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Note #8451 from PCUSA NEWS to PRESBYNEWS:

04350
August 4, 2004

Brass tacks

Theological Task Force turns to ordination standards - privately

by Jerry L. Van Marter

DALLAS - Clamped into the vise of "the issue" for the first time, the
Theological Task Force on Peace, Unity and Purity of the Church (TTF) began
its Aug. 3-6 meeting here by trying to lower the Presbyterian Church (USA)'s
expectations that it will find the "answer" to the denomination's most
intractable issue.

	The task force also invoked its exemption from the church's
open-meetings policy for the first time, voting to spend four hours Wednesday
afternoon in closed session discussing ways of "exploring God's presence in
our encounters with homosexuality."

	"There is no magic pill," task force member Milton "Joe" Coalter
said, referring to the denomination's sexual-conduct standards for ordination
to church office. "We were not asked to solve the problem of ordination
standards, and I'm very concerned the church will feel we failed if we don't
come up with the 'magic pill.'"

	The Rev. John "Mike" Loudon, of Lakeland, FL, told his fellow task
force members that he has felt his "chest tighten up every time I've thought
about this meeting."

	Coalter said the group needs to find a way to convince the church
that the group's task is to devise processes whereby the church can grapple
with divisions over what the church's ordination standards should be. "We
must convince them that, whatever we say about this and other issues, our
report (in 2006) is the beginning, not the end, of the process of
discernment."

	That the last two General Assemblies have deferred action on
ordination standards in order to give the TTF an open field to do its work is
clearly weighing on the task force. "This is a tough spot, but we already
knew that," said the Rev. P. Mark Achtemeier, of Dubuque, IA. "The church is
expecting the magic pill, and we're clear that we aren't going to find one,
and it's not even our task here."

	All the more reason, said the Rev. John Wilkinson of Rochester, for
the task force to devise a comprehensive communication strategy to keep the
PC(USA) apprised of what the group is doing.

	Task force members agreed to return to the communication strategy
issue later in the week.

	The vote to go into closed session was 17-1. Loudon voted against,
and members Barbara Bryant, of Ann Arbor, MI, and the Rev. Jose Luis
Torres-Milan, of Aguadilla, Puerto Rico, abstained.

	"This is what the (open-meeting policy) waiver was given to us for,"
said the Rev. Victoria Curtiss, of Ames, IA, "to openly explore and freely
share our deepest experiences and feelings on this issue."

	The PC(USA)'s current sexual-conduct standard for ordination requires
"fidelity within the covenant of marriage between a man and a woman or
chastity in singleness" (G-6.0106b). It is backed by a 1978 "authoritative
interpretation" of the constitution holding that "self-affirming, practicing
homosexuals" are not eligible for ordination.

	This year's General Assembly narrowly defeated a proposal to render
the authoritative interpretation non-binding. Commissioners seemed to feel
that the work of the task force should not be short-circuited by Assembly
action on ordination standards.

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