Churches
invited to join
'G-6.0106b-Free Zone'
By
Paula R. Kincaid
The
Layman Online
Wednesday, June 9, 1999
Thirteen
New York City churches have established a "G-6.0106b-Free
Zone" in defiance of the Presbyterian Church (USA)
constitution, and are inviting other Presbyterian churches to
join them.
G-6.0106b is the "fidelty and chastity" provision
of the PCUSA constititution.
A May 21 letter from Presbyterian Welcome: Inclusive Churches
Working Together reads:
Dear friend,
We are writing to you on behalf of the sessions of thirteen
New York City churches that comprise Presbyterian Welcome –
Inclusive Churches Working Together, a broad-based ministry
committed to building a Presbyterian Church as inclusive as
the grace of God.
We share the good news from the Presbytery of Northern New
England, which voted last December to rescind its action
instructing Christ Church, Burlington, VT to be in
compliance with G-6.0106b. The Presbytery of Northern New
England further affirmed the ministry of Christ Church, and
acknowleged that G-6.0106b is inconsistent with other parts
of the Book of Order. This is a welcome
affirmationfor all of our churches whose sessions ordain and
re-install officers without regard to marital status or
sexual orientation.
Christ Church took a bold stand in articulating why, in
good conscience, it cannot comply with G-6.0106b. We commend
the session's statement to your reading, as it outlines very
clearly how "… no congregation can be fully in
compliance with a Book of Order that contradicts
that paragraph [G-6.0106b] with numerous provisions
mandating an inclusive church." This is an example of
faithful polity that both restores integrity to our
denomination and dignifies the ministries of the lesbian,
gay, and unmarried heterosexual members of our
congregations, many of whom we have knowingly ordained as
elders and deacons within the past several years and many of
whom we intend to ordain in the future.
Would you consider overturing your Presbytery to pledge its
support of dissenting churches in your midst, s the New York
City Presbytery resolved last year, and stand with Christ
Church and the Prebsytery of Northern New England in making
the Synod of the Northeast a "G-6.0106b-Free Zone"
– free from the polity morass of a self-contradictory
Book of Order? We would like every church in the
northeast to receive the same shelter and support that New
York City and Northern New England churches currently enjoy.
Presbyterian Welcome stands ready to help in any way should
you need assistance in sponsoring such a motion in your
local Presbytery.
In the name of the One who calls us all,
The Steering Committee
Member
churches
Churches on the letter include The Brick Presbyterian Church,
Central Presbyterian Church, First Presbyterian Church,
Brooklyn, First Presbyterian Church, NYC, The Church of
Gethsemane, Jan Hus Presbyterian Church, Lafayette Ave
Presbyterian Church, Palisades Presbyterian Church, Riverdale
Presbyterian Church, Rutgers Presbyterian Church, Second
Presbyterian Church, Trinity Presbyterian Church and West Park
Presbyterian Church.
The letter is signed by 29 members of the steering committee
and 17 other ministers of the NYC Presbytery in support of the
steering committee. |