Code of Conduct comes too late for the case of the Coat of Many Names
By Carmen Fowler LaBerge, The Layman, December 27, 2011
“Is anyone else here gay?,” the official Presbyterian Church (USA) representative to Church of Scotland asked.
The PCUSA sends official representatives to events and meetings around the world each year. In May 2011, the Rev. Lindsay Biddle, minister member of the Twin Cities Presbytery who lives in Glasgow, Scotland and serves as pastor of Anderston Kelvingrove Parish Church there, officially represented the denomination at the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland.
Throughout the Church of Scotland General Assembly, as the PCUSA overseas delegate, Biddle says she wore “a flax-linen jacket – a traditional and practical piece of clothing in cool, windy Scotland – printed with the names of ordained transgender, bisexual, gay and lesbian deacons, elders and ministers in the Presbyterian Church (USA). If they had a partner, their two names were written in the shape of an X like the cross of Scotland’s patron saint Andrew.”
Her description of the garment continues, “Across the back of the jacket were the words that the Rev. David Bailey Sindt prophetically held up on a sign at the 1973 General Assembly meeting of the (northern USA) Presbyterian Church: Is anyone else out there gay?”
Making a weeklong demonstration of her cause, Biddle says, “I wore The Coat of Many Names to lunch, where my colleague from Canada reminded me that the United Church of Canada has been ordaining gay people since 1988 … I wore The Coat to the reception with former moderators, some of whom thanked me for saying what they are unable to say. I wore it for the official group photograph, where my fellow overseas and ecumenical delegates made sure it was visible. And I wore it when I stood up during the debate on “ordained ministry and same-sex relationships” and told the assembly of the decisive vote cast by the Presbytery of the Twin Cities area to “remove one paragraph from our PCUSA church law, thus freeing presbyteries and sessions to ordain all people based on their faith and abilities.”
The PCUSA GA committee that selects delegates and official denominational representatives is the General Assembly Committee on Ecumenical and Interreligious Relations (GACEIR).
Rev. Scott Anderson (see article, page 12), director of the Wisconsin Council of Churches and chair of GACEIR outlined the process of appointment of PCUSA participants and/or delegates to various bodies, pointing out that it varies depending on the situation. Anderson said, “To national church assemblies that request an ecumenical delegate from the PCUSA – at times individuals write to the stated clerk requesting appointment (as was the case with Rev. Biddle) and at times GACEIR takes the initiative in seeking out individuals to serve as ecumenical delegates.”
Elaborating on the case in point, Anderson said, “In the case of the Church of Scotland, which requests that we send an ecumenical delegate annually, the PCUSA does not cover travel or housing expenses (these costs are born by the delegate). Delegates do submit reports to GACEIR about their experience.” It is Biddle’s report, posted on the PCUSA’s website, which raised concern.
Anderson said, “no one on GACEIR or the OGA staff was aware of Rev. Biddle’s plans for her public witness at the Church of Scotland General Assembly. I believe it is inappropriate for PCUSA ecumenical delegates to involve themselves in the internal conflicts of any church assembly, and I think you will see that the Code of Conduct ultimately adopted by GACEIR will reflect this sentiment.”
That proposed Code of Conduct is being developed in response to Biddle’s actions. Anderson said, “With respect to Rev. Biddle, GACEIR did discuss the matter at length at its October, 2011, meeting. We decided to appoint one of our members to draft a ‘Code of Conduct’ for all future PCUSA representatives to national or international church assemblies which will be brought back to us at our January meeting in Louisville for consideration.”
In her formal greeting on behalf of the PCUSA to the Church of Scotland GA, she declared, “The Hebrew Scriptures and the Greek New Testament do not address homosexuality much less condemn it.” She then proceeded to applaud the nation of Scotland for its “anti-discrimination legislation.”
Biddle declared to the assembly that “God has always created gay people; God will continue to create gay people. God has blessed the holy unions of gay couples; God will continue to bless the holy unions of gay couples. God has since-forever been calling transgender and bisexual and lesbian and gay people into ministry; God will keep on calling transgender and bisexual and lesbian and gay people into ministry.”
Biddle’s official overseas delegate report as a representative of the PCUSA to the Church of Scotland GA, concluded with, “Know that I and others in Affirmation Scotland are here for you.”
In the Church of Scotland, Affirmation Scotland is the equivalent of the More Light Presbyterians (MLP) in the PCUSA. Biddle serves as the Chaplain of Affirmation Scotland and is celebrated on the MLP Website as well. Her personal positions, her view of Scripture and her agenda could not have been a mystery to anyone who cared to vet her self-nomination in advance of approving Biddle as an official representative of the PCUSA. GACEIR’s Code of Conduct is welcomed, but it comes too late.
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At a world-wide family gathering in Aberdeen, we attended church at St. Nicholas. I had told my children that they were going to see a real Presbyterian Church in action, but the attendance of members were no more than 10 or 15 and the family outnumbered the members by more than 3-1. It was a very sad experience for the family because our forebears are buried in the church yard. So I am not surprised at what is going on in the Scottish Presbyterian Church and they should be ashamed for even listening to Biddle!