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You Scratch My Back and . . . . :
Reciprocity and Accountability

"We must be accountable to the other churches of the Presbytery in order to hold them accountable to us." So wrote Duane Holm in outlining the philosophy on which his congregation was established. The mission, indeed, lived its accountability to the other churches, deliberately behaving inoffensively and consistently attempting acceptable interpretations of social issues. In return, the Congregation hoped for reasonable responses to their overtures for social-action involvement. They received them.

The Cincinnati Congregation for Reconciliation had carefully and skillfully built a network of good relationships with Presbytery churches based on the concept of mutual accountability. The Cincinnati Presbytery leadership, likewise, worked easily with the experimental congregation. Unlike the Dayton mission, it maintained a low profile, avoided conflict with other churches, and provided an important service to the Presbytery through its social-action ministry. Goodwill abounded.

The mission, having started late because of recruitment difficulties, requested formalization as a Presbyterian congregation at the same time formalization occurred for the Dayton group. The covenant, statement of mission, constitution and bylaws had been developed routinely under the leadership of the pastor. The

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No one suspected that formalization of the Cincinnati Congregation might receive challenge. When the issue came before the body, however, several persons began questioning the wisdom of placing so specialized a ministry within the structure of a regular Presbyterian congregation. Should not such a ministry of education for social action be better served in the form of a task force? The task force proposal mustered favor on the floor of Presbytery. A Congregation representative protested vigorously that theirs was a total congregation, thoroughly grounded in Christian worship. Several sympathetic pastors then came to the rescue, arguing fervently that to deny formalization at this point would be to renege on Presbytery commitments. Further, without a congregational form of organization, the thesis of the experiment could never be tested. Finally, the vote carried and the Congregation for Reconciliation became a Presbyterian church. In the process, its debt to Presbytery leadership was reinforced.

An opportunity for the Congregation to reciprocate came one year later. The Commission on Church and Race of the United Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A., in March of 1971, had contributed $10,000 of its Emergency Fund for Legal Aid to the Angela Davis Defense Fund. Davis, a black militant and Marxist, had taught philosophy at the University of California in Los Angeles until expelled from the faculty for her political views. She was later arrested and charged with kidnaping, murder, and conspiracy in connection with a prison escape and subsequent killings. Specifically, she was alleged to have provided the guns for the escape. To many liberal observers, Davis was being persecuted for her political views. Her case, therefore, took on the aura of an essentially political trial, and in this context the Presbyterian denomination had contributed to her defense.

Many conservative Presbyterian church people across the nation were outraged when they learned of the denomination's action. Money contributed to the church for Christ's cause was being spent defending not only a black militant and an avowed

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The Congregation for Reconciliation, in its newsletter devotional for July, defended the identification of the church with the Davis defense. Characteristically, the devotional provided a theological and scriptural rationale for social action.

There were lay persons in Cincinnati who had not only opposed the denomination's action but had threatened to demonstrate their opposition by withholding funds from the church. Economically and politically conservative laymen took special offense to church support for an articulate and devoted Communist. This placed Presbytery executives in a difficult position. They dared

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The newsletter devotional in August zeroed in on both the Communist issue and the suggestions of economic protest.

As recorded in Acts 5, Ananias and Sapphira were stricken dead in church for their deceit. Theologically conservative pastors and laity who read this devotional, and who no doubt take the Bible seriously, if not literally, must have been impressed by the forcefulness of the Congregation's rebuke.

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The relationship between Congregation and Presbytery provides an interesting contrast with Dayton. Although Righter and a few members of his congregation are active on Presbytery committees and attend meetings regularly, in the final analysis the Dayton Congregation feels accountable only to itself. This is not meant to imply that animosity exists between that congregation and the Miami Presbytery leadership. This is not at all the case. There is a genuinely warm relationship present. The relationship, however, does not include the degree of accountability which the Cincinnati Congregation made a premise of its existence. Accountability and reciprocity are not causally linked. The Cincinnati Congregation practiced accountability, hoped for reciprocity, and achieved both.