wfn.org | Confession yes, subscription no, synod court rules

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Note #7432 from PCUSA NEWS to PRESBYNEWS:

19-September-2002
02358

Confession yes, subscription no, synod court rules 

No appeals expected in closely-watched Sebastian case

by Alexa Smith

LOUISVILLE - In a case widely considered to be a test of the Confessing
Church Movement within the Presbyterian Church (USA), a synod court has ruled
that local congregations can adopt faith statements that are "consistent"
with the denomination's constitution but cannot use them as a "litmus test"
for ordination or installation to church office.

The unanimous decision by the Permanent Judicial Commission of the Synod of
South Atlantic on Sept. 13 apparently resolves a dispute in Central Florida
Presbytery that seemed headed for the General Assembly Permanent Judicial
Commission - the church's highest court.

So far, attorneys on neither side are recommending an appeal.

The case began in 2001 when Norman Blessing, an elder at First Presbyterian
Church of Sebastian, FL for more than 20 years, filed suit charging that the
Sebastian session could not require those seeking office in the church to
affirm the "confession" it had adopted prior to the 213th General Assembly. 

The Permanent Judicial Commission of the Presbytery of Central Florida upheld
Blessing's complaint.

The Sebastian confession - modeled on the tenets of a loose coalition of
churches calling themselves the Confessing Church Movement - affirmed
heterosexual marriage as the only acceptable sexual relationship, the
infallibility of the Bible and Jesus Christ as the only means to salvation.
The Confessing Church Movement has rallied about 1,200 congregations to
affirm similar confessions.

The session approved the document at meeting when Blessing had an excused
absence. He claimed that the Sebastian session subsequently tried to require
that he and others either affirm the confession or leave the church.  

Blessing charged that writing such a confession exceeded the authority of the
Sebastian church - an allegation that the presbytery court upheld. It ordered
the church to rescind its confession, causing a firestorm among Confessing
Churches.

However, the synod court ruled that the Sebastian church "had the right and
power to pass such a four-point 'confession'  provided such 'confession' is
consistent with the constitution of the PC(USA)." 

But it went on to say that the "so-called 'confession' is not binding upon
any officer or member of the PC(USA)" and that the church "may not use its
'confession' as a litmus test for ordination or installation."

While Sessions have the right to examine and instruct those who are elected
to church office, the court said, they may only "decline to approve a person
for ordination and/or installation in the context of the questions required"
by the Book of Order, the polity portion of the denomination's constitution. 

The ordination questions are found in section G-14.0207 and standards for
leadership are defined in G-6.0108a., which states that church officers must
adhere to Reformed faith and polity.

The court stressed that elders are to be people of "faith, dedication and
good judgment,' (G-6.0303) and deacons are to be people of "spiritual
character, honest repute, of exemplary lives, brotherly and sisterly love,
warm sympathies and sound judgment." (G-6.0401).

The court also directed the Sebastian church's attention to an additional
clause in the Book of Order (G-3.0401) which says the church is called to be
open to the presence of God, to its own membership's diversity and to God's
continuing reformation of the Church.

"We got what we wanted," said Sebastian's lawyer J. Christy Wilson III of
Orlando, FL, who argued for a church's right to make a faith statement. "The
court affirmed the right of a church to adopt a confession for its use and
the use of its members, consistent with the confessions and also with
scripture," he said.

In the brief prepared for the court, Wilson and his co-counsel, Rick Franzen
of Minneapolis, MN, likened the adoption of the confession by the Sebastian
church to the renewal of marital vows. 

"When a couple renews their vows of marriage, they are not becoming newly
married. Instead, they are reaffirming their commitment to vows made long
ago, whether or not they use the precise words of their original wedding
vows," they wrote.

They insisted that Sebastian's affirmation of a few theological tenets simply
affirmed the church's historic faith and "did not affect anyone outside of
the First Presbyterian Church of Sebastian."

Wilson told the Presbyterian News Service that he wasn't sure "what to make"
of the court's counsel that the church respect diversity. "The Sebastian
church has always tried to be inclusive," he said. "The issue here is not
inclusivity, but the foundational principles of biblical faith."

Blessing's attorney, David Coventry Smith of Winston-Salem, NC, said he is
also "pleased" with the decision since his primary goal was ensuring that a
local congregation's faith statement does not restrict its selection of
officers.

In his brief, Smith argued that the characterization of a renewal of vows is
"misleading," since spouses voluntarily reaffirm a marital covenant entered
into years before. Sebastian's confession, he wrote, is "more akin to a
spouse who seeks to materially change the terms of that original vow,
mandating adherence to it or dissolution of the marital relationship."

Smith said Blessing's primary objection was subscription to tenets that
elevated a certain view of the Reformed tradition above the broader questions
delineated within the Book of Order. 
"As long as an individual's theological beliefs are within what we consider
to be the Reformed tradition, that individual qualifies to be a church
officer," said Smith. "You can't require someone to subscribe to something in
addition to that," he said

One example, Smith continued, is the Sebastian church's use of the term
"infallible" to describe scripture. The current ordination vows say that
scripture is a "unique and authoritative witness to Jesus Christ."

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