Washington Office, 7 other agencies violate 216th G.A. lobbying ban on Marriage Amendment By Craig M. Kibler The Layman Online Thursday, September 23, 2004 In a paper edited by the Washington Office of the Presbyterian Church (USA), eight denominational agencies are directly violating the instructions of the 216th General Assembly regarding lobbying against the proposed Federal Marriage Amendment. Commissioners, who met June 26-July 3 in Richmond, instructed all agencies to cease lobbying against the amendment, approving a statement that read: "Nothing the 216th General Assembly (2004) has said or acted upon is to be construed to state or imply a position for or against the Federal Marriage Amendment. General Assembly entities shall not advocate for or against the Federal Marriage Amendment." In what the Washington Office describes as an "Election Year Packet" called "Christian and Citizen," the agencies urge "Congress to reject any proposed amendment to the federal Constitution that would prohibit the marriage of same-gender persons," saying that this was the action of the 216th General Assembly. In a different section of the packet titled "Federal Marriage Amendment," the agencies ignore the statement approved by the General Assembly and, instead, include a resolution rejected earlier by the General Assembly commissioners Committee on National Issues. Part of that statement talks about communicating to Congress, "The desire of the church to see [the denomination's historic definition of marriage] safeguarded in civil law by all appropriate means, including the Federal Marriage Amendment now proposed in Congress." These two statements, in different sections of the packet, contradict each other and violate the mandate approved by the General Assembly. The agencies responsible for the packet are the Advisory Committee On Social Witness Policy, the Office of the Stated Clerk, the Presbyterian Hunger Program, the Presbyterian Peacemaking Program, the Racial Justice Policy Development Office, Social Justice Ministries, the Washington Office and the Women's Advocacy Office. Just after the General Assembly meeting, the Rev. Elenora Giddings Ivory, the director of the Washington Office, came under fire for not removing her signature from a letter lobbying against the Federal Marriage Amendment. Giddings Ivory had signed the letter on June 2, along with representatives of 18 other organizations whose leaders described themselves as "a broad coalition." Apparently, after the General Assembly ended, she took no steps between July 3 and July 12 to have her signature removed from the document to be in compliance with the General Assembly's orders. Ron Stief, the United Church of Christ official who redistributed on July 12 a letter that lobbied against the Federal Marriage Amendment, said at the time that Giddings Ivory had not asked him to remove her name from the letter. But neither Giddings Ivory nor her boss, Curtis Kearns, director of the PCUSA's National Ministries Division, offered any explanation of why her name appeared on July 13 on a letter lobbying against the proposed amendment –a day before the Senate ceased consideration of the issue.

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