wfn.org | [PCUSANEWS] Assembly won't call for vote on G-6.0106b

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Note #7805 from PCUSA NEWS to PRESBYNEWS:

Assembly won't call for vote on G-6.0106b
GA03116

Assembly won't call for vote on G-6.0106b

Commissioners decide to put the matter in hands of theological task force

by Emily Enders Odom

DENVER, May 30 - The General Assembly on Friday deflected an overture that
would have required the 173 presbyteries of the Presbyterian Church (USA) to
vote for a third time in six years on whether to delete the so-called
"fidelity and chastity" provision from the Book of Order.

	The Assembly's Committee on Church Orders and Ministry had
recommended that the Assembly again ask the denomination to delete the
controversial section - G-6.0106b, which says candidates for ordination to
church office must be "faithful in the covenant of marriage between a man and
a woman, or chaste in singleness."

	Instead, the Assembly voted to approve a substitute motion that the
matter be referred to the Theological Task Force on Peace, Unity and Purity
of the PC(USA). The vote on the motion to refer the measure was 431-92.

	The maker of the substitute motion, the Rev. Fitz Neal, a
commissioner from Indian Nations Presbytery in Oklahoma, urged the Assembly
to call the church to "a time of prayer" for the task force and give its
members time to do its work.

	"To send such an overture to the presbyteries before the task force
has been allowed to complete its task might short-circuit the hopes we all
share for finding a way to live with and minister to and with one another in
harmony," Neal said.

	Referring to a phrase often employed by those who would like to see
the "fidelity and chastity" removed from the Book of Order, provision, Neal
told the commissioners: "Justice delayed may be justice denied, but decisions
rushed are often decisions regretted."

	A second substitute motion, from Elder Nancy Hall Berens, of National
Capital Presbytery, would have referred the dispute to the task force while
adopting an "authoritative interpretation" rendering moot all previous
Assembly actions relating to the ordination of gay and lesbian Presbyterians.
That motion failed, 160-354.

	As the civil debate proceeded on the Assembly floor, several
commissioners recalled Moderator Susan R. Andrews's own comment, prior to her
election, that now is not the time to again put the issue to a vote of the
presbyteries.  At least one noted that that also was the position advocated
by most members in the Covenant Network of Presbyterians, a group formed for
the purpose of overturning G-6.0106b.

	Speaking in favor of the motion to approve the Des Moines overture,
Elder Kenneth Smith, from the Presbytery of Detroit, reminded the
commissioners that the theology task force was established to pursue a
process of discernment for the church, and would not report back to the
Assembly until 2006.  

	"It was not formed to make decisions on behalf of the General
Assembly and our presbyteries," he said of the task force. "As evidence of
this, the same General Assembly in 2001 that formed the task force also sent
to the presbyteries an overture for the removal of G-6.0106b."

	"I ask you therefore to take this planning into consideration in your
vote," he said. "This will  cause some pain, but we're asked to choose
between causing pain for the privileged and for those who are
disenfranchised. I think the teaching of scripture is quite clear on this
point."

	In another action related to the "fidelity and chastity" standard,
the assembly voted to respond to an overture from the Presbytery of Donegal
with an opinion from the Advisory Committee on the Constitution (ACC) that
there is no need for further definitions of several terms in G-6.0106b -
including "chastity," "repent," and "self-acknowledged" - because the
concepts are clearly defined in the constitution, other documents and church
case law.

	Another overture that sparked protracted debate, from the Presbytery
of Hudson River, has to do with the granting of administrative leave in cases
in which a church officer is accused of sexual misconduct toward a minor. The
overture, which would require ratification by the presbyteries, would call
for an amendment to the PC(USA) Rules of Discipline so that ministers and
other church employees accused of sexual misconduct with a minor would
immediately be placed on administrative leave.

	A minority report, purporting to provide a more "balanced" process
for dealing with the accused, was presented by one of its authors, Ruth
Goldthwaite, a theological student advisory delegate from McCormick
Theological Seminary who is a former public defender. Goldthwaite expressed
concern about unfairly presuming judging ministers guilty in such matters.

	"The minority report does not wish to undermine the process of
ministers being held accountable," she said, "but seeks to provide
due-process protection."

	The minority report failed by a vote of 209-271. An amendment to the
majority report, which was eventually approved, broadened the measure to take
in cases in which the misconduct involves someone without the mental capacity
to consent.

	In presenting the committee's original recommendation to approve the
overture from Hudson River Presbytery, Elder Tom Lemon, an attorney and the
committee's vice chair, cited the kind of non-judgmental administrative leave
used, for example, for police officers accused of misconduct. He said the
majority report offers "greater protection to the pastors, greater protection
to our children."

	In other actions on the committee docket, the Assembly voted to call
upon "the church at every level to raise awareness about gender
discrimination in the church" and to approve a list of recommendations from
the Advocacy Committee for Women's Concerns.  Also approved was a related
resolution calling for celebrations of two anniversaries - the 75th of the
first ordination of a woman as an elder, in 2005, and the 50th of the first
ordination of a woman as a minister of Word and Sacrament, in 2006.

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