A Necessary Vote By Jerry Andrews Glen Ellyn, Illinois November 2000 I’ve changed my mind. I did not think it necessary before, so I did not vote for it. The majority, it seems, agreed. In 1994 the General Assembly sent an amendment to the presbyteries for their concurrence. The intent was to affirm marriage as a divinely designed and commanded covenant between a man and a woman and to apply that affirmation in the pastoral care and governance of the church by prohibiting its contradiction – the blessing of same-sex unions. The Directory for Worship, in its fourth chapter when discussing marriage, affirms seven times that the marriage is between “a man and a woman.” It also forbids anything that may “diminish the Christian understanding of marriage.” No further statement need be made, I thought. I was wrong. The General Assembly’s Permanent Judicial Commission ruled recently that indeed marriage is between a man and a woman and that nothing that diminishes that understanding is permitted. Yet, so they ruled, a prohibition against blessing same-sex unions, while consistent with the affirmations of the directory is not stated clearly and without ambiguity. The commission, therefore, advised the denomination to clearly prohibit this practice if that is its will. It is the will of the PCUSA. It has always been so. It is so now. This General Assembly, recently adjourned, affirmed it again. Now it is time for the presbyteries to concur. It is necessary.

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