Presbyteries strongly affirming PCUSA ordination standard By John H. Adams The Layman Volume 35, Number 1 Posted February 8, 2002 During the early voting in the denomination’s presbyteries, advocates of Biblical standards for ordination of ministers and elders were trouncing a proposed amendment to the Constitution of the Presbyterian Church (USA). At the deadline for The Layman, the tally from 66 presbyteries was 49-17 against eliminating the “fidelity/chastity” ordination standard from the constitution. The individual balloting by commissioners on the proposed change to the Book of Order’s “fidelity/chastity” clause was running about 10 percentage points higher for the current ordination standard than when it was adopted in 1997. Moderator Jack B. Rogers, who favored removing the prohibition against ordaining self-affirming, practicing homosexuals, recently told The Tulsa World that he believes the measure will be defeated. Even so, the outcome is unsettled. The PCUSA has 174 presbyteries, and slightly more than one-third had voted by press time for The Layman. After G-6.0106b became part of the constitution, General Assemblies in 1998 and 2001 approved overtures to delete the standard. Nearly two-thirds of the presbyteries defeated the 1998 proposal. Commissioners to the 2001 General Assembly in Louisville voted 317-208 to repeal the ordination standard and called on presbyteries to renounce two millennia of Christian theology – as well as Presbyterian decrees – that affirmed the Bible’s view that homosexual activity is sinful. The proposal is known as Amendment 01-A.

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