 Unlike 1998, stated clerk rejects call for peaceful period on thorny issues By John H. Adams The Layman Online Wednesday, August 23, 2006 Unlike 1998, when he initiated a voluntary "sabbatical" calling on Presbyterians to forego filing disciplinary cases in ordination cases, Stated Clerk Clifton Kirkpatrick has rejected a request for a moratorium on legal and administrative actions against congregations considering leaving the Presbyterian Church (USA). The request was made by Dean Weaver, pastor of Memorial Park Presbyterian Church in Allison Park, Pa., and moderator of the New Wineskins Association of Churches. The response was issued by Kirkpatrick and General Assembly Moderator Joan Gray. In an August 5 letter to Kirkpatrick and Gray, Weaver asked them "to work with us to help create an environment of real peace during these troubling times" and to "exercise the leadership of your respective offices and lead the way through these turbulent waters through compassion and understanding."
Then it must have been "beyond the powers" of the stated clerk in 1998 when Kirkpatrick instigated a "call for sabbatical" that included a plea for a "season of peace and rest from the confrontations [over ordination requirements] of recent years." One of the recommendations of that sabbatical was a plea that Presbyterians "resist the inclination to provoke or initiate judicial confrontation." The 1998 sabbatical was a cooperative effort, much as Weaver sought, in which leaders on both sides of the ordination issue agreed to ask Presbyterians to voluntarily work for a peaceful resolution to their differences. The call was signed by Kirkpatrick; John Buchanan, a former General Assembly moderator who was the co-founder of the Covenant Network; Laird Stewart, a former co-moderator of the Covenant Network; Jack Haberer, then moderator of the Presbyterian Coalition and later a member of the Theological Task Force on Peace, Unity and Purity; John Galloway, pastor of Wayne Memorial Presbyterian Church in Wayne, Pa.; and Roberta Hestenes, moderator of the Human Sexuality Committee of the 1996 General Assembly. But unlike 1998, PCUSA lawyers who work with Kirkpatrick now have issued "privileged and confidential" documents – dubbed the "Louisville Papers," calling on presbyteries to take punitive and coercive action against congregations and their leaders if they are discussing separating from the denomination. They include the PCUSA's securing local church property for the "true" Presbyterians. Kirkpatrick's office also issued Advisory Opinion: Note 19, warning presbyteries that they can be taken over by synod administrative commissions if they fail to enforce the property trust clause in the constitution. These are some of the cases involving strict enforcement that are underway now: In the only recent case involving a peaceful settlement, Third Presbyterian Church in Dubuque, Iowa, paid an unspecified amount to the Presbytery of John Knox to be released to the Evangelical Presbyterian Church. Kirkpatrick and Gray made three points in their response to Weaver:
Kirkpatrick's view toward his constitutional duties has varied. In the past, he has declared that it was not his duty to enforce the constitution and that he must remain a neutral participant and not a prosecutor. But his neutrality has a wide range – as evidenced by a letter he sent to stated clerks and presbytery executives on Jan. 3, 2002. In that letter, Kirkpatrick dealt with the same issues that prevail today. Commenting on sessions and presbyteries that were – and still are – ordaining practicing homosexuals, he declared that G-6.0106b, the fidelity and chastity requirement in the Book of Order, was the law of the church. Nonetheless, he added sympathetically, "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 …" Soon after that letter, the presbyteries completed their voting in a national referendum and affirmed G-6.0106b in a national referendum by a 73.4 percent margin. Kirkpatrick expressed little sympathy for ministers and elders considering withholding per-capita requests to support the work of the General Assembly because of their conviction that ordaining practicing homosexuals was unBiblical. "Such actions are unconstitutional, and I urge that they stop," Kirkpatrick said. "It is a violation of our ordination vows to promote schism or the defiance of constitutionally sanctioned governing body directives." The violation of an ordination vow can result in a presbytery deciding that a church officer has renounced the jurisdiction of the PCUSA and therefore should be stripped of his ordination. Payment of per capita has never been constitutionally required. Furthermore, it is not constitutionally required that presbyteries confiscate local church property from a departing congregation. As a candidate for moderator, Gray told the 2006 General Assembly, "I have not yet been able to get my mind around the idea that homosexuality is God's gift. I have decided to stay uncomfortable." But she added that as moderator she was obligated to follow the church's constitution. "It's very clear to me. If the church moves, the moderator moves and stands on the constitution." The problem for Weaver and many other evangelicals, is that the 2006 General Assembly took actions that moved the church too far – especially by approving PUP's authoritative interpretation that gives ordaining bodies the authority to decide that G-6.0106b is a nonessential, or, as Kirkpatrick said in his 2002 letter, appropriate "in light of our historic Presbyterian polity." Kirkpatrick openly supported the task force's recommendation, calling its report the "greatest gift to the church." The full text of the Kirkpatrick-Gray letter to Weaver:
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