Gay elder’s installation put on hold By Robert P. Mills The Presbyterian Layman Volume 34, Number 1 Posted January 24, 2001 Within days after the Permanent Judicial Commission of the Synod of the Northeast ruled that a gay elder was eligible for installation, the same church court delayed the installation to allow for an appeal of its Nov. 6 decision. A brief history In 1997, the session of the First Presbyterian Church of Stamford, Conn., in the decision’s words, “declared a ‘scruple’ taking exception to Book of Order Section G-6.0106b,” which mandates that ordained officers are to live in fidelity in marriage or chastity in singleness. Following the session’s decision to ignore the denomination’s constitution, Wayne Osborne, who, according to the synod court decision, “publicly declared his homosexual orientation at a regular meeting of the Presbytery of Southern New England,” was elected to Stamford First’s session and slated for installation in May 1998. The election resulted in judicial action against the Stamford session, and in October 1999 the synod court ordered the Presbytery of Southern New England “to re-open and complete Osborne’s examination.” In January 2000, the session re-examined Osborne and again found him eligible for installation, a decision upheld by the presbytery court, and now upheld at the synod level. Specifications of error In split decisions, the synod court rejected two specifications of error lodged by complainants Mairi Hair and James McCallum. First, by a 7-3 vote, it rejected the assertion that “the examination of Mr. Osborne was irregular because he is ineligible for active service on session under G-6.0108b and G-6.0106b.” Second, by a 6-4 vote, it rejected the claim that the examination “is still incomplete and inconclusive,” upholding the finding of the presbytery court that “the session’s examination was sufficient, procedurally and substantively.” Looking toward Louisville The stay of enforcement allows for the complainants to appeal the synod’s decision to the General Assembly Permanent Judicial Commission. In a July 2000 ruling regarding Christ Church in Burlington, Vt., the assembly’s highest court declared “there are no constitutional grounds for a governing body to fail to comply with an express provision of the constitution.” Christ Church had said it would not obey G-6.0106b. The synod court decision also focuses renewed attention on the 2001 General Assembly which will meet in Louisville. The 2000 assembly declined to consider any overtures related to G-6.0106b, the “fidelity and chastity” clause of the denomination’s ordination standards.Instead, it referred all attempts to diminish or delete the historic standard to the upcoming assembly, which will meet in the city that houses the denomination’s headquarters.

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