wfn.org | [PCUSANEWS] 'Interpretation' on gay ordination challenged

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Note #8343 from PCUSA NEWS to PRESBYNEWS:

'Interpretation' on gay ordination challenged
GA04051
June 29, 2004

'Interpretation' on gay ordination challenged

Panel will ask Assembly to declare '78 ruling no longer binding

by Jerry Van Marter

RICHMOND, June 29 --The Committee on Church Orders and Ministry voted
narrowly Tuesday to recommend that the 216th General Assembly declare that
"sessions and presbyteries are not bound" by the 1978 authoritative
interpretation of the Presbyterian Church (USA) constitution, which says that
"unrepentant homosexual practice does not accord with the requirements for
ordination."

In the same vote, the committee decided not to recommend a constitutional
amendment to delete G-6.0106b, the provision that requires "fidelity within
the covenant of marriage between a man and a woman or chastity in
singleness." The committee recommended that measures to that effect "be
answered" by its recommendation on the authoritative interpretation.

If adopted by the Assembly, the measure would issue a new authoritative
interpretation reading: "In carrying out their responsibilities under the
constitution to determine fitness for office, sessions and presbyteries are
not bound by statements of the General Assembly and its commissions regarding
ordained service by homosexual persons that predate the adoption of
G-6.0106b." The vote on the measure was 35 to 30.

Elder John Matta of Pittsburgh Presbytery, a member of the General Assembly's
Advisory Committee on the Constitution, called the 1978 authoritative
interpretation "one of the two legs of the stool" prohibiting gay and lesbian
ordination. The church's Advisory Committee on the Constitution (ACC) has
said that both the authoritative interpretation and G-6.0106b must be removed
in order for the way to be cleared for gay and lesbian ordination in the
PC(USA).

The Rev. Jamie Pharr, a committee member, said the action "doesn't rescind
the 1978 authoritative interpretation, but removes it as 'authoritative.'" A
similar authoritative interpretation, issued by the General Assembly
Permanent Judicial Commission in 1985, would also be superceded by the new
interpretation if the Assembly concurs.

The Rev. Jennifer Lewis of Chicago Presbytery, who proposed the action,
called it a compromise. "This doesn't go for full inclusion, as some have
hoped, nor does it satisfy those who want to keep all of the church's
standards," she told the committee. "What it does is give us a way forward."

Other committee members disagreed. Elder Phyllis Spielmann, of Los Ranchos
Presbytery predicted that the action would "open up the church to differing
interpretations of G-6.0106b" and "produce more chaos and more division."

The committee also defeated, 34 to 30, a motion to deal with all five
measures related to ordination standards by asking the church to pray for and
support the call of the Theological Task Force on Peace, Unity and Purity of
the Church for church-wide dialogue.

Elder Donald Mitchell, of Huntingdon Presbytery, had urged such a move. "The
Theological Task Force is well along," he said. "Removing the authoritative
interpretation would make some of their work moot."

Youth Advisory Delegate (YAD) Robert Spencer, of the Presbytery of John Knox,
contended that "taking away the authoritative interpretation will help the
task force by removing outdated stuff that's not in the Bible or The Book of
Order."

Spencer also questioned the logic of an authoritative interpretation that
predated the Book of Order provision it interprets by 18 years (G-6.0106b was
adopted in 1996).

Another YAD, Brandon Rothey, of Pittsburgh Presbytery, rejected arguments
that the authoritative interpretation has created confusion in the church.
"You may agree or disagree with it," he said. "But the authoritative
interpretation is not confusing."

Not confusing, but obsolete, others argued. Noting that the 1978 policy was
based in part on research done by the Kinsey Institute in the 1940s and early
1950s, YAD Jennifer Coulter of Eastern Oklahoma Presbytery urged the
committee to "remove this antiquated scientific language."

But Elder Thomas Armstrong of Tampa Bay Presbytery said various forces "have
been chipping away at morality in our country, and I see this as once more
chipping away. I've tried to be open-minded, but I keep coming back to
scripture and our confessions, and I can't go along with this."

The Rev. Randy Harris, of Foothills Presbytery, predicted: "Whatever we do
this year, we'll be dealing with this issue for years to come."

This story and many others may have photos, media, video clips that can be
found at http://www.pcusa.org/ga216/.

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