wfn.org | Florida session appeals PJC decision

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Note #7125 from PCUSA NEWS to PRESBYNEWS:

15-April-2002
02141

Florida session appeals PJC decision

Sebastian church defends its right to adopt theological statement

by Alexa Smith

LOUISVILLE - A Florida session has filed an appeal, as expected, in a judicial case that could determine whether Presbyterian Church (USA) congregations may bind officers to theological statements drafted by their sessions.

In a separate action, the church is seeking a stay of enforcement while the appeal is pending.

The Permanent Judicial Commission (PJC) of Central Florida Presbytery last month ordered First Presbyterian Church, of Sebastian, FL, to rescind a statement of theological beliefs it adopted last May.

First Presbyterian passed a fairly standard version of a statement that has been adopted by about 1,200 PC(USA) conservative and evangelical congregations that belong to the Confessing Church Movement (CCM).

The PJC had given the 240-member church 30 days to withdraw its "confessional" statement.

A hearing on the request for a stay is scheduled for May 9 before the PJC of the Synod of the South Atlantic. A hearing in the Sebastian church's appeal has not been scheduled.

"There are 1,200 Confessing Churches (1,247 to date) in this denomination, and more are joining every day," said J. Christy Wilson III, an attorney who represents the Sebastian church's session. "I think they view this ruling as infringing on their rights as congregations within the Presbyterian Church." Wilson said he and the session believe that the theological statement approved by the Sebastian church is in accord with the PC(USA)'s historic confessions.

The statements adopted by the CCM churches affirm that Jesus Christ is the only agent of salvation; that the Bible is infallible; and that sexual behavior is appropriate only between married heterosexuals.

The Sebastian session church added a fourth: that church leaders "are called to uphold these confessions and to be people who are chaste in singleness and faithful within the covenant of marriage."

The language of the fourth provision is drawn from a disputed amendment added to the PC(USA) constitution in 1997 to prohibit ordinations of sexually active gays and lesbians.

Norman Blessing, the Sebastian elder who filed the original complaint, has filed a motion opposing the granting of a stay. He contends that the statement adopted by the Sebastian session was a political gesture directed at the 2001 General Assembly, which was taking up the question of ordaining homosexuals.

After he refused to affirm the session's statement, Blessing was excluded from a session meeting and asked to "peaceably withdraw" from the congregation if he could not assent.

The presbytery PJC ruled that the Sebastian session has no authority to bind church officers to theological standards beyond the ordination vows in the denomination's Book of Order. It also said that the term "confession" should only be used for statements approved by a two-thirds vote of presbyteries.

John Coventry Smith Jr., of Tampa, FL, Blessing's counsel, argues that a stay would cause "irreparable harm" by permitting the session to implement its "confession" and to exclude some members from ordination or employment.

Blessing's lawyers argued before the presbytery PJC that the Sebastian statement intended to exclude those who would not affirm the session's self-selected tenets drawn from the Book of Confessions.

Wilson says it is "absurd" to claim that a session may not adopt a statement upholding theological positions consistent with the PC(USA)'s constitution.

"These documents are not new confessions," Wilson said. "These are affirmations  (of what) the session believes are central themes of the confessions in the constitution. They are not binding on other congregations."

Wilson said ordained elders and ministers ought to be free to affirm the PC(USA)'s core confessional values.

He said he also will argue that the presbytery PJC had "already made a decision" before hearing the evidence, and will question the motives of at least one member of the commission.
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