Ordination Standards committee hears testimony By Robert P. Mills The Layman Online Tuesday, June 12, 2001 LOUISVILLE, Ky. – The assembly committee on Ordination Standards spent much of the day Monday listening to testimony in open hearings and hearing reports from overture advocates. Two hours were allotted for the open hearings. One hundred-seventy individuals signed up for the two-minute slots. So, a "lottery" was held to allow an equal number of speakers for and against each overture referred to the committee. The first overture to be discussed was 01-28 from Santa Fe Presbytery, which would allow a congregation to request from its presbytery a "waiver" of G-6.0106b, the denomination's "fidelity and chastity" ordination standard. Speaking in opposition to the overture, 23-year-old Jonathan Tony told commissioners that part of the reason he was a Presbyterian "is that we make decisions as a body, not individuals. A waiver asks an exemption from being part of the body." Adding to the list Next to be discussed were two overtures that would add the words "sexual orientation" to G-5.0103, a list that begins, "No person shall be denied membership because of race, ethnic origin …" George Smith, from Lafayette, La., told commissioners, "I'm a gay man, I'm an ordained elder. I'm at present unchurched. I don't want to make trouble for a local church by being a disruptive influence. But I do want an opportunity to serve. The business of the church today is to get this behind us and to move forward to building this church in the future." Greg Roth, a minister from San Francisco Presbytery, agreed with the recommendation of the Advisory Committee on the constitution that such overtures are unnecessary "as the current list is sufficiently broad." Roth said to include it as a category of membership "is to open the door to statistics. I, as a pastor, would dislike asking people their sexual orientation just to keep statistics." Deleting 'fidelity and chastity' The following cluster of overtures asked the assembly to delete G-6.0106b from the Book of Order. Ken Collins of Detroit presbytery spoke first. "I favor the overture," he said, "because I believe we cannot be anti-gay." Next to speak was Scott Kingry of Denver Presbytery, who spoke against efforts to delete the standard. "I feel a need to put a face to a large community, those who feel that their homosexual relationships are blocking their relationship with God. It has been 14 years since I put my homosexuality behind me. It would be devastating if our church reversed its ordination standard. My experience would be invalidated and discounted. We need to maintain the high standards that we have." Carol Seaton, a minister from Greater Atlanta Presbytery, said she was surprised to be called to ministry. But, she said, "God had another surprise for me. I finally met the love of my life, my soul mate. It was a woman. I am more able to serve as a minister now because I am a whole person. It is time for the church to change, to listen to the Holy Spirit." Jeff Winter, a minister from Philadelphia Presbytery, spoke of attending the Albuquerque assembly in 1996 where "I watched 50-plus commissioners put together G-6.0106b. I think it is very good polity. I think it's good polity when you have liberals, moderates and conservatives at our General Assembly come up with G-6.0106b. I am asking this church, you especially, to maintain the high standard of calling to ordination." Paul Johnston reminded commissioners that "the act of any one governing body is the act of the whole church. We have national standards because ordination is for the whole church, carried out by particular governing bodies for the whole church. If we allow some standards, we allow that standards are acceptable." Michael Adee, serving his third term as an elder at First Presbyterian Church in Santa Fe, told commissioners, "I'm a Christian. I'm also gay. I travel the country. There are people who want us to remove these barriers to gay and lesbian people and also single people of faith. The standard says single heterosexual people need not apply. Let us remove any barriers to service." Authoritative interpretation Another set of overtures asks the General Assembly to issue a new Authoritative Interpretation of the constitution, one that explicitly permits the ordinations of gays and lesbians. Matt Batzel from Lackawanna Presbytery graduated from high school three days prior to testifying before the committee. "Leaders of my church have set a good example for me" he said. Then he told of a good friend of his who did not grow up in church and did not have such positive role models. "He made some mistakes," Batzel said. "Now, he has a beautiful baby daughter, but his future has been hurt. Fidelity and chastity need to remain ordination standards." Eugene March, a professor of Old Testament at Louisville Theological Seminary, said he was part of a group of 33 Bible professors at Presbyterian seminaries who "urge the church not to jump to conclusions about what the Bible says in six very brief passages about homosexuality and not to assume that what we mean when we talk about homosexuality was what was meant in biblical times. It is time for us to act and for us to receive sisters and brothers for ordination." A man from San Francisco said he was active in the gay lifestyle for more than 10 years. "I chose to walk away from the gay lifestyle," he told commissioners. "It wasn't easy, but I was grateful that God had changed me. God delivers us from bondage. He does not ask from us what we cannot do. Any decision to ordain practicing homosexuals would invalidate the lives of individuals like me who have been transformed. Let us give people who struggle what they need most, the amazing love of God." Moderatorial lobbying After lunch, committee members returned to hear presentations from overture advocates, including an hour-long PowerPoint presentation from those advocating the elimination of the fidelity and chastity standard. Following their presentation, Moderator Jack Rogers spent 15 minutes lobbying the committee to appoint a theological commission. He said the commission "should have more power, flexibility and time than the usual committee." He asked, "Do we need a new confession of faith?" And he answered, "I'd be happy to have the church write a new confession of faith every 10 years. That's because the process is more important than the product."

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