The study committee will assess the current situation in the denomination regarding racial reconciliation, identify specific problems that need to be addressed, and “develop constructive guidelines and suggest concrete steps for the use of the PCA, including all presbyteries and sessions, in order to make progress toward the work of racial reconciliation.”

The General Assembly has approved Overture 45 from Potomac Presbytery by a vote of 814-87 with 15 abstentions. The overture authorizes the moderator to create a “Racial and Ethnic Reconciliation study committee, comprised of multiple ethnicities with ruling elder participation.”

The 44th General Assembly has overwhelmingly approved the amended version of Overture 43 from Potomac Presbytery, called “Pursuing Racial Reconciliation and the Advance of the Gospel.” After the vote, the assembly stopped to pray and sing together.

In a Thursday-morning seminar called, “The PCA, Race, Remembrance, Repentance, Reconciliation, and Rejoicing: A Personal Journey,” Sean Lucas and Ligon Duncan shared their stories of coming to understand the PCA’s racially-tinged past and what they did about it.

The Overtures Committee voted to affirm an amended version of Overture 45. The overture will now go to the General Assembly for final approval.

Following the 2015 Personal Resolution on Civil Rights Remembrance submitted to the 2015 General Assembly by Ligon Duncan and Sean Lucas, the session of First Presbyterian Church (FPC) in Jackson decided to look into the church’s history to see if there were specific sins that needed to be confessed.

The PCA needs confession and dialogue in order to live out the implications of our theological commitments – to pursue the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. Such truth-telling is an outworking of what it means to image our Triune God.

Of the 63 overtures submitted to this year’s General Assembly, 42 deal with the confession and repentance of race-related sins.

For too long only a few pastors have tried dealing with the issue of race, but most white PCA pastors did not join their efforts. Now white brothers are entering the conversation, and many of them are offering their stories of messiness and humility.

Is not colorblindness the greatest of anti-racist goals? Or, to put it another way: Are we not to strive for equal treatment for all, without regard to race? Once again, a different understanding of terms becomes a stumbling block to unity.