Presbyterian Church in America Repents of Racial Sins at Mobile, Alabama, Assembly

The Presbyterian Church in America, described in the source as the nation’s second largest Presbyterian denomination, has passed legislation repenting for “past failures to love brothers and sisters from minority cultures” and committing its members to work toward racial reconciliation.

The measure, known as an overture, was approved overwhelmingly on June 23 at the denomination’s national meeting. The issue had been deferred from the previous year’s meeting, where there was a lengthy debate on similar legislation.

The vote came in the same month that Southern Baptists, meeting for their annual convention, adopted a resolution repudiating the use of the Confederate flag.

The PCA legislation states that the 44th General Assembly “does recognize, confess, condemn and repent of corporate and historical sins, including those committed during the Civil Rights era, and continuing racial sins of ourselves and our fathers such as the segregation of worshipers by race; the exclusion of persons from Church membership on the basis of race.” The denomination also acknowledged teaching that the Bible permits racial segregation and discourages interracial marriage, and it confessed to defense and participation in white supremacist organizations.

Richard Doster, editor of the PCA’s byFaith Magazine and a spokesman for the General Assembly, said 43 of the 63 proposed pieces of legislation for the meeting, which took place June 20 to 24 in Mobile, Ala., related to race relations and confessions of sin about segregation. “It is highly unusual,” he said. “This is the first time something like that has happened, especially on that topic.”

Delegates also passed, by a vote of 814 to 87, legislation calling for the appointment of a multiethnic study committee to develop concrete steps toward racial reconciliation that church leaders, presbyteries and regional groups of churches can take.

Source: Read the original report