Celebrating too soon
The Presbyterian Layman, November 18, 1998
Presbyterians who gathered in Dallas and Atlanta rejoiced over what General Assembly Moderator Douglas Oldenburg described as a denomination that has “turned the corner.” Praising God for the fact that clear biblical standards of sexual behavior stand firmly in our Constitution, we applauded signs of denominational renewal and looked forward to pouring our energies into the church’s missionary imperative.
But have we celebrated too soon?
‘Coming Out Day’
On October 9 a chapel service was conducted at Columbia Theological Seminary that made a mockery of the Presbyterian Church (USA) Constitution. Because it holds itself out to be a PCUSA seminary, and receives money from the GA on the basis of that claim, this school has a mandate to prepare students for ordained ministry in the PCUSA. Columbia’s administration is aware of the Book of Order’s standards prohibiting the ordination of persons who refuse to practice “fidelity in marriage…or chastity in singleness.” Surely its polity professors teach that obedience to the Constitution is obligatory, not optional. Why, then, would the school allow an event to occur on its campus that openly defies our constitutional standards?
Columbia’s “Coming Out Day” chapel service was promoted as a demonstration of the participants’ willingness to minister to gay/lesbian/bisexual youth. But woven into that service was an affirmation of their lifestyle.
Defenders of the service may parse the litany and suggest that ministry to homosexuals, not endorsement of their behavior, was its intention. But a dispassionate assessment of the service, including choices of preacher and holy communion celebrant, tells a different tale.
Ignoring the will of the PCUSA
Ms. Karla Fleshman, the preacher, declared in her sermon that she is a lesbian. A student at Columbia, she had her same-sex partner’s name inserted in the directory where students’ spouses are listed (Why was this allowed?). The communion celebrant was Glenna Shepherd, minister of the Metropolitan Community Church, whose defining “doctrine” is the moral approval of one-gender coupling. Shepherd’s lesbian partnership is advertised on her congregation’s web page on the Internet.
Because Ms. Shepherd is not an ordained Presbyterian minister, one wonders how she could have been asked to officiate at Columbia’s communion service. According to Rebecca Parker, director of continuing education and chair of the worship and convocation committee, that question was never discussed by her committee.
Columbia’s chapel welcomed a person who, according to the Constitution, may not be ordained in the PCUSA, to play the role of an ordained celebrant. This service, in effect, cavalierly set aside the votes of 173 presbyteries who, by a two-to-one margin, had just affirmed our constitutional standards. In so doing, worship leaders declared their belief that the expressed will of the PCUSA may be ignored with impunity by those who train its ministers.
A clear and present danger
The Columbia chapel service follows a series of similar moves within the PCUSA that have the effect of circumventing the Constitution. Unable to persuade the Presbyterian consensus in open, honest debate, the “Covenant Network of Presbyterians,” calling itself a voice of moderation, encourages liberals to remain in the denomination while its supporters work at every level to undermine the Constitution. The attempt by First Presbyterian Church, Stamford, Conn., to install an openly gay elder is part of that pattern. Stamford’s co-pastor, Rev. Blair Moffett, is a Covenant Network conference workshop leader. The Witherspoon Society, a partner with the Covenant Network in the Amendment A campaign, is now calling on sessions to “commission” (in lieu of ordaining) gays, lesbians, and bisexuals to serve on session.
When leaders of this alliance calculate that mainline seminaries have pumped enough “Coming Out Day” graduates into our pulpits and that a sufficient number of gay/lesbian ministers and elders have been ordained or “commissioned” in defiance of the Constitution, they will be back with an amendment to declare de jure what they have accomplished de facto.
A call for discipline
When Presbyterians are ordained, we promise to uphold the Constitution. Honoring that pledge requires that those who disagree with the church’s standards obey them while seeking to change the Presbyterian mind through open and honest debate. What is happening at Columbia Seminary, the Stamford church, and other flash points across the denomination, however, is neither open nor honest. They are efforts to achieve indirectly what could not be done directly. They are efforts to make an end run around a Constitution they promised to uphold.
If we are to maintain the integrity of the Presbyterian Church (USA), we have no choice but to challenge these violations of its faith and practice. Donors must tell seminaries allowing open defiance of the Constitution that their financial support will not continue. And ordinations that are conducted in defiance of our standards must be challenged in each presbytery where they occur.
Presbyterians must ask Columbia and the other nine seminaries that receive funds from the PCUSA in what sense they claim to be PCUSA seminaries. Since the 1970s, the trend of our seminaries has been to cut their ties with the PCUSA, governing themselves by independent, self-perpetuating boards of trustees. In what sense is the education they offer any more “Presbyterian” than that of Reformed, Gordon Conwell, or Fuller Theological Seminaries, none of which would have tolerated what happened in Columbia’s chapel?
The Presbyterian Layman takes no pleasure in reporting “bad news,” and we join those who applaud recent signs of renewal, as evidenced by our selection of lead stories in this issue. But let us not be deceived. The battle is not over.