What, in a nutshell, is the Pacific Union Crisis?
The Pacific Union Crisis, in a nutshell, is that this one Union has stepped out of harmony with the world church which makes these decisions every five years at a group gathering of delegates called a General Conference Session. There, for the past three Sessions (1990, 1995, 2000) the attempt to approve ordained women preachers/leadership has been turned back each time (although the issue has been expressed in various ways). Now this one Union is saying that they are willing to do it anyway. They are in rebellion. The battle over women’s ordination which has raged in so many other denominations for so many years has here come to a grave crisis, and may be won or lost based on what the elected leaders do at this hinge-point. We have been urging them that they must not allow the action to stand.4 Right now they are reluctant to make a public statement.5 We are trying to help them.
