I woke up this morning with a Presbyterian hangover.

No, not that kind.

But if the lobby of the William Penn last night was any indication, a lot of Presbyterians were ‘blowing off steam,’ as one overheard commissioner put it. The Tap Room was full; the noise level high, the message unclear.

At the Pittsburgh Seminary lunch yesterday, I sat next to a fellow alum many years removed from my time there. She recalled a visit to the Allegheny County Jail as a part of the Church and Society Requirement, and how her classmates got into such a heated argument that the inmates tried to mediate.

We had Baccalaureate and Commencement on the same day…

because we couldn’t stand to be with other.

When asked from whence this ambivalence came, she suggested the seminary had emphasized diversity in admissions that year.

We had the youngest student ever admitted, and one of the oldest;

the most liberal and the most conservative;

the most devoted to gender equality, and the most chauvinistic…

and so on.

Now, that’s just her story, and I know for a fact that there a lot of Methodists at Pittsburgh Seminary these days; but even so, I think this describes a worrying undercurrent in our church,  one which has erupted in a place almost no one would have imagined: the election of a Vice Moderator – a position that I would be willing to bet few commissioners could describe, about which even fewer would profess to care.

The Belhar Confession of Faith will now be commended to the Presbyteries again for inclusion in the Book of Confessions. It’s overarching theme is unity:

…unity is, therefore, both a gift and an obligation for the church of Jesus Christ;

that through the working of God's Spirit it is a binding force,

yet simultaneously a reality which must be earnestly pursued and sought:

one which the people of God must continually be built up to attain…

Therefore, we reject any doctrine…which denies

that a refusal earnestly to pursue this visible unity

as a priceless gift is sin…

Now, without making any suggestions about the advisability of asking our presbyteries to vote a second time on this document, I would suggest we all prayerfully consider this line from the confession:

that this unity can be established only in freedom and not under constraint…

At what point does working toward unity and reconciliation become the seeking of tactical advantage in an all or nothing fight? Are we seeking the Peace, Unity and Purity of the Church, or fighting over who will control the wreckage of this once great denomination?

These are some of the questions we really need to answer for ourselves.