First skirmishes over ordination law will go before GA committee By John H. Adams The Layman Online Wednesday, May 26, 2004 The first skirmishes over the constitutional "fidelity/chastity" standard will be waged before the 66 members of the Committee on Church Orders and Ministry when the 216th General Assembly meets in Richmond, Va., June 26-July 3. The committee includes 24 ministers, 24 elders, 18 youth advisory delegates and two theological student advisory delegates. All will have voice and vote during the committee meetings and all will be allowed to speak during plenary sessions. But only the votes of ministers and elders will determine the final decision on four overtures that would nullify the ordination law as it now stands or repeal the authoritative interpretation that declares homosexual behavior sinful. The decision of the committee will play a major role in determining the outcome of the issue. And, while there's no way to get a read on what the committee's majority might do, there are clearly some strong allegiances on both sides. Of the 24 ministers on the committee, three serve congregations that are affiliated with the Covenant Network of Presbyterians, an organization that was established with the sole purpose of advocating for the ordination of practicing homosexuals. At the other end of the spectrum, the committee has two ministers who serve Confessing Church congregations that are part of a movement that reaffirms orthodox views of the exclusive lordship of Christ, the authority of Scripture and God's holiness standards, which include Biblical admonitions against homosexual behavior. On the basis of committee membership information provided by the denomination, there's no way to determine how the committee's elders or advisory delegates would line up along the Confessing Church/Covenant spectrum. But it is clear that, with its 3-2 edge among pastors, the Covenant Network has a disproportionate advantage. The network's list of affiliated congregations numbers 324. The number of Confessing Churches within the Presbyterian Church (USA) is 1,304. Thus, a movement that has a 4-1 advantage in member congregations will be at a 3-2 disadvantage among the ministers serving on the Committee on Church Orders and Ministry. In the past, the Covenant Network has exercised influence far beyond its small constituency. Twenty of its present or former directors have been elected moderator, including current Moderator Susan R. Andrews. It has developed close relationships with denominational staff, including Stated Clerk Clifton Kirkpatrick, and sympathy for its cause. Addressing the ordination issue in 2002, Kirkpatrick said in a letter to the stated clerks of presbyteries and synods, "I am well aware that there is considerable debate about the wisdom of this provision in our Constitution in light of our historic Presbyterian polity and that an amendment has been approved by the 213th General Assembly and is currently before the presbyteries that could remove this provision." The Covenant Network has said it will not lobby for repeal of G-6.0106b, the "fidelity/chastity" clause in the Book of Order, during the 216th General Assembly. Instead, it says it awaits the final report of the Theological Task Force on Peace, Unity and Purity, which will be presented to the 217th General Assembly in 2006. But Covenant Network's representatives will nonetheless attack the ordination standard as they seek to convince the General Assembly to nullify the 1978 authoritative interpretation that gave the theological reasons as to why the church should continue to prohibit the ordination of practicing homosexuals. The network's assault on the prohibition will literally begin even before the official opening of the 216th General Assembly in Richmond on June 26. On June 25, the network will hold a dinner for commissioners. Isabel Rogers, moderator of the 199th General Assembly and an outspoken opponent of the ordination law, will speak. On the morning of the last day of the General Assembly, July 3, Chris Glaser, a practicing homosexual who was denied ordination as a minister in the PCUSA, will preach at the denomination's official worship service. Andrews selected Glaser, who is a Presbyterian elder but leads a non-Christian New Age-type congregation in Atlanta. In between, the Covenant Network will sponsor a luncheon with Brian Blount, professor of New Testament at Princeton Theological Seminary, speaking. In 2000, Blount was one of the speakers at the network's conference titled "Biblical Authority and the Church." At that conference, Blount gave a theological perspective that essentially refuted historical Christian understanding. Blount said the human spirit is a better interpreter than the Biblical text. "The role of the spirit is a constant. It teaches the essential voice of God." So if the "human spirit" finds the text troubling, then the text is wrong, Blount suggested. He gave several examples of what he decided were Biblical errors that had to be reinterpreted by the human spirit in the context of changing culture – including the condemnation of homosexuality. Besides the Covenant Network, its allied organizations – More Light Presbyterians, That All May Freely Serve and the Witherspoon Society – will also have a high-profile presence and lobby at the General Assembly. The Confessing Church, which is a still-growing confessional movement without an office, executive leader or budget, will have no organizational voice at the General Assembly. Meanwhile, the intensity of the Covenant Network's lobby seems to increase despite what has been a growing opposition to proposals to repeal the denomination's ordination law. In 1996, 55 percent of the PCUSA's presbyteries approved adding the "fidelity/chastity" clause to the constitution. The support for G-6.0106b grew to 66 percent in referendums in 1998 and to 72.8 percent in 2001. The 10 presbyteries that sponsored or concurred with the four overtures opposing the ordination law before the 216th General Assembly also have high shrinkage rates. According to denominational data, the 10 presbyteries lost 9.5 percent of their members from 1996 to 2002, compared with a total attrition of 6.6 percent for the rest of the denomination. And the 47 presbyteries that voted in 2001 to repeal G-6.0106b lost 8.4 percent of their members from 1996 to 2002, compared to 6.2 percent for the rest of the denomination. Of those 47 presbyteries, 19 are in the Synod of the Northeast, where defiance of the ordination law is most intense and the dropout rate from 1996-2002 was 10 percent. New York is also where the Covenant Network has its strongest influence with 65 affiliated congregations. Only three of the Synod of the Northeast's 22 presbyteries affirmed the ordination law in the 2001 referendum.

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