corinthians 2:5-11).
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