Statement by the Presbyterian Lay Committee on the developments in the Episcopal Church, USA
Posted Tuesday, Aug 12, 2003
The decision of the Episcopal Church, USA to ordain as bishop a practicing homosexual severs its ties with Scripture, 2,000 years of Christian moral teaching, the counsel of the 77-million-member Anglican communion, and the overwhelming world-church consensus.
Faithful Christians in the Episcopal Church, USA who grieve over the action of their General Convention do not suffer alone, for Christian brothers and sisters in other parts of Christ’s body share the trauma of this wound. The Presbyterian Lay Committee expresses its consolation to faithful members of the Episcopal Church, USA whose leaders have so deeply damaged its witness.
Presbyterian Church (USA) standards, repeatedly reaffirmed by decisive majorities, reflect Scripture’s teaching on sexual morality. But the Biblical ethic is no safer among Presbyterians than among Episcopalians, for it is under siege from Presbyterian officials who refuse to enforce the standard, officially sanctioned programs that defy it, and activist groups that undermine it. Presbyterians who have engaged in these activities are being energized by their Episcopalian counterparts to pursue their cause more vigorously than before. The peace, unity and purity of the Presbyterian Church (USA) has been placed in greater peril as a result of what the Episcopal Church, USA has done.
Speaking to the 215th General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (USA) in June 2003, renowned missiologist Harold Kurtz issued a stern warning to U.S. Christians on behalf of burgeoning Christian communities in the Two-Thirds World. He spoke of the millions of Africans, Asians and Latin Americans who received the gospel from our missionaries and responded to the call of Christ.
These Christians, whose numbers now dwarf the membership of our declining denomination, look upon our accommodations to culture with horror, wondering what has happened to the faith that our forebears once proclaimed. We stand unequivocally with that worldwide witness to the gospel of Jesus Christ.
The Presbyterian Lay Committee assures its faithful brothers and sisters in the Episcopal Church, USA that we will not compromise with those within our denomination who seek to silence Jesus’ call to holy living and ignore the transforming gift of the Holy Spirit. We pledge ourselves anew to proclaim and defend the faith within that part of Christ’s body to which we belong.