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06665 December 14, 2006
Covenant Network event focuses on ordination - past and present
Many ideas but no clear solutions for responding to task force report
by Evan Silverstein
COLUMBUS, OH - The Rev. Peggy E. Howland, a retired pastor and self-affirmed heterosexual said she considers herself an ally in the struggle to make the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) more open to ordaining gays and lesbians.
That's why the pastor emeritus at South Presbyterian Church in Yonkers, NY, attended the recent 2006 national conference of the Covenant Network of Presbyterians (http://www.covenantnetwork.org/), where the theme was "Discerning the Call: Ordination and Mutual Forbearance."
The 10-year-old Covenant Network, which attracted some 350 people to its three-day annual conference last month at Broad Street Presbyterian Church here, is committed to the full inclusion of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered (LGBT) Presbyterians in the life of the church, including their ordination as officers.
"It is very important to come to events like this. I make it my business," Howland said. "It's one of my issues that I'm involved with in the church because I know how difficult it is."
Howland said the conference presented a chance to network with other Presbyterians who also consider themselves allies of LGBT people "who believe in God's love for everyone and who really see what a terrible travesty it is the way we are victimizing people whom God has created and whom God loves."
The conference examined how Presbyterians should respond to the controversial report of the Theological Task Force on Peace, Unity, and Purity of the Church (TTF), which was approved last June by the PC(USA)'s 217th General Assembly in Birmingham, AL.
The task force report made way for an "authoritative interpretation" of the PC(USA) constitution that maintains current ordination standards for church officers, including the often contested G-6.0106b provision, which requires "fidelity within the covenant of marriage between a man and a woman or chastity in singleness."
However, the report gives ordaining bodies greater leeway in applying those standards to individual candidates for ordination. Candidates my declare a "scruple" (conscientious objection) to any provision of the Book of Order and it is then up to the ordaining body to determine if that scruple is disqualifying for the candidate.
The report's adoption has deepened divisions over the issue of non-celibate gay ordination.
Meanwhile, the Covenant Network meeting also celebrated a trio of women's ordination landmarks in the Presbyterian Church: the 100th year for women deacons, the 75th year for women elders and the 50th year for women ministers.
The symposium examined how ordination to the three church offices has changed as a result of last summer's GA and explored issues of power within the church.
There were workshops, plenary sessions, choir music, worship, small group discussions and guest speakers during the event. Those turning out included a range of participants from college students and seminarians, to clergy and churchgoers, to elders and session members, to representatives of Presbyterian affinity groups that advocate for ordaining gays and lesbians.
"The intent here is to equip participants to be responsible faithful Presbyterians whether they are in their congregations, on their sessions, or in their presbyteries, particularly in light of the Birmingham decision," said the Rev. Deborah A. Block, a Covenant Network co-moderator and pastor of Immanuel Presbyterian Church in Milwaukee, WI.
Those attending had different opinions about what steps should be taken next to comply with the various recommendations of the TTF report, which strongly encourages all Presbyterians to witness to the church's "oneness" and to "avoid division" into separate denominations.
"We have to proclaim the love of God and help the church to see how it has always changed and grown and learned throughout its history, which we need to do now," said Howland, a four-time General Assembly commissioner.
The theological task force report also urges congregations, governing bodies and other groups of Presbyterians to engage in "intensive discernment" in the face of difficult issues; to study the theological reflection section of the report; and to encourage church bodies to "explore the use of alternative forms of discernment and decision-making as a complement to parliamentary procedure."
There were some at the conference who favored a continued push to remove G-6.0106b from the PC(USA) constitution, a longtime staple of the Covenant Network's legislative agenda, while others favored renewed efforts to reach across the theological gulf between liberals and conservatives in hopes of bringing them closer together, in a less confrontational way, on matters of gay ordination.
But no one could say for certain how provisions of the TFF report will truly play out across the Presbyterian Church and what should be done next.
The Rev. Joan S. Gray, moderator of the 217th General Assembly, called this moment in PC(USA) history an "out-of-season time" for the denomination.
"It's not a definite time for sowing, for pruning, for reaping the fruit," said the Atlanta minister and avid gardener. "It's an out-of-season time. A time of uncertainty."
The Rev. John M. Buchanan, pastor of Fourth Presbyterian Church in Chicago, borrowed the words of Covenant Network executive director Pamela Byers in describing the theological task force report as a "precious opportunity to try to live together as if the gospel makes a difference."
Buchanan, a Covenant Network co-founder and longtime advocate of gay ordination, told the conference that he thinks a majority of Presbyterians are ready to move forward in working to figure out ways to live together despite fundamental differences and threats by some to leave the PC(USA).
"And along the way people who disagree about ordination are talking to one another, some for the first time," said Buchanan, who in 1996 was moderator of the PC(USA)'s 208th General Assembly in Albuquerque, NM, which adopted the "fidelity and chastity" section of the constitution, G-6.0106b, which has stood at the heart of the gay ordination battle ever since.
He said like the "fragile new growth of springtime" people who disagree are stepping up and saying, 'This should not divide us. We can live with our differences.'"
Though discussion alone won't end the ordination debate, Buchanan said, "it does give us an opportunity to live together in spite of our differences and for me that is hopeful, maybe the most hopeful situation in a decade or so."
Buchanan said he would like to see the Covenant Network set aside its legislative agenda against G-6.0106b in order to support the General Assembly's approval of the TTF report and its call for dialogue and discernment.
"That we will resource and support a faithful examination process for candidates, provide legal help as necessary, that we will engage thoroughly in the discernment process," he said.
Covenant Network officials said they are still advocating removal of G-60106b, though not endorsing any particular overtures.
Buchanan said he hopes the Covenant Network will "reach across the aisle" and over the "boundaries and borders and walls" to Presbyterians whose position on ordination differs by "bearing with one another in love, making every effort to maintain the unity and the spirit of the bond of piece."
The Rev. Jon M. Walton, a Covenant Network co-moderator, said he thinks the organization is making changes in its approach to dealing with the gay ordination issue.
"I think we're moving away from what we thought of as a legislative battle to one where the educational work that is necessary, the kind of conversation and bridge building that's necessary, is where we need to spend more energy and time now," he said.
That's only natural since "we're hopefully not going to be going to General Assemblies where people are angry and fighting and introducing overtures that incense and outrage one another," said Walton, who is pastor at First Presbyterian Church in New York City. "But rather working toward an Assembly and a church where we can all celebrate and be thankful for the people that we discern God is calling to serve."
However, those attending must first take part in advocating for change in constitutional standards currently governing the PC(USA)'s theology and practice of ordination, said Deborah Mullen.
Mullen is dean of master's programs and director of the Center for African American Ministries and Black Church Studies at McCormick Theological Seminary in Chicago.
She said: "You must believe that the church can and will change some standards and practices of ordination that categorically excludes sisters and brothers who are considered to be sexual minorities because of how they express their humanity in part through their sexuality."
During the celebration of the anniversaries of women's ordination the group heard from the Rev. Margaret E. Towner, who on Oct. 24, 1956, became the first woman ordained to the ministry of Word and Sacrament by the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America (PCUSA).
Following her ordination, Towner, now 81 and retired, said she needed to move slowly and gently to break ground in order to help people comprehend that women could be pastors.
"One of the things that I really say is patience and caring and love," Towner said. "Showing people who we are, that we are servants of Jesus Christ. That's the most important thing regardless of whether we're male or female. I think patience and helping people get to know our skills and our faith is what I feel is important."
Towner continued to work as minister of education at First Presbyterian Church in Allentown, PA, until 1958, when she was called to the same position at First Presbyterian Church in Kalamazoo, MI. She stayed there until 1969.
In the fall of that year, she became an associate pastor of Northminster Presbyterian Church in Indianapolis, IN. In 1973 she became co-pastor of Kettle Moraine Parish in Wisconsin, where she stayed until her retirement in 1990.
While Towner said she faced gender-related hurdles and stereotypes along the way, it's exciting she said to watch so many women take up ministry these days.
"It's the beginning of real partnerships rather than saying, 'Oh, she's a woman and you don't want to have a women be certain things,'" Towner said. "It still happens, but now we're seeing that people are forgetting whether we're men or women and we're pastors and we're beginning to relate to that."
Towner said she was excited about the TTF report.
"All of us together make the wholeness and health of the church," she said. "That's what I would like to see happen is that we begin to dialogue together to understand one another. And let's not say 'they' and 'us.' Let's try to learn to talk to one another. I know this is real hard but let's try to do it."
To illustrate women's leadership in the church, the Rev. Dale Lindsay Morgan, pastor at St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church in Santa Barbara, CA, acted out stories of women from the Bible. With the change of a headscarf she became the wife of Cleopas, Mary Magdalene, and the Samaritan woman at the well.
Morgan described a time while attending seminary when a high profile leader of the Presbyterian Church visited campus and spoke about the need for good scholars, good preachers and good administrators.
Morgan said she asked him about women filling those roles and described how eager women were to make a difference in the church.
"This devoted leader, a southern genteleman and a pastor with a true heart for social justice, replied softely and somewhat sadly: 'But you must remember that those who get to the wall first are not necessarily the ones who get over it,'" Morgan said of the church leader's reply.
She said she then told him: "Yes, but women have been hitting the wall for 2,000 years. The prejudice is still there. When is the church going to get over it?"
According to some speakers, ordinaing women has not ended the fight for equality in the PC(USA) as gays, lesbians and people of color are still asking questions about the denomination's power structure.
"Our denomination is not simply struggling with lesbian and gay ordination, I want to suggest today that we are suffering from an ecclesiastical Baptology of alienation derived from the start with white male domination and control," said the Rev. J. Herbert Nelson II, pastor of Liberation Community Presbyterian Church in Memphis, TN.
"In this sickness that is oozing futility while co-opting power of the privileged reining class, there's always at least one outcast group or category labeled as 'them.' It has always been that way," Nelson said. "Historically in this country the 'thems' have been the Native Americans, the African Americans, women, the LGBT community and immigrants *"
Later, Mullen said the PC(USA) has come "a long way" toward equality in the ordination process, but noted that work still remains.
"There will come a time in the PC(USA) when the traditional and legal barrier to the ordination of gay and lesbian, transgendered and non-heterosexual will have to be removed as well," Mullen said. "But that day is not yet. And until that day comes we must move to chip away at the structures of oppression."
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