 Covenant Network lays out strategy for ending gay ordination prohibition By John H. Adams The Layman Online Monday, November 8, 2004 CHICAGO – The Covenant Network of Presbyterians has framed a battle strategy for repeal of the prohibition against ordaining homosexuals, lesbians, bisexuals and transgendered people in the Presbyterian Church (USA). It ranges from outright defiance of the constitution to trying to convince opponents that their Biblical interpretation is faulty – "a denial of the living God," as one seminary professor described the anti-gay ordination Presbyterians whom he called "fundamentalists." Some aspects of the campaign were laid out by Covenant Network officials. Others came from speakers, preachers and, finally, conference attenders who queued up to have their say at the microphone during a "town hall" meeting. Collectively, they appeared to be ready for an aggressive campaign that focuses on the "wrong" thinking of people who support the ordination standard and their failure to change with the times. The most frequently repeated assertion during the conference was "it's about relationships, not law." More than 600 people attended the network's seventh conference in Chicago Nov. 4-6. They were given (or purchased) an arsenal that included a 48-minute film (Turning Points), a book titled Far from Home that tells the "stories" of Presbyterian lesbians and homosexuals who have left the denomination to become ordained in other denominations – mainly the United Church of Christ and the Metropolitan Community Church – and audiotapes of speakers who declared that the Bible doesn't teach that homosexual behavior is sinful. Tim Anderson of Minneapolis, a network board member, said the network is going all out to prevail at the 217th General Assembly in 2006. "It continues to be our fundamental strategy to open the church to our gay and lesbian members and work for unity," Anderson said. "We are helping the church to prepare for a change." At the 2004 General Assembly in Richmond, the network lobbied openly only for nullifying the 1978 and 1991 Authoritative Interpretation, which provides the theological anchor for G-6.0106b, the Book of Order "fidelity/chastity" ordination clause. It did not openly call for elimination of G-6.0106b, purportedly to give the denomination's Theological Task Force on Peace, Unity and Purity the chance to weigh in on the issue first. But, this time, the network – one of four allied groups seeking to repeal the ordination law – is not waiting for the Theological Task Force. "The Covenant Network has great hope for the task force," Anderson said. "We eagerly await that report and hope and pray that their recommendation will move us forward. But we still support legislative change because we don't want the task force to speak in a vacuum, especially in the light of 11 states voting against" homosexual marriages during the recent elections. During its conference in Chicago, the Covenant Network leaders warmly welcomed three members of the task force as representatives of that body. The three – Barbara Everitt Bryant, Vicky Curtis and Sarah Sanderson-Doughty – have all indicated that they favor a change in the denomination's ordination law, but no vote has been taken by the panel. Three other members of the task force – John Wilkinson, Barbara Wheeler and Scott Anderson – have been active in the network or have served as speakers at some of its conferences. But it's not enough to wait until the 217th General Assembly can take action in 2006, said Janie Spahr of Rochester, N.Y., a lesbian activist, who works with a network-allied group, That All May Freely Serve. She urged her allies to defy the constitution now by ordaining homosexuals before any constitutional change might be reached. "We keep thinking the church will do the right thing," Spahr said. "We are called [to serve as ministers and church officers] because of our baptismal rites. Please don't wait. Install us now in our churches." Spahr herself tried to gain approval as an associate pastor of Downtown Presbyterian Church in Rochester, N.Y., in 1990, but the General Assembly Permanent Judicial Commission ruled that she was not eligible to serve as a minister of Word and Sacrament because of her publicly acknowledged sexual behavior. The Covenant Network has not proposed outright defiance of church law in the same way that Spahr did. However, it has proposed its own legal interpretation of that law, which would redefine key terms – such as declaring that the term "chastity" in the constitution does not mean abstinence from same-gender sexual practice. And the network's legal workup asserts unequivocally that the denomination's law does not categorically prohibit the ordination of practicing homosexuals. The Covenant Network Conference was held at Fourth Presbyterian Church on Michigan Avenue – the host church for the organizing meeting of the Covenant Network in 1997. The turnout was four times as high as it was in 1997, bolstered by a number of college students from nearby campuses. The college students were recruited in response to past criticism that the Covenant Network was disproportionately made up of aging, high-steeple, urban preachers. The group has also been criticized for attracting few blacks and other minorities – which was true again this year. Another criticism came during the open-microphone presentations. "I would call the Covenant Network metrocentric," one speaker said, "but there are small, medium-sized congregations" that need easy-to-use materials to make their case. Another speaker suggested that the urban areas had a better understanding of the issue because their population densities required them to stretch their minds to learn to get along with different kinds of people. Several people commented about the re-election of President George W. Bush and the votes by 11 states that passed constitutional amendments that declare that marriage is only between a man and a woman. This was clearly a John Kerry crowd. There are parallels for the denomination and nation. The red-blue map of the Bush-Kerry states is roughly comparable to the divide in the PCUSA over the ordination issue. The Covenant Network and its allies have their strongest following in the Northeast and major urban areas. Middle America and the South are strongholds for presbyteries that have voted three times for G-6.0106b, the "fidelity/chastity" clause in the constitution. Nationwide, nearly 75 percent of the presbyteries affirmed the standard in 2001. Despite the strengthening commitment to the ordination law, Covenant Network partisans say they believe they have the edge on Biblical interpretation – contending that it favors relationships and not moral requirements, grace and not law. Denying that the pro-gay ordination movement depends on "touchy-feely" stories about homosexuals being saddened because they could not be ordained, one speaker declared, "What I have experienced is an embodied, storied systematic. If the conservative press creates the false impression that we're just doing touchy-feely, subjectivist theology, then I say to you, 'Woe to you!'" Former Covenant Network co-moderator Eugene Bay, recently retired as pastor of Bryn Mawr Presbyterian Church in Bryn Mawr, Pa., also contended that the Covenant Network's strategy is "not just touchy-feely. It has a lot of substance." Bay and others also said they would not be deterred by the opposition to the efforts to dismantle the ordination law coming from fast-growing Reformed movements around the globe, including East Africa. "There are going to be some extremely difficult conversations down the road … with our non-Western, non-white brothers and sisters." He said he experienced some of that opposition recently in a visit to East Africa. But he urged the group not to be swayed by fear of losing fellowship with other Christians around the globe, noting that the PCUSA stood firm on ordaining women despite the opposition to that practice in other Reformed bodies. As part of its strategy, Covenant Network leaders said it was important to work through their presbyteries to ensure that they choose commissioners to the 217th General Assembly who will vote against the ordination law. In the past, the gay-ordination advocates have insisted that conservatives had no right to screen candidates to ensure that they reflect traditional theological values. Dr. Luke Timothy Johnson of the Candler School of Theology in Atlanta, a former Benedictine monk who is now married and has seven children, was perhaps the most heavily applauded speaker. He used what was once considered a bedrock of Methodism – called the "Wesleyan Quadrilateral – to argue for new interpretations of Scripture. Johnson seemed to reject the traditional Protestant principal that Scripture alone is authoritative for life and faith – and through Scripture traditions, experiences and reason are judged. It was he who said those whom he called "fundamentalists … distort the witness of Scripture" and are in "denial of the living God … They keep Scripture strictly in the past." Calling for "loyal and critical engagement" with Scripture, Johnson said Christians should begin with "tradition, reason and experience. You begin there and then try to figure out how the Scripture speaks to us … Scripture does not contain everything we need to learn about God, the world or our sexuality." He had a number of suggestions:
Several PCUSA staff members were warmly welcomed to the conference, but notably absent was Stated Clerk Clifton Kirkpatrick, who usually attends and usually addresses the conference with a message to people whom he calls "my friends." |
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