c. 2004 Religion News Service

(UNDATED) When the Presbyterian Church (USA) gathers for its General Assembly meeting in Richmond, Va., perennial fights over homosexuality are likely to be overshadowed by the future of a controversial messianic Jewish congregation outside Philadelphia.

Avodat Yisrael, a fledgling Presbyterian congregation that looks and feels like a Jewish synagogue, has come under fire from Jewish groups as a deceptive attempt to convert Jews to Christianity.

The congregation celebrates Jewish holidays, uses Jewish ritual music and sacred objects such as menorahs and Torah scrolls. Pastor Andrew Sparks says his congregation hopes to reach interfaith couples, nonworshipping Jews and Jewish converts.

Jewish groups are especially upset that the church received $260,000 in start-up funds from local, regional and national church offices. It is unlikely that funding can be revoked.

At least three resolutions that will be considered by delegates to the June 26-July 3 meeting ask the denomination to “re-examine” relations with Jews, and cut off funding for similar congregations in the future.

Still another resolution would form a task force on religious pluralism, noting that “there will be no peace between nations until there is peace between religions.”

“I think it raises significant issues about what it means to evangelize Jews that we as Christians must take seriously, and we as Presbyterians must consider very carefully,” said the Rev. Susan Andrews, the denomination’s outgoing moderator.

Avodat Yisrael caught many Jews by surprise because Presbyterians historically have not sought to make converts of Jews. A 1987 statement by the church said Jews “are already in a covenantal relationship with God.”

A separate statement adopted in 2001 said salvation was not restricted to Christians _ or Presbyterians _ alone. “Grace, love and communion belong to God, and are not ours to determine,” it said.

Andrews, whose Bethesda, Md., church shares space with a Jewish congregation, convened a summit in January between top church leaders and Jewish officials who called Avodat Yisrael “offensive.”

“Some Jewish leaders have said, `We expect this from the Southern Baptists or the Assemblies of God, but we don’t expect this from mainline churches, certainly not the Presbyterian Church,”’ said the Rev. Jay Rock, the denomination’s director of interfaith relations.

In the meantime, the denomination’s Philadelphia Presbytery has set up an “administrative commission” to monitor Avodat Yisrael. The panel’s chairman, the Rev. Bill Borror, suggested the church could have done more work “on the front end” to prepare for the criticisms.

“We’re trying to walk a balance and help them do their work and ask the right questions that they need to be asking,” said Borror, pastor of Media (Pa.) Presbyterian Church.

In other business, delegates will consider several resolutions that would lift a ban on gay clergy. Two attempts to rescind the 1996 gay clergy ban have passed previous assemblies, but were rejected in ratification votes by local bodies called presbyteries.

Gay clergy supporters want to remove language approved in 1978 that says “self-affirming practicing homosexuals shall not be ordained.” In a change of strategy, they will not try to delete a 1996 rule that requires clergy to live in “fidelity within the covenant of marriage … or chastity in singleness.”

Delegates will also consider a revised social statement on families, which last year’s assembly rejected as too liberal. The new version upholds the importance of traditional two-parent families and includes a beefed-up section on the theology of Christian marriage.

“The church upholds the meaning and significance of marriage between a man and a woman, but it does not denigrate other forms of family life,” the revised paper says.

The denomination will also elect a new moderator to serve a two-year term. In addition, three conservatives will challenge the church’s highest elected official, Stated Clerk Clifton Kirkpatrick, who is running for a third four-year term.

DEA/JL END ECKSTROM