wfn.org | General Assembly prepares to consider change in ordination standards

[PCUSA NEWS <PCUSA.NEWS@ecunet.org>]

Note #6642 from PCUSA NEWS to PRESBYNEWS:

13-June-2001
GA01091

General Assembly prepares to consider change in ordination standards

by Gary Luhr

LOUISVILLE, June 13 - The stage is set for the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)
to debate once again this week an issue that has divided the denomination in
recent years - ordination standards.

The church's General Assembly, meeting here this week, will consider a
recommendation from one of its committee's to delete current language in the
Book of Order (part of the church's constitution) that 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 between a man and a woman, 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." (Book of Order
Section G-6.0106b)

The provision, adopted by the 1997 General Assembly, effectively prohibits
gay and lesbian persons from being ordained as church officers.

On Tuesday, the Assembly Committee on Ordination Standards voted 31-25 to
delete Section G-6.0106b and to propose instead to allow sessions (local
church governing bodies) and presbyteries (regional governing bodies) to
determine if a candidate for church office should be ordained. [See related
story.] If the Assembly concurs, the change would still need to be approved
by a majority of the denomination's 173 presbyteries before it could become
part of the church's constitution, a process that would occur over the next
12 months.

The last time an Assembly committee proposed removing Section G-6.0106b was
in 1999. That year, the Assembly rejected the committee's recommendation and
voted instead for a two-year moratorium on further amendments to that
section of the constitution. The Assembly recommended that Presbyterians
spend those two years studying "the unity we share in our diversity." The
last time a proposal to delete G-6.0106b was approved by an Assembly in
1997, it was rejected by the presbyteries 112-58.

The PC(USA) position on ordination of homosexuals also stems from policies
adopted in 1978 and 1979 by two predecessor denominations and reaffirmed by
the 1993 General Assembly. The statements say, in part: "For the church to
ordain a self-affirming, practicing homosexual person to ministry would be
to act in contradiction to its character and calling in Scripture, setting
in motion both within the church and society serious contradictions to the
will of Christ…" The Ordination Standards Committee also recommended repeal
of this 23-year-old "authoritative interpretation."

Though a time has not been set for the Assembly to act on the recommendation
of the Ordination Standards Committee, it is likely to come after a vote on
a proposal from another Assembly committee to establish a task force to
initiate a churchwide study of a number of issues over the next four years
related to the "peace, unity and purity of the church" including ordination
standards. The Assembly's action on that proposal could impact its action on
the proposal to delete G-6.0106b.

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