PCUSA's top court will weigh issues going before General Assembly By John H. Adams The Layman Online Wednesday, May 17, 2000 BALTIMORE – The General Assembly Permanent Judicial Commission, the highest court in the Presbyterian Church (USA), will review three key cases in the continuing battle over the denomination's standards for ordination and marriage during appellate hearings in Baltimore May 18-19. The issues are 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. Cases from Synod of the Northeast All three cases rose out of the Synod of the Northeast, the region that has produced one-sided opposition to the denomination's long-standing position that homosexual practice – not orientation – is a sin. Nineteen of the 21 presbyteries in the synod voted in 1998 for an amendment that would have deleted the "fidelity/chastity" standard from the Constitution. Nationally, presbyteries defeated the proposed amendment 2-to-1. Normally, the Permanent Judicial Commission reviews a case and takes 10 days to two weeks before distributing a written decision. With that timetable, decisions in the three cases will be rendered before the 212th General Assembly convenes on June 24 in Long Beach, Calif. Consequently, the court decisions could have some bearing on how commissioners debate and vote on related overtures. Three overtures propose constitutional amendments that would explicitly forbid Presbyterian ministers from conducting same-sex unions. One proposes repeal of the "chastity/fidelity" clause. Another proposes an escape hatch for congregations that will not abide by the PCUSA Constitution so that they could leave the denomination with their property. Law-breaking demonstrations The commissioners also may be confronted by law-breaking demonstrators, possibly on the General Assembly floor, orchestrated by Soulforce, a gay-rights advocacy group that has begun recruiting protestors from the Los Angeles area. At the recent meeting of the General Conference of the United Methodist Church, Soulforce staged demonstrations outside and inside the convention hall. Nearly 200 people were arrested outside the hall and 31 were arrested inside. In the past, there have been demonstrations at the General Assembly, but they principally involved Presbyterian special-interest groups. In some cases, the demonstrations were orchestrated with the help of Presbyterian leaders and staff. The last major demonstration occurred in 1998 when Moderator Douglas Oldenburg allowed members of the National Network of Presbyterian College Women, an organization that promoted lesbianism and premarital sex and echoed themes from the ReImagining God movement, to protest its loss of funding. The General Assembly staff provided assistance in staging the demonstration. After that demonstration, commissioners voted to give the college women a new lease on life. However, many commissioners complained that Oldenburg had acted improperly by authorizing the demonstration and that the staff should not have assisted the protestors. Anti-demonstration overture The 2000 commissioners will consider an overture that would prohibit demonstrations on the assembly floor. The overture also proposes that no decision could be reversed after a demonstration. The combination of court decisions, demonstrations and overtures augurs a repeat of what Methodist delegates faced when they attended their recent General Conference in Cleveland. The Judicial Council, the highest court in the United Methodist Church, had ruled that the Methodist Book of Discipline prohibited ministers from conducting same-sex unions. Also, the court said Methodist conferences – regional bodies similar to presbyteries – could not pick and choose which parts of the Book of Discipline they would follow. With those court decisions and law-breaking demonstrations framing much of the debate, the Methodist delegates voted by 2-1 margins against ordination of practicing homosexuals and against allowing their ministers to conduct same-sex unions. Outlines of cases In brief, the cases before the Permanent Judicial Commission are: An appeal by seven ministers and eight churches in Hudson River Presbytery of a synod court's ruling that the constitution does not explicitly forbid same-sex unions, because such unions are not marriages by current definition in the Book or Order. The complainants and their attorney, Julius Poppinga, argue that the church cannot endorse relationships that are "contrary to established church law." Northern New England Presbytery's appeal of a 1999 synod court decision directing the presbytery to bring Christ Church in Burlington, Vt., into compliance with G-6.0106b. The church has refused to enforce the amendment, arguing that the constitution is inconsistent and cannot be interpreted properly if other sections of it are disregarded. Christ Church sponsored the overture that would eliminate G-6.0106b from the constitution. An appeal of a synod court's decision to permit the Presbytery of West Jersey to receive an openly gay man as a candidate for ordination. The presbytery maintains that the position of a candidate for ministry is substantially different from that of an ordained officer, and therefore the statute does not apply.

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