 Presbytery schedules special meeting to determine if defiant pastor has renounced jurisdiction of the church By Craig M. Kibler The Layman Online Thursday, June 5, 2003 The Presbytery of Cincinnati, in response to continued defiance of the constitution by the pastor of Mount Auburn Presbyterian Church, has scheduled a special meeting to determine if he has renounced the jurisdiction of the Presbyterian Church (USA). The meeting will be held at 7 p.m. June 16 at Lakeside Presbyterian Church. On April 21, the Rev. Stephen Van Kuiken was rebuked by the Permanent Judicial Commission of the Presbytery of Cincinnati. The commission ruled that he had "been found guilty of the offense of performing same-sex marriage ceremonies, and by such offense you have acted contrary to the Constitution of the Presbyterian Church (USA)." Using the language of the highest court in the denomination, the General Assembly Permanent Judicial Commission, the ruling also stated: "You are directed to perform marriage ceremonies only for a man and a woman. If you perform service of holy union, you are directed to take special care to avoid any confusion of such services with Christian marriage. You shall not appropriate specific liturgical forms from services of Christian marriage … You shall instruct same-sex couples that the service to be conducted does not constitute a marriage ceremony and should not be held out as such." Van Kuiken, who has appealed the ruling, said at the time that he would continue to perform marriages for couples regardless of sexual orientation, even though "my actions – performing ceremonies for same-sex couples that are Christian marriages or their equivalent – are a violation of our church law." On May 17, he again violated the constitution and defied the commission's order by performing a "marriage" service at Mount Auburn for a same-gender couple, Meghan Kaskoun and Melinda Tarter. The bulletin for the ceremony was titled "A Service of Christian Marriage," vows and rings were exchanged and Van Kuiken made "an announcement of marriage." In response, Paul Rolf Jensen, a Presbyterian lawyer in Reston, Va., who has filed more than 20 cases nationwide in an effort to halt defiance of the constitution, filed an accusation May 30 with the Presbytery of Cincinnati accusing Van Kuiken of blasphemy, heresy, violating his ordination vows and defying the court's order prohibiting the practice. Jensen had filed the original charges against Van Kuiken. In a June 4 letter to all members of the presbytery informing them of Monday's special meeting, Moderator Melissa Bane Sevier said that its purpose is to act on the Committee on Ministry's recommendation to presume the Rev. A. Stephen Van Kuiken's renunciation of jurisdiction (G-6.0502)." She said the Committee on Ministry's recommendation was based several items. The full text of Sevier's list is as follows: 1. The Presbytery's Permanent Judicial Council (PJC) in its April 21 decision, found the Rev. Van Kuiken guilty of having "performed and/or condoned and facilitated the performance by others of same-sex marriage ceremonies at the Mt. Auburn Presbyterian Church (USA) W-4.9001." The Rev. Van Kuiken was rebuked and "directed to perform marriage ceremonies only for a man and a woman."
The leaders of Mount Auburn Presbyterian Church have declared their defiance of the denomination's constitution for the past 12 years. On the eve of Van Kuiken's trial, they again issued a statement of defiance against the ordination standards, admitting that the congregation "has ordained gay, lesbian and bisexual persons" and will continue to "ordain self-acknowledged gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender persons, sexually active or not, following the same criteria used to call heterosexual persons to our church leadership." In addition, the Rev. Hal Porter, pastor emeritus of Mount Auburn Presbyterian Church, reached an agreement in April with the presbytery's Investigating Committee under which he will face no disciplinary action for similar acts of defiance. Those charges also were filed by Jensen. In response to the presbytery's calling of a special meeting, the Rev. Tom Sweets, pastor of Madeira-Silverwood Presbyterian Church in Cincinnati, told The Layman Online that he didn't "want to comment on exactly how this came up now. I will say this: The Committee on Ministry and the council met in a joint session to determine that we [the presbytery] needed to take this step with them." "What has happened is that the people in the presbytery have realized that, obviously, what he's done is renunciation," Sweets said, adding that the Office of the General Assembly has been helpful in facilitating events. "This is not a group of conservatives bringing this charge – this is the mainstream of this presbytery, and that's very good. "I think it's obvious," he said. Van Kuiken was "found guilty. He was told not to do it again and he did. It can't be more clear than that." Sweets added that those "who have looked to have the constitution defended have much joy." The presbytery already has an administrative commission considering the Mount Auburn case. A year ago, Madeira-Silverwood Presbyterian Church submitted an overture that called on Van Kuiken and the elders at Mount Auburn to recant their statements in defiance of church laws. That commission delayed its work until after Van Kuiken's trial. The Madeira-Silverwood overture would call the Mount Auburn leaders into account if they refused to rescind their declaration of non-compliance. The overture suggests that the next step would be to declare that the pastor and elders had renounced the jurisdiction of the church, which is tantamount to what other Christian denominations call ex-communication. At the time, Sweets called his session's overture "an open and shut case. The deliberate defiance … of the Mount Auburn Church is posted on their web site and contained in the booklets mailed to your sessions." He said Mount Auburn "has dishonored our presbytery by the stance of its officers and its dogmatic determination to create conflict within our bounds." He added, "Today we must decide who to demand accountability of. Shall the church in defiance demand accountability of our governing body to understand them more fully? Shall we be laden with guilt, say we have not studied enough, agonized enough, been patient enough, tolerated enough and let their body bring charges against us? Or shall we give an ample opportunity of 30 days for the officers to rescind their defiant and schismatic statements or be subject to administrative discipline?" |
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