 Ordination issue will boil again at August-November meetings By John H. Adams The Layman Online Wednesday, July 23, 2003 The debate over the ordination of homosexuals as church officers in the Presbyterian Church (USA) will begin boiling again this summer.
The schedule includes the sixth meeting of the PCUSA's Theological Task Force on Peace, Unity and Purity. Nicknamed PUP, the task force was reminded by the 215th General Assembly that part of its assignment is to propose a peaceful way out of the most rancorous issue in the denomination – if that's possible. Three other Presbyterian bodies – the General Assembly Council, the Committee on the Office of the General Assembly, and the Advisory Committee on Social Witness Policy – will also meet during the four-month period. At minimum, the homosexual issue and its implications will be in the undercurrent of their meetings. And two independent Presbyterian groups that were organized specifically to address opposite sides of the issue will go at it once again from different roosts – the evangelical Presbyterian Coalition with its Gathering VIII in Portland, Ore., and the liberal Covenant Network of Presbyterians with its annual conference in Washington, D.C. Just the name Gathering VIII tells the story. VIII stands for the number of years that the Coalition has met annually to shore up the denomination's commitment to a Biblical standard on ordination and its historic view that sexual activity should be confined to a married couple (male and female). The Coalition has provided leadership in three denominational referendums (1996, 1997 and 2001) in which presbyteries first approved and later affirmed the "fidelity/chastity" ordination standard in the Book of Order of the PCUSA Constitution. The margin of votes in favor of the ordination standard increased in each successive referendum – from 55 percent in 1996, to 65 percent in 1997 and 75 percent in 2001. But, despite that growing no to ordaining self-affirming, practicing homosexuals, homosexual activists and their allies aggressively have tried to get it repealed or circumvent its requirements. There will be more of the same during the meetings between August and November. Here's a capsule of those meetings with Web links to sites promoting them: Theological Task Force The Theological Task on Peace, Unity and Purity has met five times without debating the ordination standard or any of the other issues it was assigned: Biblical authority and interpretation; Christology; and the allocation of power in the PCUSA. PUP's 21 members – about evenly divided on the ordination issue – have spent much of their time trying to exercise and achieve harmony. They have politely read and discussed papers, but they haven't chosen up sides. All votes have been by consensus, but they have not voted on anything substantive. Some of the task force members have acknowledged that they are reluctant to debate the issues because of the presence of reporters from The Layman, the Presbyterian News Service and The Presbyterian Outlook. Task force members also spend time writing their own press releases that emphasize the positive nature of their deliberations without providing a clue of where they're heading. The 215th General Assembly (2003) gave the task force a couple of aids: an exemption from the denomination's open-meetings requirements and a summons to Presbyterians to pray for the panel. With a two-thirds vote, the task force can shoo reporters out of its meeting and debate the issues behind closed doors, depriving Presbyterians of access to the views of individual members. WOW! 2003 WOW! 2003 has published a brochure on its Web site in which it promises, among other things, that the event will lampoon "homophobes" with a one-man performance of Doin' Time in the Homo No Mo Halfway House: How I Survived the Ex-Gay Movement! WOW – shorthand for "Witness our Welcome" – will have a number of Presbyterians on stage, including Janie Spahr, who describes herself as a "lesbian evangelist" for That All May Freely Serve, and Erin Swenson, a transgendered Presbyterian minister whose name was Eric until he chose to become a female. There'll be 17 other speakers and performers. Published material for the event says children of all ages will be welcome. WOW! says major funding for the event is provided by the E. Rhoads and Leona B. Carpenter Foundation, which has given millions of dollars to seminaries, including Princeton, and art museums. One gift established the Carpenter Program in Religion, Gender and Sexuality at the Vanderbilt University Divinity School in Nashville, Tenn. Two independent Presbyterian groups – More Light Presbyterians and That All May Freely Serve – are listed among the sponsors, as well as Metropolitan Community Churches, a cluster of independent congregations that cater to homosexuals. General Assembly Council The General Assembly Council is the governing body of the Presbyterian Church (USA) between sessions of the General Assembly. Its biggest task in recent years has been to find ways to make huge cuts in the budget because of declining revenue. John Detterick, the council's executive director, warned the council at its last meeting that additional cuts may be necessary because of declining revenues. During its pre-215th General Assembly meeting, the council did a hurry-up job in preparing the 2004 budget for the assembly's consideration and didn't deeply probe into the revenue problems. The meeting at Montreat, N.C., Sept. 24-27, could provide more time for reflection about what's driving income down – and whether the incessant battle over ordination is a factor. Gathering VIII Gathering VIII's published agenda is mostly upbeat. The keynote speaker will be Erwin McManus, the pastor of Mosaic, an innovative and international congregation in Los Angeles, California. Also scheduled to speak are Ron Kincaid, pastor of Sunset Presbyterian Church in Portland and Jin S. Kim, moderator of the Coalition of Korean American Ministries, president-elect of Presbyterians For Renewal. The ordination issue is sure to pop up in one or more reports by the Coalition's:
The Committee on the Office of the General Assembly oversees the work of the stated clerk, Clifton Kirkpatrick, and the operations of the General Assembly's Permanent Judicial Commission. It often weighs in with official comment on constitutional issues, including polity proposals on ordination and disciplining church officers who defy constitutional standards. Advisory Committee on Social Witness Policy The Advisory Committee on Social Witness Policy goes to the meeting with a rejection slip and some unfinished business. The 215th General Assembly rejected its proposed "Families in Transition" paper and directed the committee to modify the paper, which would have essentially defined a family as two or more people who choose to live together – including same-gender couples. Another unfinished study – on whether the PCUSA should support euthanasia – is also on the committee's agenda. Covenant Network of Presbyterians The Covenant Network will continue to try to grab the "middle" of the denomination on the ordination issue. It will do that by demonstrating its own willingness to listen to both sides of the argument – featuring a "dialogue" between Barbara Wheeler and Richard Mouw. Wheeler, a member of the Theological Task Force on Peace, Unity and Purity, is president of Auburn Theological Seminary, a Covenant Network director and one of the organization's leading spokespersons for ordaining practicing homosexuals. Mouw is president of Fuller Theological Seminary, an independent seminary noted for its commitment to an evangelical faith. In 2000, Wheeler reintroduced the Auburn Affirmation into the debate over current church law. The Auburn Affirmation was an attempt in the 1920s by church liberals to reject – as a requirement for ordination – a number of orthodox doctrines, including the virgin birth of Jesus and his bodily resurrection and miracles. In a speech that has had a continuing ripple effect, Wheeler told the Covenant Network the time was ripe for the minority (liberals) to take actions to thwart the efforts of today's evangelicals in the denomination. "This minority of Presbyterians now faces a difficult, even tragic, dilemma: whether to defy the policies openly, a step that could well lead to disciplinary charges and removal from the ministry; or to acknowledge the force of these policies as church law while working to change them and perhaps quietly subverting them, tactics that weigh heavily on the conscience because they require – at least for the time being – countenancing actions that are wrong and possibly also making statements that are untrue," she said. The Covenant Network conference will be held in historic New York Avenue Presbyterian Church, where one of the most renowned Presbyterians – Peter Marshall (A Man Called Peter) once preached. Today, New York Avenue, which was once famous for its evangelical ministry, is among one of 112 congregations – about 1 percent of the total in the PCUSA – that are allied with More Light Presbyterians. Its pastor is Roger J. Gench, the husband of Dr. Frances Gench, a feminist theologian who teaches at Union Theological Seminary in Richmond, Va., and serves as a member of the Theological Task Force on Peace, Unity and Purity. |
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