wfn.org | [PCUSANEWS] Van Kuiken expelled from ministry

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Note #7816 from PCUSA NEWS to PRESBYNEWS:

Van Kuiken expelled from ministry
03264
June 17, 2003

Van Kuiken expelled from ministry

Presbytery says defiance amounts to a 'renunciation' of PC(USA)

by John Filiatreau

CINCINNATI - The Rev. Steven Van Kuiken, the Cincinnati minister who defied a
church court's order to stop performing "marriages" of same-sex couples, was
expelled from the ministry and from membership in the Presbyterian Church
(USA) Monday night.
	
By a vote of 119-45, the elders and ministers of Cincinnati Presbytery agreed
with the presbytery's Committee on Ministry (COM) that Van Kuiken had
"renounced jurisdiction" of the denomination by refusing to be bound by its
orders. They therefore removed him as pastor of Mount Auburn Presbyterian
Church in Cincinnati and directed the stated clerk to strike his name from
the presbytery's roll.
	
About 400 visitors joined voting members of the presbytery for the meeting at
Lakeside Presbyterian Church in Fort Mitchell, KY. Before it began, about 50
people demonstrated quietly outside the church in support of Van Kuiken -
under the watchful eyes of a squad of local policemen on hand to keep order.
	
The Book or Order (G-6.0502) provides that: "When a church officer, after
consultation and notice, persists in a work disapproved by the governing body
having jurisdiction, the governing body may presume that the officer has
renounced the jurisdiction of this church."
	
Van Kuiken immediately filed a protest of the presbytery's action. The
decision also can be appealed to the Synod of the Covenant.
	
The vote does not foreclose Van Kuiken's pending appeal of an April finding
by the presbytery's Permanent Judicial Commission (PJC) that he was guilty of
having "married" homosexual couples.
	
In its decision, the PJC also ordered Van Kuiken to refrain from performing
such ceremonies in the future. He responded by vowing to defy the order and
saying on his church's Web site, "I will not change from my position." 
	
Then, on May 17, he performed what he billed as "A Service of Christian
Marriage" uniting two lesbians.
	
Van Kuiken said during the meeting that he and his supporters at Mount Auburn
have "always" seen same-sex-union ceremonies and marriage as "essentially the
same," terming both "unions of matrimony." He said he believes such rites
bless, among other things, "sexual intimacy" between the persons being
joined, whether heterosexual or homosexual. 
	
Van Kuiken said it would be dishonest to suppose "a theological and
liturgical distinction" that does not exist. "The liturgy is identical," he
pointed out.
	
If he stopped performing such "marriage" ceremonies to avoid personal risk
and to keep peace in the denomination, Van Kuiken said, "I would find it
difficult to face myself in the mirror in the morning. ... In my heart it
would be contrary to the spirit of Christ."
	
He pointed out that Presbyterian tradition holds that it is sometimes
appropriate, even imperative, to challenge church law. "As good as the rules
are, they are not perfect," he said.
	
In a later vote, the presbytery gave a church administrative commission
extended powers at Mount Auburn to provide pastoral care to the congregation
while its leadership is in transition.
	
Participants in the meeting were asked to refrain from inflammatory language
and instructed not to applaud or otherwise react to speakers' comments. The
atmosphere was serious and tense, but prayerful, polite and orderly. 
	
Van Kuiken said during the meeting that the decision the presbytery was being
asked to make was actually "whether I have acted in obedience to Jesus
Christ," because "the ultimate jurisdiction is Christ, and Christ alone."
	
He said the action against him was "based on the false premise that
homosexuality is sinful," and came about mainly because he and his supporters
"have been open and honest about what we have done."
	
Van Kuiken said he is "actually quite old-fashioned" regarding marriage, in
that he requires extensive premarital counseling, discourages "casual
cohabitation" and blesses only "faithful, committed relationships".
	
He said his convictions and actions are based on "our growing understanding
that love between a man and a man, or between a woman and a woman, is just as
real, just as true, just as good, as love between a man and a woman."
	
A "statement on inclusive marriage" approved by Mount Auburn's session in
2001 was distributed at the meeting. It cites the constitutional provision
(W-4.9) that "marriage is a gift God has given to all human kind for the
well-being of the entire human family," and adds: "We hold that 'all human
kind' includes gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered people."
	
The statement holds that all the "good things" made possible by Christian
marriage "can be and are achieved by same-sex couples as well as heterosexual
couples."
	
About 20 members of the Mount Auburn congregation appeared at the meeting to
deliver brief speeches in Van Kuiken's defense.
	
In a typical encomium, member Sharon McLeod said Van Kuiken is a "nurturing,
loving and spiritual man" and "wonderful preacher and teacher" who leads "a
worship community that lives what it believes."
	
"It would be unjust to remove this pastor from his pulpit," she said.
	
Elder Douglas Duckett, Van Kuiken's counsel and an elder at Knox Presbyterian
Church in Cincinnati, said Van Kuiken was being presecuted because "his
maddening devotion to conscience troubles higher-ups in our church."
	
He said the COM was asking presbytery members to dispense with "trials and
appeals and all that bother" and vote to "hang Steve Van Kuiken tonight."
	
"This persecution," he said, "puts us on the road to schism."
	
Duckett said Van Kuiken's is a case of "classic civil disobedience."
Comparing the Cincinnati pastor to Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and Mohandas
Gandhi, he said: "He is acting on his conscience as God gives him to see it."

	
Elder Bill Lindsay, of Community of Faith Presbyterian Church, in Covington,
KY, urged his colleagues to postpone action until Van Kuiken's appeal of the
PJC decision has been resolved.
	
The Rev. Cinda Gorman, the pastor of Westwood First Presbyterian Church, said
the PC(USA) properly sets boundaries for its officers, and Van Kuiken
"marched right over" such a boundary on May 17."
	
"He chose not to wait until his appeal was heard," she said.
	
The motion to postpone failed, 65-100.
	
Some speakers argued that presbytery action would be "precipitous," but
others noted that it has been struggling with this issue since 1991. The Rev.
Jeff Hosmer, of Northminster Presbyterian Church in Cincinnati, said Mount
Auburn has had ample time to deal with the issue, pointing out that "no other
congregation has occupied more of this presbytery's energy and time" in the
past decade than Mount Auburn.
	
A motion to simply dissolve the relationship between Mount Auburn and Van
Kuiken, who then would remain a presbytery member and a minister at large,
also was defeated, 50-107.
	
The Rev. Bruce Archibald, the COM chair, who also is pastor of Glendale
Presbyterian Church in Cincinnati, said Van Kuiken "is, in my mind, an honest
and good man," but one who has made a "caring, loving, pastoral decision" to
defy the PJC. 
	
"You are not stripping him of his ordination," he said before the crucial
vote. "That is his decision."
	
Another speaker had said that what Van Kuiken indulged in was "not civil
disobedience, but ecclesial disobedience."
	
The Rev. Melissa Sevier, who moderated the meeting, offered a prayer after
the vote, asking God "to bless, we pray, our brother Steve, as he moves now
into a new phase of his walk with You."
	More Light Presbyterians, a group that works for the full inclusion
of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered people in the life of the
PC(USA), issued a statement Tuesday saying that it is "shocked and dismayed
by the apparent precedent set by this decision, which effectively declares
the semantic distinction between same-sex unions and marriages to be an
essential tenet of the Reformed faith."
	
The statement goes on to say: "This ... suggests that any minister who
deviates from any jot or title in the Form of Government, or Directory of
Worship, or any PJC decision, is at the same risk as Van Kuiken."
	
Another group that advocates for gay and lesbian Presbyterians, That All May
Freely Serve, said in a statement that it is "greatly saddened" by Van
Kuiken's removal from the ministry, adding: "We continue to stand with those
who for reasons of conscience take actions that uncover the unjust policies
of our denomination."

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