'Fidelity and chastity' open hearings held By Robert P. Mills The Layman Online Monday, June 21, 1999 FORT WORTH – The General Assembly committee on Church Orders and Ministry held open hearings Monday morning. Most of the comments concerned efforts to amend G-6.0106b, the "fidelity and chastity" clause of the PCUSA constitution. The Monday morning meeting was the committee's second. In contravention of the PCUSA's Open Meeting Policy, they had met Sunday night for "worship and community building." While no business was supposed to be transacted at that meeting, no independent confirmation of committee proceedings was available. Deleting G-6.0106b Three overtures dealing with the denomination's ordination standards were the subject of testimony. First was Overture 99-2 from Milwaukee, which asks that G-6.0106b be deleted from the Book of Order. First to speak was Paul Sperling, moderator of Hudson River Presbytery, which had approved an identical overture, but did so too late to have it come to this Assembly. Sperling spoke in favor of deleting the provision because, in his words, it "has a destructive effect on the covenant between us. … G-6.0106b is inimical to the Great Ends of the Church." Lauraine LaFontaine identified herself as a minister member of Denver Presbytery who has "faithfully served this denomination for 12 years" and "an out lesbian." She now teaches at a Catholic high school. "I believe that G-6-0106b is divisive and painful," LaFontaine said. "I serve as a parish associate at a large church in Denver, and I watch the session struggle with how to be faithful to the constitution when the constitution contains bad theology and bad polity. … I pray you have the courage to do the right thing, to pass Overture 99-2. 'Very good theology' Paul Leggett, a minister from Newark Presbytery urged committee members "to take no action on this overture and leave G-6.0106b as it presently stands. It represents very good theology." Leggett said the provision "lifts up three parts of our life together" first, obedience to Scripture; second, the importance of marriage between a man and a woman; and third, "It lifts up our confessions and leads us to repent of what our confessions call sin." "Two years ago an attempt to replace this was soundly defeated in the presbyteries," Leggett noted. "Nothing new has been offered since. There is no need to bring this up again. I urge you to vote no." 'Trust is beginning to return' Bill Moss, an elder from San Francisco who has been "in a loving relationship with my partner Chris for 9 years," urged commissioners to remove the ordination standard. "I testified in 1996 in Albuquerque," Moss said. "At that time I urged the adoption of ordination standards that would be fully inclusive of God's people. Instead, we were given the extra-biblical standard of G-6.0106b, which proclaims to the world an ethic of exclusion. Fortunately, I was able to honor God's call to serve the church as an elder in spite of a church that would have it otherwise. Unfortunately, many of my gay, lesbian, bi-sexual and transgender friends are unable to receive this call because they have been marginalized as second class citizens." Carl Baetzel of Lackawana Presbytery spoke next, saying, "I'm here to plead with you to take no action on Overture 99-2 or any other overture that would send this to the presbyteries for the third time in four years. … This issue has polarized us, causing estrangement in personal relationships. This past year, without any seriously divisive amendments to debate, there has been some healing in Lackawana. Trust is beginning to return. We are working on our first new church development in over 30 years. Don't force us into another round of hurtful debate. Give us some more time and space for the fragile rebuilding of the Christian household." Discipleship 'irrelevant to one's sexual being' Harold Porter, pastor emeritus of the Mt. Auburn church in Cincinnati declared that the purpose of G-6.0106b "had nothing to do with fidelity in marriage. Actually it is against family values for all persons. After all, Christian discipleship has always been irrelevant to one's sexual being. Even if Jesus were homosexual, that could not detract from his work of salvation." Suzy Smith, a pastor, from Anderson, S.C., also spoke in favor of deleting the provision saying, "This year I did a confirmation class for families. I had to tell a lesbian couple with at 12-year old daughter, 'Your daughter can serve as an elder in our church but you can't.'" Jack Haberer, pastor of the Clear Lake church in Houston said "I'm one of the six framers of the Call to Sabbatical. One thing the six of us all recognized is that two years of debate over these amendments had caused us to speak a lot but not to learn a lot. We were too busy counting votes. We recognized that if there was to be a continuing conversation there had to be a time out. … I want to encourage you to help us to expand that conversation without the specter of voting." Jane Spahr: 'The church is participating in our death' Next to speak was Jane Spahr, "minister member of Redwoods Presbytery," who told commissioners that G-6.0106b "is killing gay, lesbian, bi-sexual and transgender people. The church is participating in our death. [G-6.0106b] is exclusive. It says that we cannot serve. In doing that, it says that we are less than. And saying that people are less than promotes violence. When we ask children why did you beat up lesbian people they say 'Because our church told us they are bad.'" Without citing a source for her statistics, Spahr claimed that "33 percent of gay and lesbian people commit suicide. … We are complicit in their death. We saw Matthew Sheppard hung on a cross. Many of my friends who want to serve have gone on to other denominations, and so have their families. We want to serve. We want to be in leadership." Churches are still suffering Bruce Powell of Charlotte said "I come to speak to this issue from the perspective of our overseas partners. Every time I arrive at a mission church with our partners overseas, they want to know why the PCUSA is constantly debating something Scripture has spoken to. They ask why are we spending our energy and money on this issue instead of on reaching people for Jesus Christ." He reminded commissioners that "each of our moderator candidates spoke of our need to be a mission church." Powell asked "Please, don't embarrass us" by sending this issue to the presbyteries once again. Jim Hazlett, a pastor from Cascades Presbytery said, "In our presbytery we are still mending fences. Churches are still suffering from Amendments B and A. We are working to come together." He said Overtures 99-2 "is divisive. It would lead us back to times of division in our presbyteries." Darryl Fisher-Odgen identified herself as "A second career minister member of Pacific Presbytery. I have combined those skills, unfortunately, in presbyteries, having to prosecute heterosexual misconduct. That is a reason behind G-6.0106b. I would urge you to keep that language. We need it to correct heterosexual misconduct." Donald Baird, a pastor from Sacramento, said he began his ministry in 1969. "Shortly after that," he said, "our denomination began this debate. For almost 30 years, my entire ministry virtually, we have debated this issue … For the first 20 years those were helpful times of dialogue and education. The overtures before you now bring nothing new. Dialogue is helpful as long as new ideas are being brought. But 'Yes you did. No I didn't' is not dialogue nor is it healthy." Last to speak to Overture 99-2 was Ken Collinson who told commissioners, "I am a gay man, and I'm here in a church that doesn't want me, and I don't understand that. I was in my church for 40 years before I could say I'm a gay man. … My church is saying to me 'We really don't want you here.' How can a Christian church say this to any person?" Amending G-6.0106b Overtures 99-27 and 99-30, both seeking to amend G-6.0106b, were also the subject of testimony before the committee.
Elder Jay Poppinga of Newark Presbytery said, "Theologically G-6.0106b does not exclude anyone. Repentance is the key. That's a matter of theology." He added, "When we talk about excluding people from the ministry, I think of Walter Kenyon. He was excluded because he couldn't in good conscience participate in the ordination of women. He said he would serve with them, but wouldn't participate in the ceremony. He was excluded from ministry." If 99-27 passes, Poppinga said, "People who will not ordain gays and lesbians will be excluded from ministry." Clark Cowden, executive presbytery of San Joaquin presbytery said, "One of the most difficult things we have to do in our presbyteries is deal with sexual misconduct cases. The current language of G-6.0106b helps bring some clarity to that." He noted that Overture 99-30 uses the phrase "essentials of the Reformed faith." The problem with that, said Cowden, "is that we've never defined what the essentials of the faith are as a GA. Before we insert this language, we have to define the essentials." |
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