Clerk, moderator poised to make joint statement By John H. Adams The Layman Online Monday, May 22, 2000 BALTIMORE – Rulings in three key cases testing the "fidelity/chastity" ordination clause in the Constitution of the Presbyterian Church (USA) were to be sent by certified mail May 22 to participants in the cases. Also, Presbyterian officials said Stated Clerk Clifton Kirkpatrick and Moderator Freda Gardner planned to issue a joint statement once the decisions were in the hands of participants. Gardner has previously said she opposes the exclusion of self-affirmed, practicing homosexuals from ordination as deacons, elders and ministers. The 16-member General Assembly Permanent Judicial Commission, the highest court in the denomination, heard the cases on May 19 in Baltimore and spent the rest of the weekend deciding the cases and writing the decisions. The issues before the court were whether: Ministers should be allowed to conduct same-gender "holy unions." A presbytery's Committee on Ministry should accept as a candidate for ordination a homosexual who says he intends to live with another man in a "fully sexual" relationship. A congregation, with the approval of presbytery, may declare that it will not abide by the "fidelity/chastity" ordination standard in the Book of Order. The rulings will probably frame much of the debate at the annual meeting of the General Assembly June 24-July 1 in Long Beach, Calif. The constitutional ordination standard – G-6.0106b – has been under relentless attack by homosexuals and their supporters since it was approved in a national referendum of presbyteries in 1997 and affirmed by a 2-1 margin in 1998 in another national referendum. The General Assembly agenda includes several overtures that deal with the standard, including three overtures to prohibit same-sex unions and one to delete G-6.0106b from the constitution. Lobbying for a change is expected to be intense. Soulforce, an organization founded by Mel White, leader of a denomination of gay congregations, is recruiting protestors from the Los Angeles area to stage lawful and unlawful demonstrations against the ordination standard. White has announced that some of those demonstrations will occur during the General Assembly's worship service on Sunday, June 25. The 1999 General Assembly called for a moratorium on consideration of G-6.0106b issues until the 2001 General Assembly. But the 2000 General Assembly is under no obligation to abide by that recommendation.

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