Border skirmishes along the margins of Christian orthodoxy have flared in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) in recent years as individuals and groups have, by their words and actions, challenged the Confessions of the church. A border skirmish is often a kind of guerrilla war with shots being fired without warning and usually without remorse. Many of these excursions across the borders remain local, but some have escalated into major events, consuming the attention of the church and leading to the marshalling of forces for a showdown on the floor of the General Assembly.

In 1993 the ecumenical Re-imagining Conference for women was largely funded by the PC(USA), and Louisville staff members were leaders in the planning and organization of the conference. Liturgical rituals during the conference used language that implied worship of "Sophia, Divine Wisdom." Prayers were offered "in the name of Sophia" as an alternative to the prayers offered "in the name of Jesus Christ." Sophia was blessed, thanked, and celebrated in ways the church has always reserved for the Lord Jesus Christ.

Several of the plenary speakers at the Re-imagining Conference also crossed the boundaries in open challenges to orthodox belief. One encouraged the women attending to seek the experience of the spirit of God in their own lives and their own being while dismissing the belief in a transcendent God who is greater than and independent of humanity. Another speaker rejected the doctrine of the atonement, arguing that salvation comes through the life and ministry of Jesus, but not through his death. In one memorable phrase she said, "I don't think we need folks hanging on crosses and blood dripping and weird stuff."

The outcry across the church was so strong that the 1994 General Assembly received fifty overtures concerning the Re-imagining Conference. The Assembly approved a statement that attempted to pour oil on the water by condemning the breaches of orthodoxy while affirming the place of women in the denomination. In the aftermath, some Louisville staffers were dismissed.

In 1997 a Task Force of the Advisory Committee on Social Witness Policy (ACSWP) published a study guide seeking responses to its study of "Building Community Among Strangers," which crossed the boundaries of the Confessions on several fronts in a major attempt at ground-taking. The writers of the study guide openly mocked the basic Christian tenet that salvation for all humanity is available through Christ alone. This foundational scriptural truth, it claimed, tends to prevent meaningful community among peoples.

The study also developed a metaphor that turned the Communion/Banquet Table into a kind of civic potluck supper, presided over by a generic "host" in "whatever name that host might be recognized" by each guest.

"Building Community" dismissed the historical evangelism work of the missionaries of the church as being the result of a "colonial mentality." The Task Force misrepresented its theme, Ephesians 2:19, upending Paul's great affirmation that it is Christ who brings reconciliation, and turning it into a promotion for a general unity largely apart from Christ.

Again the church as a whole was appalled, and the General Assembly of 1998, after long and heated discussion, ordered the committee to stop distributing the document and to send it back for rewrite.

In the summer of 2000 the Rev. Dirk Ficca, a Chicago area Presbyterian minister was the featured speaker at the annual Presbyterian Peacemaking Conference. The theme of the conference was "Uncommon Ground: Living Faithfully in a Diverse World." In his address Rev. Ficca offered the radical ecumenical proposal that Jesus Christ might not be the only way to salvation. Ficca said provocatively, "If God is at work in our lives whether we're Christian or not, what's the big deal about Jesus?" His rather cavalier dismissal of what many saw as the central proclamation of Christianity brought calls for censure and disciplinary action.

Setting aside the major claim of the New Testament (Jesus said, I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. John 14:6) and all of the Confessions ([Jesus] saves us from our sins and … salvation is to be sought or found in no other. Heidelberg Catechism 4.029), Ficca provoked shock and dismay in the PC(USA) as he apparently sought to undermine this most foundational truth of our faith. Responses to his statement and debates over the importance of the universal Lordship of Jesus Christ swirled around the church for a year. The debate was handed off by the General Assembly Council and came before the General Assembly, who attempted to appease both the pro-Ficca and the anti-Ficca forces by passing a compromise statement, which of course displeased both sides.

In the discussions surrounding Rev. Ficca's remarks, the stretching of the boundaries to the point of breaking, more than any other recent border skirmish, unmasked the deep divisions in the PC(USA) concerning the central and essential tenets of the Christian faith. Such deep divisions in understanding where the boundaries of orthodoxy lie will require mighty efforts to mend in the foreseeable future.

The Rev. Nancy D. Becker was formerly the Director of Issues for PFR and has served on the General Assembly Advisory Committee on Social Witness Policy.