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Were Are The “Old Guys (and Gals)?”

by Rev. Stephen Moss, H.R.

I have been officially retired from active service for six years now, though not very.  Because I have been blessed with health far better than I deserve, I have been able to keep active:  made four mission trips to Africa, served as an interim pastor for a year, and as a Presbytery liaison for a congregation for two years, preach frequently, and am involved daily with an on-going overseas mission project.  I know a number of other retired Presbyterian pastors who keep similarly busy with a variety of useful pursuits.  In a sense, what retirement does (for at least some of us) is to enable us to at least be a little more leisurely in our working hours, and it has freed us up from hosts upon hosts of committee and session meetings; yet it enables us to still usefully serve the Lord and the church.  I want to think that this is as it ought to be, and that, even when we retire, we ought to continue to be of some use to the Church and to our Lord, so long as we are able.

But what has surprised me, this past year is how few retired pastors I have encountered who seem to care much about the massive crisis within our denomination, a crisis that is about power, about theology, about constitutionality, and about obedience.  It is as though we have been through so many church fights, over the years of our careers, that we have decided to just sit this one out.  Let the “youngsters” fight over the property, the theology, the constitution, and the obvious abuses in power which we are seeing all too frequently, these days.  We have our Pensions, our social security checks, and (if we’re lucky) a little more besides, to protect us in our graying years.  No one can now throw us out of our position (except God, of course, but that’s another issue entirely, isn’t it?).  We no longer have to worry about being tossed out of the manse on short notice, or having our pensions threatened.  Our children have all grown up and no longer need us to support them.  We have finally become comfortable, and we don’t want anybody messing with that.

I understand all of this, and I identify with a lot of it.  But, though the church officially retired me, with a proper Presbytery ceremony, I don’t recall being retired by God!  As a matter of fact, in my first pastorate, in a retirement community, many years ago, I found myself pointing out to some retired members of the congregation that there is no such thing as a retired Christian.  So why is it that it seems (and please correct me if I am mistaken here) that, by and large, the retired Presbyterian clergy are not to be found in the battle that is raging over our church.  Frankly, I would have thought that it would have been the older guys (and gals) who were leading the effort to restore respect for our theological heritage and respect for our constitution.  But it’s not! It is those (mostly) who are one or two generations behind us, and I don’t understand why.  Why should not we of the geezer generation be leading the charge to defend and protect our wonderful Presbyterian heritage?  In fact, given the protection of our retirement comfort, it would make sense for my generation to be the leaders in doing this.  But I have to say to those of you who are somewhat to the north of age sixty, that you are not visible in this effort to reclaim our denomination from the cultural destruction that is currently tearing it apart.  If our generation is becoming too old to care, then we are in even worse shape that I feared.

Nothing would warm my heart more than to see literally hundreds of retired ministers, come to the Regional Gathering of the Constitutional Presbyterians, in Greenville, South Carolina, on November 3-4, and lead the way for the younger generations, who may be blessed with more energy than we older ones, but who surely are not blessed with more “fire in the belly”.  Let’s have a geezer rebellion, and take back our denomination from those who have been casually but determinedly selling it out for a number of years now.  Our heritage of theology and constitutional relationships is too precious to be allowed to be taken away, one piece at a time, and we older ones, who have the freedom to be outspoken (if necessary), and who have experience as leaders, ought to be doing so, here and now.

Stephen A. Moss, H.R.

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We are members of the PC (USA) taking action to be in a church where leaders, councils and institutions govern according to the rule of law under the authority of Scripture and a constitution. With the light of Scripture and our church confessions, we understand the recent Authoritative Interpretation of G-6.0108b to be a serious and grave subversion of our church's constitution and one of many recent signs that theological progressives and conservatives are not existing together in peace, unity and purity under the same confessional and institutional boundaries.