Presbytery will consider 4 resolutions in response to approval of PUP report
By John H. Adams, The Layman Online, August 31, 2006
At the request of three elders and three ministers, the Presbytery of Sacramento has called a special meeting at 1 p.m. Sept. 9 to consider resolutions that require candidates for ministry to comply fully with the Constitution of the Presbyterian Church (USA).
Section G-11.0201 of the Book of Order requires the presbytery to call a special meeting upon the request of at least two ministers and two elders. The commissioners will be asked to approve four resolutions that prohibit deviation from constitutional ordination requirements, as was allowed by the 2006 General Assembly when it approved the PUP task force report.
Four resolutions will be on the agenda:
- 1. To promote the peace, unity, and purity of our presbytery, we resolve that the Sacramento Presbytery holds that all candidates for ordination, installation, and/or membership in this Presbytery shall comply with all standards for ordination set forth in the Constitution of the PCUSA, or shall be ineligible for ordination, installation, and/or membership.
- 2. To promote the peace, unity, and purity of our presbytery, we resolve that the Sacramento Presbytery shall not receive into membership, nor recognize as a member, anyone who has been ordained or installed under a scruple (that is taking exception to any of the ordination standards as set forth in the Constitution of the PCUSA.)
- 3. To promote the peace, unity, and purity of our presbytery, we resolve that the Sacramento Presbytery shall honor the protest of every congregation that chooses to exercise its right to withhold its per capita, therefore, only designated congregational per- capita funds shall be used to fulfill presbytery per capita obligations, and presbytery per capita assessments shall not be increased to compensate for such protests.
- 4. To promote the peace, unity, and purity of our presbytery, we resolve that the Sacramento Presbytery shall take no action to enforce any general trust interest claimed against any property, real or personal, held by an individual congregation within the Sacramento Presbytery.
In the rationale for the resolutions, the drafters say, “Our recent General Assembly’s adoption of the Theological Task Force’s Report on the Peace, Unity and Purity of the Church focuses attention on the responsibility of each governing body within the denomination to apply the constitution in its particular setting. The following resolutions are presented to accomplish this at our presbytery level.”
The called meeting will be held at Fremont Presbyterian Church in Sacramento. The congregation’s pastor, the Rev. Donald Baird, and elder Bruce C. Ogden signed the petition for the special meeting.
The other signers are elder Johan A. Batenburg and pastor Mark Wright of Covenant Community Church in Vacaville; elder Timothy A. Curtis of Peace Presbyterian Church in Sacramento; and pastor Daniel V. Vraa of Dixon Community Church in Dixon.