wfn.org | PC(USA) struggles with gay-ordination issue

[PCUSA NEWS <PCUSA.NEWS@ecunet.org>]

Note #6875 from PCUSA NEWS to PRESBYNEWS:

02-October-2001
01359

PC(USA) struggles with gay-ordination issue

Key question: What is meant by the constitutional term "chaste"?

by Alexa Smith

LOUISVILLE - In separate cases on opposite coasts of the country,
presbyteries of the Presbyterian Church (USA) are examining gay candidates
for the ministry, assessing their suitability for ordination.

	In the East, the Presbytery of Baltimore is organizing an investigative
committee to consider a complaint filed against the Rev. Don Stroud, an
openly gay minister who was ordained in 1975 in North Carolina in what was
then Mecklenburg Presbytery.

	In the West, some members of Redwoods Presbytery in Northern California are
seeking to prevent the ordination of Katie Morrison, a lesbian whose
ordination was approved by the presbytery on Sept. 21. Morrison reportedly
has said that she will abide by the church's constitutional requirement that
unmarried clergy in the PC(USA) be "chaste."

 	In the Baltimore case, a member of the Presbytery of Los Ranchos in
Southern California alleges that Stroud has willfully and deliberately
violated his ordination vows and a clause (G-6.0106b) in the constitution
that says unmarried clergy may not be sexually active. The complaint also
charges Stroud with heresy.

	The PC(USA) prohibits marriage between gay people, lay or clergy.

	The complaint against Stroud was brought to the presbytery's Sept. 26
meeting after Stroud waived his right of confidentiality in what could
become a disciplinary action against him. Stroud is a minister of outreach
and reconciliation for a group named That All May Freely Serve (TAMFS),
which is working to eliminate barriers to gays' and lesbians' full
participation in the PC(USA).

	In the northern California case, Redwoods presbyters who were on the losing
end of the 90-37 vote to permit Morrison's ordination are charging that the
process was illegitimate. They say they suspect that Morrison's
understanding of "chastity" is different from the church's historical
position that forbids any sexual activity between unmarried partners.

	People unhappy about the outcome of the vote are raising questions about
the thoroughness of the examination. They question whether the examiners in
Morrison's case probed deeply enough on sexual matters, beginning with the
Committee on Preparation for Ministry (the first church body to confer with
ministerial candidates) and continuing through the floor debate during the
presbytery meeting.

	The PC(USA)'s Permanent Judicial Commission - the denomination's highest
court - is already considering a case from Stamford, CT, in which a gay
elder says he considers himself chaste "in God's eyes," although he lives
with another man. That case turns on the question of the investigatory
responsibility of a church that wants to ordain a member, but has questions
about whether the candidate's sexual life meets denominational requirements.

	The hearing in the Stamford case, which was scheduled for the week of Sept.
11 in Chicago, was postponed because of the terror attacks in New York City
and Washington and has not been rescheduled.

	Morrison's presbytery voted to approve her ordination as a "field
organizer" for More Light Presbyterians (MLP), an advocacy network for gay
and lesbian Presbyterians. She would be MLP's second field organizer,
joining Michael Adee, an elder at First Presbyterian Church in Santa Fe, NM.
Mitzi Henderson, a co-moderator of the organization, said it gets so many
calls for speakers that it needs another organizer to help congregations
learn to provide pastoral care to gays and lesbians and their families and
to assist in dialogues about homosexuality - a subject that has been at the
center of PC(USA) politics for 30 years.

	The constitutional provision at the center of this debate, G-6.0106b, is
itself under debate. The provision requires "fidelity within the covenant of
marriage between a man and a woman or chastity in singleness" for church
officers.

	The church's 173 presbyteries will vote over the next several months to
retain or strike it. In the latter event, the PC(USA) would leave it to
congregations and presbyteries to examine candidates and decide on their
suitability for ordained ministry. Those who favor striking G-6.0106b say
that would merely restore the church's historical process.

	G-6.0106b was put into the constitution in 1997. An attempt to delete it
was decisively rejected by the presbyteries the following year.

	One day after Baltimore Presbytery announced that it intended to put an
investigating committee together to consider the allegations against Stroud,
the Rev. Jane Spahr, a Presbyterian lesbian activist, voiced deep dismay.

	"People say things like this: 'What's the matter with people like Don
Stroud and Jane Spahr and Katie Morrison? What's the matter with them?'
Well, that's the wrong question," Spahr said. "The question is, 'What's the
matter with a church that keeps excluding its very own children and
grandchildren who want to serve?'

	"What do people think we are?" asked Spahr, who formed TAMFS to combat
stereotyping and work for the inclusion of gay and lesbian Presbyterians in
ministerial roles. "This gets down to the mythology of who people think we
are. These are good people with tremendous faith in God, and who love Jesus.
It is the scapegoating of victims of oppression."

	Stroud, who was in parish ministry until he began working with TAMFS in
1999, said he's not surprised that someone is trying to oust him. After he
served as his presbytery's commissioner to the General Assembly, he said, he
got a letter by certified mail outlining his alleged offenses and demanding
that he respond by Aug. 31 or face disciplinary action.

	Stroud said the letter was signed, but he doesn't know the writer. (In
disciplinary cases, names are kept confidential; Stroud waived his
confidentiality.)

	The Rev. Charles Forbes, the stated clerk of Baltimore Presbytery, said an
investigating committee will be named in November.

	According to a TAMFS release, that committee could decide against filing
formal charges. If charges are filed, there could be a number of possible
outcomes: Stroud could be acquitted; rebuked; rebuked with supervision and
rehabilitation; temporarily excluded from office; or defrocked.

	"You just have to take that chance when you're working to counter the
present constitutional barriers," Stroud said of his decision to give up
confidentiality. "This is something you go into with your eyes wide open ...
but not that many times have More Light Presbyterians or TAMFS (faced
disciplinary action.)"

	The complaint does not explain the charge of heresy lodged against Stroud.

	 In the Redwoods Presbytery case, events - who asked what of whom - are
muddled.

	 The executive presbyter, the Rev. Brian Tippen, said nobody side-stepped
the issue of chastity during the examination. In fact, she said, the subject
was broached during the presbytery meeting: "Someone asked Katie directly
whether she intended to live in compliance with G-6.0106.b, and her answer
was yes. The presbytery, at the conclusion of the exam, voted 90-37 to
approve her for ordination. It seems fairly straightforward to me.  The
only issue with G-60106.b is whether a person agrees to live in compliance."

	Lucky Phelps, Redwoods' stated clerk, backed up Tippen's account,
describing the process as "careful" at every turn. "This was not taken
lightly," she said - adding that, after the vote, three protests were filed
and three dissents were noted.

	However, the Rev. Ed Hart, of Napa, CA, a member of the Committee on
Ministry, insisted that neither the Committee on Preparation for Ministry
nor the Committee on Ministry did its job. In the minutes of the Aug. 23
meeting, he said, Phelps is reported to have described the decision as an
"irregularity." Hart did not attend that meeting. (The Presbyterian News
Service has not seen the minutes.)

	Hart also said that, when the question of "chastity" was posed to Morrison
on the presbytery floor, the Rev. Chandler Stokes, the chairman of the
Committee on Ministry, said the matter had been resolved in committee.

	"I thought that Ed had asked me  whether we had inquired specifically with
Katie whether she was in compliance with (G-6.0106b)," said Stokes. "I said
I didn't recall, and (that) I wasn't present for all of the meetings."
Stokes said another committee member responded to Hart's question.

	Stokes said the committee process in Morrison's case "seemed to be no
different from our usual process," and Morrison met "all of the usual
criteria." He added: "We don't ask our heterosexual candidates about their
fidelity in marriage, or investigate their sexual behavior. I think to do so
in this case would clearly have been discriminatory."

	Morrison's ordination has been scheduled for Oct. 21. However, Hart said he
may seek a stay from the Synod of the Pacific's Permanent Judicial
Commission to block the service.
	
	The Rev. Larry Ballenger, a member of the presbytery, said he agrees with
Hart and believes there is some "re-defining of chastity going on."
Ballenger went on: "It is terrible that in the church we've come to this
point - where we can't take what someone says at face value, when we have
reason to suspect otherwise."

	Morrison did not respond to numerous interview requests from The
Presbyterian News Service.
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