Religion Briefs : New Presbyterian Leader Wants No Theology Shifts to Boost Membership

BILOXI, Miss. — Isabel Rogers, a Christian ethicist from Richmond, Va., and the newly elected moderator of the Presbyterian Church (USA), said her denomination should not back away from its theological positions to stem a four-year drop in membership.

Presbyterian delegates were told at the start of their annual convention here this week that the denomination had 3,016,488 members last year, a drop of 40,738 from the previous year and almost 200,000 less than in 1983.

Rogers defeated the Rev. Joan SalmonCampbell 325-323 on the fifth ballot Wednesday to become the denomination’s chief spokesman.

She succeeds the Rev. Benjamin Weir, a former hostage in Lebanon who was not eligible for a second one-year term.

In an interview, Weir questioned the wording in one of the major papers to be considered at the meeting that concludes Wednesday. He said parts of a paper on Christian-Jewish relations could be interpreted as saying “that the land of Palestine is in possession of Israel in perpetuity.”

He said such a statement would be “an embarrassment to Christians in the Middle East” as well as the United States and would be contrary to United Nations resolutions.

Another paper on Islam calls on Presbyterians “to identify, expose and counteract the bigotry and prejudice manifested in the United States against Arabs,” Muslims and the Islamic world.