 Speaker says Covenant Network preparing 'church for the change that is surely coming' By Craig M. Kibler The Layman Online Wednesday, June 30, 2004
Commissioners this week will be considering several overtures that seek to repeal both the "fidelity/chastity" constitutional standard and the 1978 Authoritative Interpretation that declared homosexuality a sin. The Rev. Kimberly C. Richter, pastor of Grace Covenant Presbyterian Church in Asheville, N.C., told the Covenant Network Commissioner Convocation Dinner that her organization "remains completely committed to opening ordination standards that will permit all sessions and presbyteries to ordain and install every person whom God calls to ordained service, including qualified gay and lesbian Presbyterians. We are committed to removing G-6.0106b from the Book of Order at the earliest possible time. As our board stated last fall: "The good of the church and the truth of the Gospel are at stake." In saying that the Covenant Network has been "preparing the church for the change that is surely coming," Richter said the "efforts will contribute to the climate of change in the constitutional standards of the church. We already see a climate of change in the hearts and minds of people across the denomination." She urged commissioners to support an overture (05-07) that "asks this General Assembly to make it clear that the church is no longer bound by earlier 'Authoritative Interpretations' and 'Definitive Guidance' statements that pre-date 'Amendment B.' These earlier statements have never been part of our Book of Order and so were never ratified by our presbyteries. The Book of Order alone is sufficient in determining fitness for office. Just as a new will replaces any earlier wills, so the inclusion of G-6.0106b into our Book of Order superceded and replaced earlier statements." Richter attacked the 1978 Authoritative Interpretation, saying that the report leading to that statement "contains dated, obsolete and offensive statements that the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) should want to eliminate. It bases its conclusions about sexual behavior on a 1948 study of males and a 1953 study of females. I wasn't even born when those two studies were made. Social patterns and statistics on perspectives toward gay and lesbian people are based on a 1977 Gallup Poll which shows the percentage of Americans then who did not think 'homosexuals' were fit to be school teachers or doctors or clergy." She then called on commissioners to "make history" by supporting the overture. |
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