Lay Committee endorses Coalition statement calling Spahr decision ‘stunning for its disregard of Presbyterian constitutional law’
The Layman Online, March 24, 2006
The Presbyterian Lay Committee is endorsing a Presbyterian Coalition statement that calls a ruling exonerating a lesbian activist on charges that she violated the denomination’s constitution by marrying two same-sex couples “stunning for its disregard of Presbyterian constitutional law.”
Acting for the full board of directors, the executive committee of the Presbyterian Lay Committee voted unanimously March 23 to endorse the statement that condemns a March 3 decision by the Permanent Judicial Commission of California Redwoods Presbytery that the Rev. Dr. Jane Adams Spahr committed “no offense” and acted “within her right of conscience” when she pronounced each lesbian couple “bride and bride and partners in life” in 2004 and 2005.
The three-woman, four-man tribunal deliberated five hours March 3 to determine whether Spahr acted contrary to the denomination’s Book of Order, which defines marriage as a gift of God and a covenant between a woman and a man. Spahr challenged the church constitution that allows the blessing of same-sex unions, yet forbids homosexual weddings.
On March 16, the Presbyterian Forum also endorsed the Presbyterian Coalition statement, and called the ruling a “destructive and constitutionally flawed decision.”
The Presbyterian Coalition statement, released March 8, called the Redwoods action “schismatic and a threat to the very fabric of our constitutional connection. If a presbytery is not held accountable for turning aside the orderly actions of the General Assembly and our highest court, the General Assembly Permanent Judicial Commission, we are in constitutional chaos. What, then, is the point of a constitution?”
In endorsing the Coalition’s statement, Peggy M. Hedden, chairman of the board and chief executive officer, said the Presbyterian Lay Committee “applauds it for correctly assessing the ruling as being based on ‘constitutional interpretations that are clearly erroneous, both legally and theologically.'”
She also said the executive committee feels strongly, like the Coalition and the Forum, that, “if left uncorrected, this decision will become yet another signpost of the dissolution of constitutional order in the PCUSA.”
Hedden said she prays that the General Assembly will heed the Coalition’s warning that it regards the Redwoods decision “as a precursor of what would surely and pervasively follow if Recommendation 5 of the Theological Task Force on the Peace, Unity and Purity of the Church (PUP) report is approved as proposed. The ruling shows that the General Assembly and General Assembly’s Permanent Judicial Commission will be utterly powerless to demand compliance with any provision of the Constitution if Recommendation 5 passes. A session or presbytery could evade any decision by dismissing it as ‘not essential’ without fear of judicial correction.”
Hedden said the Presbyterian Lay Committee joins with its fellow renewal ministries in “encouraging our fellow office bearers, governing bodies and all faithful Presbyterians to protest against the error of this decision.”