Live or Let Die: An Administrative Dilemma
The role of the denominational officials responsible for the mission
congregation is also important. Clearly, they recognized at an early
date that the Congregation had strayed significantly from the objectives
approved by the Presbytery. The handling of this problem understandably
presented a serious dilemma. To have intervened with a heavy hand would
have been to run the risk of smothering the Congregation before it had a
chance to breathe. Such actions would no doubt have stifled any future
possibilities for experimental congregations in the Miami Presbytery. On
the other hand, to let the situation ride meant imminent conflict
within the Presbytery. This may not have been clearly foreseen at the
onset. Whether deliberately or through indecision, however,
denominational officials did not intervene and conflict within the
Presbytery did ensue. Faced with the alternative of having no viable
social mission program operating in the area, these officials chose to
defend what was emerging. They did so by arguing for the necessity of
flexibility, especially in an experimental situation where a model from
past experience is nonexistent.
Summarizing the feelings of a review team after the mission's first year
of operation, the Ministry Consultant for the Synod of Ohio wrote:
The membership of the project are working out their own goals, and these
are certainly not identical with those initially conceived and approved.
However, the review team is convinced that this tension is healthy and
creative and not to be construed as a betrayal of the project.
Reviewing the past tension and anticipating the future, he continued,
"There has been some hot discussion along these lines already and we
fully expect more of the same when the depth review is conducted in
1970." Since that time, the tension between the Congregation for
Reconciliation and the Presbytery has continued unabated.
This is not to say that the Congregation is totally lacking in support
among Presbyterian executives and some Presbyterian lay persons. We
sense considerable sympathy. However, the complex and delicate politics
of working with laity-and some clergy adamantly opposed to the
Congregation makes continued support of the mission virtually
impossible.
