wfn.org | Assembly approves "fidelity, chastity" amendment

[PCUSA.NEWS@ecunet.org]

06-July-1996 
 
GA96112 
 
 
    Assembly approves "fidelity, chastity" amendment 
 
ALBUQUERQUE - Silence fell on the 208th General Assembly (1996) at about 
3:10 p.m. Friday.  The commissioners had just approved sending an amendment 
to the presbyteries that would require fidelity in marriage or chastity in 
singleness for all church officers.  The vote was 313 for, 236 against, 0 
abstained. 
 
    If approved by a majority of the presbyteries during the coming year, 
the amendment would place into the constitution of the Presbyterian Church 
(U.S.A.)  wording that would not allow self-acknowledged, practicing 
homosexual persons to be ordained.  It also covers "any self-acknowledged 
practice which the confessions call sin" and says, "persons refusing to 
repent" of these "shall not be ordained and/or installed as deacons, 
elders, or ministers of the Word and Sacrament." 
 
    The vote followed a 45-minute "informational presentation and prayerful 
reflection" on both the majority and minority reports from the Ordination 
and Human Sexuality committee, about 90 minutes of debate on the two 
reports and amendments offered from the floor, and two minutes of prayer. 
 
    The silence--a gesture of respect for one another's feelings after the 
debate and vote--was broken only by the voice of Assembly Moderator John 
Buchanan who simply called for the next item of business. 
 
    After the full committee report was finished, several hundred gays, 
lesbians and their supporters demonstrated by marching in a long column 
through the aisles of the hall singing with harmony and descant, "We are 
marching in the light of God."  Many demonstrators wore stoles and handed 
out stoles showing support for gays and lesbians.  Many commissioners stood 
in silent solidarity with them.  Moderator Buchanan allowed them 10 minutes 
to express their pain in this way. 
 
    The full text of the amendment says, "Those who are called to office in 
the church are to lead a life in obedience to Scripture and in conformity 
to the historic confessional standards of the church.  Among these 
standards is the requirement to live either in fidelity within the covenant 
of marriage of a man and a woman (W-4.9001), or chastity in singleness. 
Persons refusing to repent of any self-acknowledged practice which the 
Confessions call sin shall not be ordained and/or installed as deacons, 
elders, or ministers of the Word and Sacrament." 
 
    The minority report, signed by 19 members of the 50-member Ordination 
and Human Sexuality committee, called for the Assembly to approve an 
authoritative interpretation of the constitution that would have allowed 
each presbytery and session to decide whether to ordain or not--known as 
"local option."  The minority report was defeated by a vote of 226 for, 323 
against, and 0 abstained. 
 
    Another motion, one to take no action and study the issue for an 
indefinite time, was defeated 220 for, 314 against, 0 abstained. 
 
    The Assembly also adopted an overture calling for ministries of 
compassion and healing for those whose sexual practices bring alienation 
and pain, and for church members who feel alienation and pain over the 
action of the Church. 
 
    The preamble to the committee's report, which was not put up for 
approval by the Assembly, says in part, "We hear the church's desire to 
send a clear word that speaks to the moral confusion in our culture.... In 
sending this resolution, we as a church are acting like Jesus, who loves 
all persons, who did not come to condemn anyone, but calls all to 
repentance, turning from sin..." 
 
 
Bill Lancaster 

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