 Overture seeking to ensure church ends defiance of constitution rejected By Paula R. Kincaid The Layman Online Tuesday, June 18, 2002
The overture, from the Presbytery of Shenango in Pennsylvania, cited a case decided by the Permanent Judicial Commission of the General Assembly in 2000 - the highest ecclesiastical court in the denomination - and said that Christ Church in Burlington, Vt., continues to ignore the court's order and to advertise its defiance of G-6.0106b, the "fidelity/chastity" ordination standard in the Book of Order. In that case, known as Session of Londonderry Presbyterian Church, et al. v. Presbytery of Northern New England, the court declared that Christ Church's dissent "exceeds the constitutional bounds of freedom of conscience and therefore requires a response on the part of the governing body exercising oversight." The court ordered the Presbytery of Northern New England "to work pastorally with the Session of Christ Church to assist it in fulfilling its obligation to comply with the Constitution." After the overture was submitted, and mere weeks before the General Assembly convened, the session of Christ Church "set aside" its resolution of noncompliance. The session's statement, dated June 2, 2002 – two years after the court's ruling, read: "The Session of Christ Church, Presbyterian unanimously passed the following statement today. 'We have been engaged in a continuing process of congregational discernment in light of the GAPJC decision in Londonderry Presbyterian Church vs. Presbytery of Northern New England, the help we have received from the Pastoral Committee established by the Presbytery pursuant to this decision, and recent PJC decisions interpreting and applying G-6.0106b. The Session of Christ Church, Presbyterian, grateful for new opportunities for creative witness on an issue it cares deeply about, hereby sets aside our Resolution of April 20, 1997, and the Report of June 18, 1998, so that we can clarify and strengthen our statement of present conviction.'" The statement was signed by David Boedy, clerk of session. Talking about compliance Committee members spent an hour June 17 listening to overture advocate Tim McQuade, a representative of the Presbytery of Northern New England, and representatives of various groups interested in the issue. The overture advocate was the only one to speak in favor of the proposal. All parties were available throughout the debate to answer questions and give advice and recommendations. McQuade said the issue before the church family is a "very serious issue." He called attention to the advice from the Advisory Committee on the Constitution, which raised the concern about due process. "This overture is not retrying the case," he said. "The case has been tried, the ruling has been made and full and complete due process has been afforded to all parties through that ruling. We are only talking about compliance." McQuade said he was encouraged to see that Christ Church had set aside its statement, but wondered what Christ Church meant – especially by the words of the last sentence, "to clarify and strengthen our position." General Assembly Council member Dwight White, speaking for the Presbytery of Northern New England, said the presbytery "has been in compliance with the directives of the General Assembly's Permanent Judicial Commission. … I have personally been involved in every step in the past five years." He said the presbytery had been pastoral in its approach and that "this is the kind of model the whole church needs in dealing with various noncompliances across the denomination." Stated Clerk Clifton Kirkpatrick then introduced representatives from the Advisory Committee on the Constitution (ACC), the Committee on the Office of the General Assembly (COGA), the General Assembly's Permanent Judicial Commission (GAPJC) and the Association of Stated Clerks. The recommendation from COGA was to disapprove the overture, but to request that the above groups consult about "some critical issues of divergence between the Constitution and the Standing Rules of the General Assembly," and bring a recommendation back to the 215th assembly. Catherine Cunningham of COGA said the overture uses powers allowed by the Standing Rules of the General Assembly. She added, though, that the rule had not been used "as far as we can discover since the 1970s. … To implement this process now would take the General Assembly into uncharted waters." The advice from ACC said that "the overture is asking the assembly to apply a provision of the Standing Rules of the General Assembly that is in conflict with the Rules of Discipline found in the Book of Order. … If the General Assembly were to issue orders, it would be doing so without the procedural safeguards and due process that are guaranteed in the constitution." Saying that "we very rarely get a chance to do this," Frank Baldwin of the Association of Stated Clerks addressed committee members. He said the association was concerned about a "well-intentioned presbytery in western Pennsylvania requesting the General Assembly to do something about a presbytery in Northern New England. …Whenever the General Assembly starts ordering churches or presbyteries around, we get into trouble." He said the overture, in its present form, would violate important rights without a hearing. Mary Lou Koenig of the GAPJC said the final act of a PJC "is to issue a decision and see that it gets into the hands of the parties involved. We make a good faith assumption that we are all parties to a contract entered into voluntarily. … I have never once heard anyone tell anyone on the PJC that a party or a governing body had or had not complied with the order. We don't think in those terms. Voluntary compliance is part of Presbyterian life, as decency and order are. … Enforcement is a very un-Presbyterian concept." Quasi-committee of the whole Following the dinner break, the committee entered into a quasi-committee of the whole, which allowed members to discuss the issue without making motions. The first to speak was Elder John Burrough of the Presbytery of the Redwoods, who recommended that the committee "take this issue head-on and not refer it to another committee." First, he said it was procedurally incorrect, by jumping the judicial process and taking away the power already being exercised. Second, it is punitive in nature. "I mean really punitive," he said. He referred to the fact that the session had set aside its resolution of April 20, 1997, and June 1998, "so why are we here? Why are we continuing?" He claimed a hidden agenda "that has to do with sexuality." His third point was that the overture showed disrespect to the local presbytery. "It's over and we don't have to do this," he said. "It promotes discord instead of reconciliation." Rev. David VanDyke of Scioto Valley said the action that Christ Church recently took in setting aside its statements of noncompliance "is a positive thing and they should be encouraged and it should be applauded." He asked, "How do you judge levels of pastoral care? It would be a huge mistake for us to send this down to the floor of the General Assembly so all 500 commissioners can make a determination of pastoral care within a local presbytery with a local congregation they know nothing about." Rev. Margaret Suttle of Sacramento Presbytery said she understood the intent of the overture is compliance, "not just in the sense of the issue it is addressing, but to comply with all our Book of Order." She referred to the issue of women's ordination. "If we don't enforce or see to it that our Book of Order is carried out in the area of women's ministry, there would be a lot of women around this table without a call." Youth Advisory Delegate Megan Walker from the Ohio Valley Presbytery said "the thing we all have to remember, even though we are very much on the government's side of the church right now, is it is still the church." She said she wasn't sure what Christ Church would do after the assembly, but "as Christians all we can do is believe what they tell us." One YAD referred to the constitutional requirement of fidelity in marriage and chastity in singleness for church leaders. But she said she was brought up to show respect and love for anyone in how they want to live. "That is part of the Christian ideal," she said. "We have backed ourselves into a corner – whether or not we stand by the rules and create problems with emotions or go the other way. It's tricky." After two motions were voted down, both disapproving the overture but with different comments – one comment urging Christ Church and others to comply with the constitution, and the other urging Shenango Presbytery to file a remedial case if it wants to pursue the matter – the committee voted to disapprove the overture with no comment. |
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