wfn.org | "Fidelity And Integrity" Amendment Backers Gather

[PCUSA.NEWS@pcusa.org]

26-September-1997 
97379 
 
    "Fidelity And Integrity" Amendment Backers Gather 
 
    by Alexa Smith 
 
CHICAGO--Adamant that new constitutional language about standards for 
church officers in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)  is graceless and 
divisive, 140 backers of a new amendment  revising that language, passed by 
the 209 th General Assembly (1997), met last week in Chicago to strategize 
how to get it affirmed by the presbyteries. 
 
    Comprising largely "big-steeple" pastors from 42 of the denomination's 
173 presbyteries, the gathering was convened by two of the PC(USA)'s former 
moderators -- the Rev. John Buchanan of Chicago and the Rev. Robert Bohl of 
Prairie Village, Kan. -- to launch the Covenant Network of Presbyterians 
(CNP), a group organized solely to support passage of Amendment A. 
 
    Presbyteries will be debating and voting on Amendment A from early 
winter until the General Assembly convenes next June in Charlotte, N.C. 
This vote is the latest volley in a more than 20-year intrachurch battle 
about whether or not to ordain sexually active homosexuals and, more 
recently, whether or not to ordain sexually active but unmarried 
heterosexuals.  Passed last spring, the current G-6.0106b -- commonly 
called Amendment B -- clearly prohibits both. 
 
    But proponents of Amendment A say the debate this time is not about 
sexual fidelity as much as it is about fidelity to a theological tradition 
that puts grace before judgment and about the unity of an increasingly 
fragmented church.  Amendment B, they argue, skews Reformed understandings 
of sin, particularly sexual sin, scriptural authority and the role of the 
confessions. They also argue that it is divisive to legislate a solution 
now to a visceral debate that is so unresolved for many Presbyterians that 
succeeding General Assemblies have proposed virtually contradictory 
amendments. 
 
    Regional groups met during the Chicago session to strategize how to 
make those points in their presbyteries. 
 
    "Amendment A," Buchanan told the Presbyterian News Service, "does not 
alter our current policy [about ordination of sexually active homosexuals]. 
But it does, I think, return our `Book of Order' to its foundation on God's 
grace and our respect for one another as brothers and sisters who disagree. 
 ... 
 
    "We cannot live as a denomination if we have to resolve this one way or 
another," he said, describing the fervor of feeling on both sides of the 
ordination issue.  "And in the long run, Amendment A gives us a better 
chance of holding together, of not driving people out of the church." 
 
    The Rev. Joanna Adams of Decatur, Ga., told of her own struggle to 
remain within a church that "does not honor" her children, one of whom is 
gay.  "That has probably been the crucible of my life," she said.  "And the 
encouragement of my life has been to remember over and over again, 
sometimes daily, that long ago there was one who represented the very 
Spirit of God who walked among us. ... 
 
    "And he was one who welcomed all children," she said. "He said don't 
send them away for it is to such as these that the kingdom of God belongs." 
 
    Concern about divisiveness is how Bryn Mawr Presbyterian Church pastor 
Eugene Bay tackled pastoral problems that he associates with Amendment B in 
the day's opening plenary.   "Amendment A supports peace and unity, not 
only for the denomination, but for individuals, congregations and pastors," 
he said. 
 
    "B," he said, is already causing anxiety on nominating committees, who 
feel that the `Book of Order' now compels elders to pry into members' 
sexual habits before ordaining them. Amendment A, as Bay sees it, calls 
members to more accountability for personal morality in "all relationships 
of life," not just in sexual ones. 
 
    But the theological integrity of A -- as opposed to B -- is what Bay 
argued the most adamantly.  "Sin," he said, alluding to B's delineation of 
sin as violations of chastity in singleness and marital fidelity as well as 
what the church's confessions list as sins, "is not just about sex or 
practices that the confessions call sin.  It is a condition that affects 
every one of us ... and we are dependent on God's mercy. ... 
 
    "[That]," he said, "is not mean-spirited or self-righteous." 
 
    Further, Bay said, A restores traditional "Book of Order" language for 
church officers, which now requires them to lead lives obedient to 
scripture and in conformity to the confessions.  The church, he said, has 
previously called officers to lead lives obedient "to Jesus Christ, under 
the authority of Scripture, and instructed by the historic confessional 
standards of the church." 
 
    Princeton Theological Seminary theologian Jane Dempsey Douglass said 
the tension between preserving tradition and remaining open to ongoing 
revelation is nothing new within the Reformed tradition.  She said that not 
even the 16th-century Reformers grasped the sinful implications of slavery 
and the subordination of women that the contemporary church sees now.  "The 
church," she said, "must continue to confess its faith anew [as 
circumstances change] ... and as our understanding of [faith] grows. ... 
 
    "The Holy Spirit," Douglass said, "is still at work in the world and in 
the church.  And through the work of the Holy Spirit scripture is heard and 
read and becomes God's Word to us." 
 
    Calling A "eminently Reformed," she said the faithful have always 
wrestled with how to live according to the law of God, but not "bound by 
the law," for then obedience becomes legalism. Reformed Christians, 
Douglass added, must be aware of their own "profound sinfulness" but not 
obsessed with it -- recognizing, instead, their reliance on God's mercies. 
 
    "Reformed Christians know that Christ is Lord of all that is -- that no 
aspect of our lives is outside the realm of Christ's lordship. Therefore, 
we all must undertake with renewed seriousness the call to live disciplined 
lives of simplicity, justice, trust, love, transparency -- in our financial 
and sexual and professional lives -- all that is meant by fidelity and 
integrity," said Douglass, characterizing the breadth of the committed life 
that, she believes, is reflected in Amendment A. 
 
    But interpreting what it means to be Reformed -- or what part of the 
Reformed tradition gets emphasized -- is another aspect of this 
long-standing debate. 
 
    Citing his own "deep reservations that legislation helps us resolve 
pastoral problems," Presbyterian Coalition spokesperson the Rev. Jerry 
Andrews of Chicago said that the concept of covenant is crucial to his own 
understanding of the Reformed faith -- and he has yet to find a model that 
could replace the biblical standard of a covenant between a man and a woman 
as the fullest expression of human sexuality. 
 
    The Presbyterian Coalition is the organization that worked to pass 
Amendment B and is now working to defeat Amendment A. 
 
    Andrews said the denomination needs to address its differences now, not 
just search for commonalities.  "It is the differences that are leading 
toward division," he said, stressing that no formulation -- B or A -- has 
yet brought unity to the PC(USA).  "And I advise we stop this before we 
exhaust the alphabet." 
 
    Stated Clerk the Rev. Clifton Kirkpatrick told CNP that he has seen 
gruesome consequences of religious and ethnic conflict in churches around 
the world and does not want to see the PC(USA) tear itself apart.  "I am 
convinced that in God's time the church will indeed find a greater 
understanding of the mind of Christ for the difficult issues surrounding 
Amendment A," he said. 
 
    "What I worry about," Kirkpatrick said, "is what shape the church will 
be in by the time we reach that understanding together of the mind of 
Christ.  When all of this is resolved, will the church be divided? Will so 
many have dissented from our constitution that it has little meaning for 
our common life together? Will so many have withheld their funds and 
created their own organizations in ministry that we no longer will have the 
capacity to stand together and witness for God in the world?  I hope not." 
 
    Kirkpatrick said he intended to deliver identical comments to the 
Presbyterian Coalition gathering in Dallas, Sept. 29-30. 
 
    Buchanan told the Presbyterian News Service that it is difficult to 
continue a responsible dialogue on what faithful sexual behavior means when 
Presbyterians on all sides are threatening to quit or withhold money. 
"Amendment A, I hope," he said, "will allow important dialogue ... because 
whether we want it or not, this conversation will continue -- whoever wins 
this round or the next round. ..." 
 
    Bohl told CNP that approximately $105,000 had been raised in the past 
five weeks for the group's efforts, with $10,000 each from the 
congregations that he and Buchanan serve.  Bohl estimated a total budget of 
$200,000. 
 
    CNP executive director Pam Byers of San Francisco told the Presbyterian 
News Service that CNP intends to provide information packets and to 
coordinate speaking engagements by its national committee members. 
 
    "There really isn't a national strategy," Byers said, after regional 
groups met in Chicago.  "It is so local.  It has to be local. ... To the 
extent that there is a national strategy, it is that we want people to read 
the amendment, think about it and not respond reflexively." 
 
    CNP also distributed organizing suggestions proposing that A backers 
identify allies, plan a presbyterywide rally in support of A, activate 
phone trees to get out the vote, be prepared for the debate and keep the 
tone of the debate civil. 

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