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Note #8003 from PCUSA NEWS to PRESBYNEWS:

Covenant Network board counsels patience
03479
November 10, 2003

Covenant Network board counsels patience

Group will focus on overturning 'authoritative interpretation'

by Alexa Smith

WASHINGTON, DC - Gene Bay stood behind a microphone in the chancel of New
York Avenue Presbyterian Church, fielding questions from about 600
participants in the annual conference of the Covenant Network of
Presbyterians.

	The Rev. Blair Moffett, of Stamford, CT, asked: Why wait until 2006
to try again to  eliminate G.60106.b from the constitution of the
Presbyterian Church (USA)? Wasn't the Covenant Network created for the
purpose of eliminating that provision from the Book of Order?

	The organization was formed in 1997, after the passage of that
amendment, which prohibits the ordination of sexually active church leaders
who are single, whether homosexual or heterosexual. Bay, the senior pastor at
Bryn Mawr Presbyterian Church near Philadelphia and one of the Network's
co-moderators, responded: Wait - but work hard in the meantime.

	"The will of the church was expressed by the General Assembly," Bay
said, referring to the task force assigned the task of addressing theological
divisions in the church, especially those having to do with sexuality and
ordination. "(We're waiting) out of respect for that." The task force is
scheduled to report to the General Assembly in 2006.

	"That doesn't mean at all that we're withdrawing from the
conversation," Bay went on. "It looks to me like the time is particularly
ripe for education, for continued conversation; and we're committed to the
removal of the amendment at the earliest possible date.

"Who knows God's timing?"

	The theme of the conference was "The Church We Are Called to Be and
Become."

The Covenant Network board has taken the position: Hold off on legislative
action on the amendment until 2006, while stepping up education efforts in
the presbyteries. And when the next vote comes around, maybe the church will
be more receptive to the Covenant Network's argument against the much-debated
amendment.

	In fact, the Network has hired Lou East to work as a grassroots
organizer in the Southeast, focusing on Bible-belt presbyteries where the
voting has repeatedly gone against attempts to remove G.0106.b. Clearly,
clergy and pew-sitters in those presbyteries hold fast to the historical
interpretation: that sexual relations between same-sex partners are condemned
in scripture.

	"I understand that there are people who want to bring the matter
before the church, to the General Assembly, every year," Bay later told the
Presbyterian News Service. "I just think that more work has to be done before
the church is ready. ... It's important for us to try to figure out what is
the best way to proceed.

"We will be going for broke in 2006."

	In the meantime, the Network's plan is to concentrate on education
and to strengthen and expand  networks for outreach and dialogue in the
presbyteries, especially among those who don't agree with its arguments.

The group also plans to sponsor major theological conferences at least once a
year. The 2004 conference is on sexual ethics; in 2005, the topic is
Christian discipleship, and in 2006, the meaning of ordination. New resources
also are in preparation, including a video that tells the stories of gays and
lesbians seeking to hold church offices, and a booklet titled Counting the
Cost that tells the stories of gay Presbyterians once active in the church
who no longer belong to the denomination.

	Further, the Network intends to try to hold the line by continuing to
offer legal counsel to officers and sessions facing charges of violating the
constitution.

And legislative efforts will continue as well, but will take a new tack:

	The Network is gearing up for an effort to get the General Assembly
to declare that authoritative interpretations of the constitution that
prohibit the ordination of sexually active gays that were issued before the
passage of G.0106.b are "no longer binding."

 The Network argues that neither the 1978 policy called "definitive guidance"
nor the authoritative interpretations that followed could amend the
constitution without being ratified by the presbyteries.

Several presbyteries, including Detroit and Cayuga-Syracuse, are preparing
overtures holding that sessions and presbyteries are not bound by statements
regarding ordained service by homosexual people that predate G.0106.b.

As Network organizer Tricia Dykers Koenig said during a workshop titled
"Redeem the Time: Strategies for the Meantime":  Simply eliminating G.0106.b
from the constitution wouldn't solve the ordination problem, because other
policy prohibitions would still be in place.

"An authoritative interpretation established by a General Assembly can be
dis-established by a General Assembly," she said, "because it doesn't go to
presbyteries for a vote. Our feeling is that we can take care of this at the
General Assembly, if that is the will of the General Assembly."

	She reassured those who were reluctant to stop lobbying the General
Assembly every year to delete the amendment: "G.0106.b introduced an
injustice in our constitution. It is wrong and we want it out. We are taking
the fastest possible route to remove it."

	There are plenty of questions among Covenant Networkers and their
allies as to what exactly is the fastest route - and deep ambivalence about
waiting.

Dot Brown, who belongs to a More Light (gay-affirming) congregation in
Buffalo, NY, spoke up during Koenig's workshop about the ambivalence some
feel about waiting.

	"The More Light church has been ready for a long time," she said.
"What do we do about that now?"

	In Buffalo, she said, people are beginning to talk about the meaning
of fidelity as a theological concept, one that applies to more than sexual
relationships - to relationships with God, and to partnerships and marriages.

	Cheryl Pyrch, an openly lesbian candidate for ordination in New York
City Presbytery, said gay and lesbians candidates still have more questions
than answers.

Gay candidates meeting with church committees, she said, must wrestle with
how to answer, or whether even to raise, questions about their sex lives.
Taking the don't-tell approach only exacerbates the tension, she said,
because the candidates understand that, if the "right things" are said,
ordination is a possibility.

"Until we have the freedom to tell in the church," she said, "we don't have
freedom. And if I choose to tell, where are the people who will be behind me?
Will people say, 'You shouldn't have told.' Or, 'You really shouldn't have
told that.' Or, 'Thank you. Blessings on you for having told. And we will
stand behind you, or not.'"

	The Rev. Jane Spahr and other long-time activists said gays are tired
of being told to wait - for another study, or for a politically strategic
time. "If the Covenant Network wants to work on authoritative interpretation,
fine, great, do it," she said. "But we need to delete B. And every year, That
All May Freely Serve (Spahr's organization) and More Light Presbyterians have
committed to bring an overture forward.

	"You know and I know that the more we discuss this, the more people
meet us, something happens to people's minds and hearts," she told the
Presbyterian News Service, contending that the ongoing debate reduces
opposition to gay ordination.

	More Light board member Harlan Penn, of San Francisco, pushed the
Covenant Network to introduce legislation to delete G.0106.b at every General
Assembly. "Every year, I'm hurt and disappointed," he said. "But in my
opinion this is not a strategic matter. I have no confidence (G.0106.b) will
be deleted in 2004, and no more confidence it will happen in 2006, or 2020.
But the matter of witness is important to me."

	A young woman who identified herself as an "out" seminarian urged
more restraint. Yearly votes, she said, cause hurt and frustration, to the
point that it becomes almost "self-mutilating" for gays and lesbians. "I am
just not sure that bringing Amendment B to the floor every year is
strategic," she said. "Dialogue is the place to do that."

	That coincides with what the network's leaders said over and over
again:	Wait - but work hard in the meantime.

	Koenig was blunt in speaking to her small group of listeners. "We
have work to do in this time," she said. "People don't live in the national
church, they live in presbyteries and congregations  and that is there where
conversation needs to happen. We're trying to see 173 different presbyteries
where people are saying, 'Let's talk,' not just about sexuality, but (about)
what binds us together as Presbyterians. Wherever we are, we should be doing
that work.

	"Don't expect change in the church to happen by some magic formula."

	The co-leader of Koenig's workshop, the Rev. Dave Colby of St. Paul,
MN, took a wider view, calling for study, prayer, dialogue and education.
"This is not about galvanizing votes, purely," he said. "It is about worship
and theological reflection.  It is more than, 'How are we going to win?'"

	At the end of the conference, Jean Delap, of Quincy, IL, was sitting
in a corner sipping coffee before heading home to the Presbytery of Great
Rivers, where she said some in her conservative local church are talking
about leaving the denomination.

	 "I'm not for waiting," Delap said, "but right now " She paused,
shrugging, then continued: "I hate telling gays and lesbians that they have
to be patient. But it took a long time for slavery. It took a long time for
women."

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