 General Assembly rejects backdoor attempt to allow defiant ordinations By John H. Adams The Layman Online Thursday, July 1, 2004
Instead, the commissioners voted to accept the recommendation of the General Assembly Committee on Theological Issues and Institutions. That recommendation affirmed the "primary role of The Book of Confessions as guide to interpreting Scripture in the examination of candidates for ministers, elders and deacons, and their reception or transfer into new installed calls, congregations or appointments to mission service." The appeal to individual conscience as the determining factor was the gist of an overture from the Presbytery of Hudson River, one of a number of presbyteries that have encouraged defiance of the denomination's "fidelity/chastity" ordination law. More than a dozen congregations in the presbytery have issued statements saying they will not abide by church law or have already defied it. The proponents of the overture said it arose "out of concern for the peace, unity, purity and progress of the Church; and for the integrity of Christian conscience of its ministers, elders and deacons." "Freedom of conscience" is a phrase snipped from a larger clause in the Book of Order – just as "reformed and reforming" has been truncated from the classical Reformed declaration: "Reformed and reforming, according to the Word of God." Both statements – in their abridged versions – have become the rallying cry of activists who want the Presbyterian Church (USA) to repeal G-6.0106b, the fidelity/chastity clause in the Book of Order. But neither the Book of Order nor The Book of Confessions, which combine to constitute the Constitution of the PCUSA, says a candidate for church office may appeal solely to conscience. The constitution, church court decisions and Scripture – the highest authority for Presbyterians – permit no such latitude. The Book of Order (G-6.0108a) says there are "certain bounds" for church officers and candidates – foremost, that one's conscience "is captive to the Word of God as interpreted in the standards of the church so long as he or she continues to seek or hold office in that body." The Westminster Confession of Faith (6.109) declares that "God alone is Lord of the conscience," and that there is freedom – not to disobey Scripture, but from subscribing to "doctrines and commandments of men which are in anything contrary to his Word." Westminster continues by drawing a sharp line: "They who, upon pretense of Christian liberty, do practice any sin, or cherish any lust, do thereby destroy the end of Christian liberty …" (6.110) A benchmark ruling on "freedom of conscience" was issued in 2001 by the Permanent Judicial Commission of the General Assembly – the highest court in the denomination. In Londonderry v. Christ Church, the court said, "Not to comply with the express corporate judgment of the Church in an explicit constitutional provision exceeds the constitutional bounds of freedom of conscience and therefore requires a response on the part of the governing body exercising oversight." More than a dozen congregations in the Presbytery of Hudson River have exceeded the constitutional bounds by declaring that they will not comply – or have not complied – with church law prohibiting the ordination of practicing homosexuals. Overture 04-52 does not call for changes in the Book of Order or The Book of Confessions, which would set up high hurdles, requiring a majority of the denomination's 173 presbyteries to ratify a change in the Book of Order and a super majority (two-thirds) to amend The Book of Confessions. (Hudson River is allied with nine other presbyteries in other overtures that do seek repeal of the "fidelity/chastity" clause in the Book of Order and/or to void previous General Assemblies' authoritative interpretation declaring homosexual behavior sinful. But the league of presbyteries that opposes the constitutional ordination standard has lost three referendums – 1997, 1998 and 2001 – by increasing margins. Nearly 75 percent of the presbyteries voted to affirm the ordination requirement in the 2001 referendum.) |
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