wfn.org | Tactics become more sophisticated as stakes rise in ordination

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Note #6885 from PCUSA NEWS to PRESBYNEWS:

battle
05-October-2001
01370

Tactics become more sophisticated as stakes rise in ordination battle

Coalition commits more organization, money to Amendment A fight

by Alexa Smith

ORLANDO - The questions put to the Rev. Tom Sweet were pragmatic:

	"Where do we go from here if we lose the Amendment A vote?" "Where do we go
if we win?"

	Sweet began writing the questions down on a chalkboard during his workshop,
"Defeating Amendment A," at the sixth annual meeting of the Presbyterian
Coalition, that had First Presbyterian Church here bursting at the seams.

After years of battle on the issue of the ordination of sexually active gays
and lesbians and unmarried heterosexuals to church office, it doesn't
require much political savvy to figure that whichever way the vote goes this
year on Amendment A - the proposal to delete G-6.0106b, which requires
"fidelity within the covenant of marriage between a man and a woman or
chastity in singleness" - from the Presbyterian Church (USA) Book of Order,
another vote is sure to follow fairly quickly.

	"What do we do when we're vastly outnumbered in our presbytery?" one man
asked.  And another wondered, "When do we start enforcing church discipline
and make the liberals leave?"

Liberals argue that deleting G-6.0106b, which was put into the church's
constitution in 1997, would simply restore ordination decisions to the
governing bodies that ordain church officers - congregations for deacons and
elders and presbyteries for ministers. Conservatives say those governing
bodies have proven unfaithful in the past to biblical and confessional
standards of sexual conduct and that G-6.0106b is necessary to enforce those
standards.

	Sweet's emphasis in the workshop was on a national organizing effort to
defeat Amendment A and preserve G-6.0106b. "This is an effort to have a
national plan to defeat Amendment A," said Sweet, who is working this year
for the Coalition to put that plan into place by developing regional
networks within the Presbyterian Church (USA) nation-wide.

	"We're going to use prayer and face-to-face meetings.  We're going to plan
floor debates and we're going to get out the vote," said Sweet, who is on
sabbatical from his work as pastor of Madeira-Silverwood Presbyterian Church
in Cincinnati to focus on this campaign.

	His congregation has sunk $20,000 in endowment funds into the Coalition's
$300,000 effort to defeat Amendment A.  And his questions to his listeners
are simple:  "Consider what might your work be in your presbytery?  What
does God want you to do?

	"What will you do?"

	Sweet wants Amendment A opponents to visit pastors, elders and retired
pastors within presbyteries and to persuade - but not pressure - them to
vote against Amendment A through face-to-face conversation.

	One of the tools that attendees of the gathering are taking back home is a
30-minute video entitled, "A Call to Faithfulness." Church sessions can
acquire the video free by contacting Larry Lewis at the Maderia-Silverwood
church at 513-791-4471.  Individuals may buy it for $15 from PFR by calling
502-425-4630.

The video is a counter to a PowerPoint presentation that the Covenant
Network, the largest group working for the removal of G-6.0106b, prepared
for the 213th General Assembly. That presentation, which was well-received
by commissioners, is about to be released in video form and may be ordered
by calling the Covenant Network office at 415-351-2196.

  Produced by Presbyterians for Renewal and distributed by the Coalition,"A
Call to Faithfulness" elucidates arguments against Amendment A. It features
interviews with the Rev. Thomas Gillespie, president of Princeton
Theological Seminary and one of the authors of the church's 1978 statement
that defines homosexual practice as sin; the Rev. Roberta Hestenes, who
chaired the 1996 Assembly Committee that brought G-6.0106b to a successful
vote that year; and Ken Bailey, a New Testament scholar who served as a
missionary in the Middle East.

	"We want to defeat this amendment, which does not serve the church or the
Savior," the Rev. William Vanderbloemen of Birmingham, Ala., who interviews
speakers in the video.  "We want to mail this video to every session.  We
want you to hand-deliver it to presbyteries.  We want get it shown at
session meetings.  And we want it shown on the floor of presbyteries."

	Vanderbloemen described Amendment A as a "clear and present danger;" but he
said it "will not take hold if you all, we all ... prepare to defend the
church."

	Presbyterian Coalition Co-Moderator the Rev. Jerry Andrews of Glen Ellyn,
Ill., outlined arguments Amendment A opponents can use to defend the present
ordination standards when presbytery and session debates begin:
	
1.	Scripture, he said, is "clear, unambiguous and unequivocal" in its
prohibitions of homosexual practice and, he added, "the biology has not
changed or the ethic that accompanies creation."  Andrews cited the early
chapters of Genesis, Leviticus 18 and a Pauline reference, insisting that
homosexuality is "outside of God's will for God's people."

2.	The attempt of backers of Amendment A to move the debate from theology to
polity considerations resolves little.  "Our polity was never meant to bear
the weight of settling matters of controversy among us ... It does not claim
the ability to work us out of a mess," he said, noting that, as the
amendment currently stands, it would allow presbyteries and congregations to
decide who is ordained within the purview of each.

3.    The ordaining body has never been the only decision-making body in
Presbyterian polity, Andrews said.  "The question can never be, 'Will some
of us ordain and some of us not?'  The question is whether the whole church
ordains or whether the whole church does not?  "The only way I can not
participate in an ordination is to seek another fellowship.  Being bound
together is the nature of our common covenant," he concluded.

	In regional organizing meetings, attendees gathered to strategize, even in
presbyteries where they believe they're outnumbered by Amendment A
supporters. A man in Memphis Presbytery urged his colleagues to get
anti-amendment information to all 81 churches inside the presbytery's
boundaries - especially the 40 congregations without pastors.

	"I firmly believe," he said, urging others not to be timid about showing
the Covenant Network and the PFR videos together, "that if you give
Presbyterians all of the information, a level playing field and the truth of
scripture, they'll make the right decision.

	"If we do not get the information out or we're apathetic, it will not
happen."

	Sweet reminded gathering participants that previous votes on this issue in
many presbyteries have been hair-splittingly close.  The difference in a win
or a loss may be as few as "five people changing their minds or 10 other
people coming to the meeting with us," he said.

	Sweet said each presbytery needs a coordinator who is organizing
face-to-face meetings, prayer networks, and volunteers to provide rides to
commissioners who will attend presbytery meetings when they vote.  "It is
not glorious work," Sweet said.  "But we may have a few glorious moments as
we undertake it.
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