Stated clerk warns of action against defiant congregation; Presbyterian initiates cases
By John H. Adams, The Layman Online, March 15, 2002
A Cincinnati congregation’s public defiance of the Constitution of the Presbyterian Church (USA) has drawn a gentle reprimand from the denomination’s stated clerk and a strongly worded letter – plus two judicial complaints – from a Reston, Va., lawyer.
Stated Clerk Clifton Kirkpatrick said a resolution by the session of Mount Auburn Presbyterian Church that stated the congregation’s intent to violate the constitution’s “fidelity/chastity” ordination standard “may subject the session to correction by the Presbytery of Cincinnati.”
By filing disciplinary complaints against Mount Auburn’s pastor and retired pastor, Paul Rolf Jensen initiated such action. He called on the Presbytery of Cincinnati to bring the two ministers to trial. In his letter to the presbytery, Jensen called Mount Auburn “a church in schism.”
Statements of dissent
Jensen’s complaint was aimed at two public statements signed by leaders of Mount Auburn: 1) the intent to violate the ordination standard and 2) its practice of conducting “marriage” ceremonies for homosexual couples.
Jensen accused the ministers of violating the jurisdiction of the PCUSA by refusing to comply with the constitution.
Along with his complaints against pastor A. Stephen Van Kuiken and retired pastor Harold G. Porter, Jensen called on the presbytery to take steps to remove both ministers from their offices, independent of the judicial cases.
‘A welcoming place’
Kirkpatrick responded to Mount Auburn’s statement of dissent by calling it “clearly the result of much prayer and study.” He praised the congregation for welcoming “our Lord’s Gay and Lesbian children; surely they are vital to Mount Auburn’s mission and ministry. Clearly you have answered the call to provide a welcoming place.”
But he added, “Yet I believe two statements in your declaration go beyond the session’s authority.” He cited Mount Auburn’s declaration that it “has not and cannot comply with G-6.0106b,” the fidelity/chastity ordination standard, and the session’s stated criteria to the congregation’s nominating committee for officers to ensure the election of homosexuals.
“The session lacks any authority to in any way instruct the nominating committee,” Kirkpatrick said.
‘Willful, deliberate violation’
Jensen asks the presbytery court to hear his complaints against Van Kuiken and Porter, saying both acted “in willful and deliberate violation” of their ordination vows and, therefore, they had renounced the jurisdiction of the PCUSA.
The complaint against Porter accused him of participating in a “ceremony involving persons whom the accused believed to be practicing homosexuals, which the accused publicly identified as a ‘marriage.'”
The constitution of the denomination describes marriage as a union only between a man and a woman. The highest court in the denomination has said sessions may authorize ceremonies to bless same-sex couples, but that the ceremonies are not to be described as “marriages” or to be viewed as an endorsement of homosexual practice.
Jensen’s other complaint said Van Kuiken condoned and participated in the ordination of unrepentant homosexuals; participated in and/or condoned ceremonies for homosexual couples that were publicly identified as “marriages;” and endorsed and signed two public documents that declared Mount Auburn’s refusal to obey the constitution.
Statements on Web site
The dissent statements, which Mount Auburn posted on its Web site, were titled “Statement of Dissent and Non-Compliance G-6.0106b” and “Statement of Inclusive Marriage.”
In his letter to the presbytery, Jensen, a member of St. Andrews Presbyterian Church in Newport Beach, Calif., and counsel to the U.S. Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works, cited sections from the Book of Order that authorize presbyteries to remove pastors and sessions and assume “original jurisdiction” (governing authority) of congregations.
“This is not a subject on which reasonable men can differ: the resolutions of Mount Auburn to which I refer are as unequivocal and straightforward renunciations of our church’s polity as their session could possibly make them,” Jensen said. “One must accord to the Mount Auburn leadership the courage of its convictions: They have intentionally left no room for doubt as to their position. They explicitly renounce the jurisdiction of the constitution of the PCUSA … ”
The tone of Kirkpatrick’s letter is notably more pastoral than one he wrote Jan. 3 to the stated clerks of middle governing bodies of the PCUSA. In the earlier letter, Kirkpatrick warned evangelical pastors and elders that advocacy of withholding per-capita payments to support the work of the General Assembly and gracious separation from the denomination were violations of their ordination standards.
Constitutional documents and the decisions of the General Assembly say otherwise.