Presbyterians: The Layman Leader

For the first time in its history, a layman has become chief executive officer in the 3,300,000-member United Presbyterian Church. At the Presbyterians' 178th General Assembly in Boston last week, delegates elected Wichita Lawyer William Phelps Thompson, 47, as their new Stated Clerk over two other candidates, both ministers. Thompson, who for the past year has held the largely ceremonial office of moderator, succeeds the Rev. Eugene Carson Blake, the new General Secretary of the World Council of Churches.

Conservative Mood. Thompson's victory was an upset, and after the election delegates commented that "he licked the machine." The machine in this case was the church's 23-man nominating committee which issued a "unanimous recommendation" in favor of the Rev. John William Meister, pastor of Fort Wayne's First Presbyterian Church, who agrees with Blake's views on clerical activism. Much to the committee's dis may, the delegates gave Thompson, who was nominated from the floor, 502 votes to 302 for Meister and 15 for the Rev. Hugh Miller, a New Jersey favorite son.

What explains the upset is a mood of moderate conservatism that dominated the assembly this year; many delegates were openly worried about the implications and value of the kind of commitment to causes for which Blake is famed. Thompson shares Blake's ecumenical view that church division is a scandal, and his concern for civil rights. But, adds one minister who knows both men: "I doubt if Thompson will get himself arrested on any civil rights demonstrations, even though he'll be just as deeply involved in the issues as Blake." Fellow churchmen also consider Thompson a more tactful and less domineering man than Blake.

In contrast to Blake, the ecclesiastical professional, Thompson calls his dedication to church work a hobby. Born in Beloit, Kans., he is an elder of Wichita's First Presbyterian Church, has served on major Presbyterian committees since 1958. Thompson has a long record of community involvement in Wichita. He is chairman of the Civic Music Association, and helped to organize a local political reform movement (he is a registered Democrat).

Soothing Fears. One reason for Thompson's widespread support among the assembly rank and file was his work on behalf of the most controversial item on the agenda: the Confession of 1967. First presented to the 1965 assembly, the new creed is intended to supplement the classic Westminster Confession of 1647. The aim was to draft a new creed that did not abrogate any previous statement of faith accepted by the church, including the Apostles' Creed, but merely supplied a new emphasis to traditional belief.

Conservatives immediately raised two objections. Theologically, the creed's attempt to restate traditional doctrine in modern terms appeared to fudge on it: instead of calling the Bible God's infallible word, for example, the Confession spoke of it as "the normative witness" to God's word. There were also objections to the creed's strong emphasis upon the need for the church to serve as God's reconciling agent on such social issues as discrimination and poverty.