 ‘The whole world is watching’  The Layman – Volume 36, Number 1 – Posted February 19, 2003
Two years ago the Confessing Church Movement began when a pastor heard one person say she had been watching the Presbyterian church. The woman had called in to a radio show in Butler, Pa., and said that as a member of a Presbyterian church she had been encouraged in, rather than counseled against, her sexual sin that had driven her almost to the point of suicide. It was only when a friend took her to another church that preached about sin, repentance, and loving obedience that her life became worth living again. This woman’s seeing such a bad Presbyterian witness to Christ led that listening pastor to ask his session to publicly look up, pray up, stand up and speak up that Jesus is Lord of all, that the Bible is God’s truth, and that God’s people are called to holy living by that truth. The world is now watching our denomination as we deal, or do not deal, with the ordination standard that is part of our constitution. That standard has been voted on by the church three times, and it conforms to the behaviors of chastity and marital fidelity understood for more than 2,000 years by the Church as what God teaches for his people in the Bible. All our officers said “Yes” when they became officers that they will be governed by the church’s constitution and discipline. Despite making that promise, some Presbyterian officers have issued statements that they will and do ordain pastors, elders and deacons who are not chaste in singleness or faithful in heterosexual marriage. There are individuals, sessions, substantial portions of presbyteries and several entire presbyteries that say they will not be governed by this part of our church law. Such refusal presents the issue squarely to the rest of us officers who have said “Yes” to that same vow. As we have promised, will we uphold that morality that has been lawfully adopted into our governing standards? As we have promised, will we exercise and administer discipline to achieve those purposes set out as the constitution – “to preserve the purity of the church … to correct … wrongdoing in order to bring members to repentance and restoration; to restore the unity … by removing the causes of discord and division …”? (D1.0101 of the Book of Order) Defiance on this issue is not new; a church in Cincinnati Presbytery issued its first refusal to be governed by church law in 1991 and continues to refuse 12 years later. But defiance has grown in the number of churches and presbyteries during the last year, and all attempts to correct actions by using the judicial and administrative processes for remedy set out in our governing rules have not been successful in a single instance. The presbyteries and synods have ignored the plain and public facts of wrongdoing and their clear responsibility to uphold fidelity to ordination vows. If there is not an outcry from across the church and response from officers at all levels, including the General Assembly, the stated clerk and moderator, defiance will become the institutionalized norm. And the world will see. It sees that we all said “Yes” to abide by our own laws, and that if we don’t really mean “yes” to that vow, we do not really mean “yes” to our first ordination vow: that we trust in Jesus Christ, our Savior, Lord of all, and through him believe in one God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. And Jesus will weep at our witness. Peggy Hedden is the chair of the Presbyterian Lay Committee. |
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