wfn.org | [PCUSANEWS] 215th Assembly will take up dicey issues

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Note #7642 from PCUSA NEWS to PRESBYNEWS:

215th Assembly will take up dicey issues
03160
March 27, 2003

215th Assembly will take up dicey issues

Sexuality, abortion, AIDS will all be on the agenda in Denver

by Jerry L. Van Marter

LOUISVILLE - Thorny issues in the world and in the church - including war and
peace, the role of gays and lesbians in church and society, abortion, the
AIDS pandemic - are set to take center stage when the 215th General Assembly
of the Presbyterian Church (USA) convenes in Denver on May 24.
	
After a one-year hiatus, yet another effort to remove the constitutional ban
on the ordination of unrepentant gays and lesbians will come before this
Assembly. The Presbytery of Des Moines has submitted an overture asking that
G-6.0106b of The Book of Order be deleted. That provision, put in the
constitution in 1997, requires of church officers "fidelity within the
covenant of marriage between a man and a woman, or chastity in singleness."
Three previous attempts to delete it have failed in ratification votes by the
church's presbyteries.
	
The Assembly's debate will follow a year of turmoil in which numerous
judicial charges have been filed around the country alleging "defiance" of
G-6.0106b by individuals, sessions and presbyteries. A southern California
elder nearly forced a special meeting of last year's Assembly - which would
have been the first "called" session in PC(USA) history - to deal with the
matter. 
	
A related overture from Redstone Presbytery urges the commissioners to remind
synods of their oversight responsibilities, and to establish guidelines for
dealing with "defiant" presbyteries. And an overture from Donegal Presbytery
asks for clearer definitions of some of the terminology in G-6.0106b, such as
"chastity," "repentance" and "self-acknowledge."
	
The always-contentious and perennial issue of abortion is also on the agenda.
No fewer than three overtures - from the presbyteries of Flint River,
Huntingdon and Eastminster - would have the Assembly revisit its
narrowly-permissive policy on so-called "late-term abortion."	   
	
Flint River's overture would disqualify the procedure from coverage under the
Board of Pensions' Medical Plan for church employees. Huntingdon's measure
would endorse the position that "a procedure should be chosen which gives
both the mother and the child the opportunity to live." the overture from
Eastminster would remove incest and rape from the list of "rare"
circumstances in which the procedure is morally acceptable.
	
A policy paper on the changing nature of families in U.S. society also could
spark debate. The paper, Living Faithfully with Families in Transition, was
developed by the Advisory Committee on Social Witness Policy (ACSWP). It
documents the changing structure of family life - single-parent households,
children raised by grandparents or other non-parent relatives, domestic
partnerships other than marriage - and how various kinds of families (and the
church) can raise children faithfully and responsibly.
	
Critics of the paper claim that it diminishes the importance of "traditional"
two-parent families by elevating non-traditional families to moral
equivalence, and appears to validate unmarried and same-sex relationships, in
violation of scripture and Christian morality.
	
ACSWP will also bring to the Assembly a resolution on the scourges of
poverty, violence and AIDS that are ravaging Africa. It calls on the church
to redouble its efforts to address the needs of that continent. Another ACSWP
resolution urges the church to work for the abolition of for-profit prisons
in the United States.
	
The Advisory Committee on Women's Concerns is bringing a report titled
Clergywomen's Experiences in Ministry: Reality and Challenges that documents
the difficulties faced by women ministers in the PC(USA), and recommends ways
the denomination could be more supportive of ordained women in the PC(USA).
	
Two strategy papers from the National Ministries Division seek to implement
previously adopted policies on the church's ministries in higher education
and in Hispanic-Latino communities.
	
The commissioners will address proposals to implement the decision by their
counterparts of last year to have meetings of the Assembly only every other
year (after next year). An overture from National Capital Presbytery would
rescind the decision and shift back to annual Assemblies.
	
All these decisions will be made in the context of declining budgets. The
Assembly will be asked to approve a 2004 budget that is $4 million lower than
the one proposed last year. The 2003 budget was reduced by about the same
amount by last year's Assembly.
	
With the United States on the brink of war with Iraq and the Middle East
continuing to be a tinderbox of violence, it is very likely that this year's
General Assembly will be asked to address issues of war and peace in the
world.

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