Overture calls for enforcement of court’s 2-year-old order The Layman Volume 35, Number 3 Posted June 3, 2002 Commissioners to the 214th General Assembly in Columbus, Ohio, June 15-22 will be asked to ensure that a Vermont congregation ends its defiance of the Constitution of the Presbyterian Church (USA). The overture could set the stage on a judicial showdown between the General Assembly and Stated Clerk Clifton Kirkpatrick. If the overture is approved, the General Assembly would undertake a rare role for the national body – as the enforcer of the constitution. Kirkpatrick, who is required to “protect and preserve” the constitution, has shunned the role of enforcer. The overture would hold him responsible for seeing that the General Assembly’s mandate was carried out. The General Assembly’s right to enforce the constitution is clearly enunciated in the Standing Rules of the General Assembly. But the Committee on the Office of the General Assembly – the office that is headed by Kirkpatrick – opposes the overture, asking that it be referred to the Permanent Judicial Commission of the General Assembly, the highest court in the denomination. Normally, the courts are not the enforcers of their own decrees. That’s the responsibility of middle-governing bodies to which the court’s orders are directed. Citing a case decided by the commission in 2000, the overture from the Presbytery of Shenango in Pennsylvania says Christ Church in Burlington, Vt., continues to ignore the court’s order and to advertise its defiance of the constitutional “fidelity/chastity” ordination standard in the Book of Order. In Londonderry v. Christ Church, the court declared that Christ Church’s dissent “exceeds the constitutional bounds of freedom of conscience and therefore requires a response on the part of the governing body exercising oversight.” The court ordered the Presbytery of Northern New England “to work pastorally with the session of Christ Church to assist it in fulfilling its obligation to comply with the Constitution.” But there has been no report of compliance with the court’s order – which Kirkpatrick was required to make to the 213rd General Assembly but failed to deliver. Meanwhile, the overture says, Christ Church “continues to proclaim publicly on its Web site that it ‘vow[s] to continue welcoming persons living singly or in committed relationships, regardless of sexual orientation, into the life, membership and leadership of this congregation on an equal basis, including eligibility for election and ordination as a ruling elder or deacon.’” In Londonderry, the court found “that there are no constitutional grounds for a governing body to fail to comply with an express provision of the Constitution. … Assertions of inconsistency, confusion, or ambiguity may justify the right to protest. They do not create a right to disregard any part of the Constitution.” The Shenango overture asks the General Assembly to declare that compliance with the Londonderry ruling has been inadequate and to issue orders to ensure compliance. Seeking to derail the Shenango overture, the Committee on the Office of the General Assembly expressed “grave concerns about asking the commissioners and advisory delegates of a General Assembly to function in place of a judicial commission in assessing the adequacy of compliance with a judicial commission order.” The overture encourages Kirkpatrick “to take all steps he deems necessary or convenient to fully assure the 215th General Assembly that the subject orders have been complied with.” The committee says the stated clerk would be “compromised if the clerk becomes a party to the process” of enforcing the constitution.

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