The Jack Miller Archive

New Horizons, June-July, 1982, Page 11

This side of the OPC [missions support and diaconal ministries as demonstrated by the Committee on Diaconal Ministries financial support to a struggling Presbyterian Church in Uganda] may have been overlooked by some in the PCA.

I also accept as an Orthodox Presbyterian pastor the rebuke given to us by many of the presbyteries of the PCA. I was disappointed by the action of turning us down, but at the same time I take seriously a negative evaluation of us by fellow elders in a closely related part of the visible church of Jesus Christ. It seems to me not to do so would be less than Presbyterian.

What this action says to me is that other people see in us shortcomings that we do not see in ourselves, and that many of those who have this negative view of us are office-bearers in the church of Christ.

So it is my duty and privilege to listen carefully to what other office-bearers have to say about us.

In particular, I am personally ready to confess that I daily struggle with my failure to love God with all my heart, soul, mind and strength, and I repeatedly fail to love my neighbor as myself.

I think it is some of this failure to love God and mankind that PCA people have seen in us. There have, I believe, been many times when we Orthodox Presbyterians have had our priorities wrong, and the love of Christ has not controlled us.

At the same time our brothers in the PCA would do well to recognize that there are evidences of love in the OPC—both of love to God and love to suffering people.

In Uganda the name Presbyterian is very honorable. It is associated with compassion, sound doctrine and practical Christian living, because here Orthodox Presbyterians have given of their money and their prayers, and frequently have risked their very lives to minister the gospel.

C. John Miller, Kampala, Uganda