 PCUSA's highest court refuses to try lesbian-award complaint By John H. Adams The Layman Online Friday, November 19, 1999
Rejecting a remedial action requested by the Presbytery of Shenango near Pittsburgh, the Permanent Judicial Commission of the General Assembly said the complaint failed to demonstrate constitutional grounds for a trial. Further action contemplated While there is no higher court of appeal, except the General Assembly itself, the complainants in the case say they might pursue the issue through a question to the Advisory Committee on the Constitution. The duties of the Advisory Committee on the Constitution are outlined in G-13.0112 of the Book of Order. The committee, which meets at least annually, accepts questions about the constitution and makes recommendations, including possible amendments, to the General Assembly. The question posed by the Shenango Presbytery in its action against the General Assembly Council was whether the "fidelity/chastity" clause [G-6.0106b] in the Book of Order applies to award recipients as well as candidates for deacon, elder and minister. The presbytery contended that the "fidelity/chastity" clause is a moral standard for all of the denomination – not just for candidates for office. But in its final ruling, the permanent judicial commission said, "The constitution does not address the issuance of awards or their revocation or reinstatement." Spahr caused greatest 'outrage' The complaint singled out Spahr as the one who provoked the greatest "outrage" because she is the "most visible advocate in the church for the ordination of gay and lesbian persons to church office." The 1999 Women of Faith Awards were also presented to another lesbian activist, Letty Russell, and Jane Dempsey Douglass, a leader in the ReImagining God movement. The ruling by the commission came after a hearing before the commission's executive committee on Nov. 13 in Cary. Participants in the case received their copies of the ruling by registered mail Nov. 17. Vote termed an irregularity Shenango Presbytery asked the commission to declare that the General Assembly Council committed an irregularity when it voted 41-40 on the eve of the 1999 General Assembly to sanction the award to Spahr. The award implied that the Presbyterian Church (USA) endorsed Spahr's sexual preference and her efforts to gain ordination for gays and lesbians, the complaint said, "a flagrant affront to church law." "Indeed, it is submitted that the giving of such an award violated both the letter and the spirit of Section G-6.0106b of the Book of Order," said Raymond Bartholomew, lead counsel for Shenango. Arguments against trial Counsel for the General Assembly Council gave three arguments against a trial:
April L. Davenport, counsel for the General Assembly Council, said commissioners' resolution 99-2, approved by the 1999 General Assembly, covered the review process for awards and the evaluation to ensure that the Women's Ministries Program Area complies with Scripture and the Book of Order. The General Assembly's decision was tantamount to the remedial action sought by Shenago Presbytery, she said, and therefore no trial was necessary. Patricia K. Norris of the Synod of the Southwest, assistant clerk of the Permanent Judicial Commission and a member of the commission's executive committee, suggested another possible reason for not receiving the case for trial by the full commission. Questioning Bartholomew, Norris asked rhetorically, "The issuance of an award is not the same as an ordination, is it?" Bartholomew answered, "The whole process … indicates to the church at large that we have a group defying Amendment B. It is an issue that has divided a lot of people, and it continues to divide." An 'outrage' either way David Bridgeman of the Synod of Mid-America, also an executive committee member, acknowledged that the awards had a "serious effect on the life of the church," but asked Bartholomew, "Under what rule of the Constitution is it [the Shenango complaint] adjudicable?" "In the minds of the people in the Presbyterian Church," Bartholomew said, "there is no difference when we have an outrage whether it is called an award or an ordination. What was the point of all the presbyteries debating the language of Amendment B" if the church can give awards to people who defy that standard? Bartholomew also argued that the 1999 General Assembly approval of commissioners' resolution 99-2 did not constitute remedial action that satisfied the Shenango complaint. "The award was not given tentatively," he said. In August, responding to the Shenango complaint, the General Assembly's Permanent Judicial Commission made a preliminary ruling that the complaint should be dismissed. The hearing on Nov. 13 was an appeal of that ruling. Other cases cited But Bartholomew cited a number of cases in which constitutional standards of the Presbyterian Church (USA) were viewed more broadly. He also cited a case in which the General Assembly's Permanent Judicial Commission itself determined that Spahr, because of her lesbian activism, was not eligible to receive a call from Downtown United Presbyterian Church of Rochester, N.Y., in 1993. In another appellate case, Hope Presbyterian Church v. Central Presbyterian Church, the commission reversed an Oregon presbytery's approval of the ordination of "two self-affirming, practicing homosexual members to the office of deacon." In Letourneau v. Presbytery of the Twin Cities Area, Bartholomew said the commission set aside the certification of a lesbian woman as a candidate for the ministry. And citing two other cases, he said, the commission decided that a governing body's or an individual's statement of intent to violate the constitution was sufficient to rule that an irregularity had occurred. Case for 'irregularity' Bartholomew said that taken together the decisions establish "that an irregularity occurs whenever an entity of the Presbyterian Church (USA) takes action, adopts a resolution or otherwise endorses a policy or course of action in defiance of a constitutional mandate. "Whether the affront to the constitutional mandate takes the form of a session pronouncement that it intends to ordain gay and lesbian persons, or whether it takes the form of a General Assembly award to a minister who advocates the ordination of gay and lesbian persons, the defiance to church law is equally evident. "Such defiant declarations cannot go unchecked … lest the entire fabric of the Presbyterian Church (USA) be jeopardized." |
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