Presbytery to consider resolution that could lead to leaving PCUSA
By John H. Adams, The Layman Online, November 4, 2005
The Presbytery of San Diego is considering whether to send a warning shot across the bow of the Presbyterian Church (USA): Don’t water down the denomination’s ordination standards or face the presbytery’s possible withdrawal from the PCUSA.
The presbytery is scheduled to meet on Nov. 15 to consider a proposed resolution that could provoke an “immediate action” if the 217th General Assembly approves an Authoritative Interpretation recommended by the denomination’s Theological Task Force on Peace, Unity and Purity.
The proposed Authoritative Interpretation would allow ordaining bodies to decide on their own whether to require candidates for deacon, elder and minister to abide by the denomination’s constitutional “fidelity/chastity” ordination standard.
Should the Authoritative Interpretation be approved by the General Assembly – and it has the strong endorsement of Stated Clerk Clifton Kirkpatrick and 12 Presbyterian seminary presidents – the proposed resolution says the Presbytery of San Diego would:
- “… take immediate action in the event of a change in those standards – whether changed by official action, approval of the Authoritative Interpretation recommended by the Theological Task Force or simply rendered meaningless by means of official inaction to uphold the standard of the historic Church:
- a) Declaring that the Presbyterian Church (USA) is in a state of constitutional crisis and deep Biblical and confessional defection.
- b) Recognizing the breach in the covenant that binds our congregations and presbyteries together in the Presbyterian Church (USA).
- c) Assuming primary and exclusive responsibility for self-government because such a breach nullifies and voids the covenantal obligation to abide by the polity and discipline of higher governing bodies. By its own action, the Presbyterian Church (USA) will have broken covenant with us and divested itself of any authority to exercise governance over the Presbytery of San Diego.
- d) Exploring what, if any, long-term future association or relationship with the Presbyterian Church (USA) will be sought collectively by the Presbytery of San Diego and by any individual congregation within the Presbytery of San Diego.”
Four of the sessions that govern the presbytery’s 31 congregations have endorsed the proposed resolution. The presbytery is scheduled to discuss the resolution at its Nov. 15 meeting and vote on a final document in February so that it might be submitted as an overture for the 217th General Assembly when it meets in June 2006 in Birmingham, Ala.
If the resolution remains intact and is submitted as an overture, and if the General Assembly approves the Authoritative Interpretation recommended by the task force, the Presbytery of San Diego could become one of the first to take steps toward renouncing the jurisdiction of the PCUSA.
The task force’s proposed Authoritative Interpretation is near the end its final report, lines 1048-1072. It calls for ordaining bodies to decide individually whether to regard the constitutional prohibition against ordaining practicing homosexuals as essential and for all parties to “endeavor to outdo one another in honoring one another’s decisions.”
The resolution goes against the recommendation of one of the presbytery’s most distinguished members, retired minister Gary Demarest, who is the co-moderator of the task force. Demarest and other evangelicals on the task force – who were outnumbered by liberals by more than 2-1 – joined the unanimous vote for the task force report.
Demarest presented the case for the task force’s recommendations at a meeting of the Presbytery of San Diego. One observer said he was unable to make a convincing argument for those recommendations.
San Diego’s proposed resolution, developed after months of discussion by a writing group and preparation of a much-longer draft document, addresses other issues besides the task force report.
The presbytery has taken some evangelical positions on denomination issues that have been denounced. Because of budget shortages – some created by decisions by local sessions to redirect their members’ gifts and not reimit their per-capita contributions to support the denomination – the presbytery voted to request that it not be required to reduce its own mission funding by having to pay the full per capita to the General Assembly. It informed General Assembly Stated Clerk Clifton Kirkpatrick of that decision.
According to a report at its Sept. 20 meeting, Kirkpatrick responded by warning the presbytery that one or more of its sessions might file a remedial action against the presbytery for failure to remit the full amount to support the denomination.
But Kirkpatrick, in responding to dozens of acts of defying constitutional ordination requirements by ordaining practicing homosexuals, did so in a gentle manner, not with threats of church litigation.
In a letter to stated clerks in January 2002, Kirkpatrick wrote about the ordination standard, “I am well aware that there is considerable debate about the wisdom of this provision in our Constitution in light of our historic Presbyterian polity and that an amendment has been approved by the 213th General Assembly and is currently before the presbyteries that could remove this provision.” He did say G-6.0106b was the law of the church, but he didn’t make any threats of church court actions – either by his office or others.
In that same letter, however, Kirkpatrick warned church officers against withholding per capita, which the constitution declares to be voluntary, or recommending “gracious separation” from the denomination. On the money issue, Kirkpatrick said, “Such actions are unconstitutional, and I urge that they stop. It is a violation of our ordination vows to promote schism or the defiance of constitutionally sanctioned governing body directives.”
The violation of an ordination vow is tantamount to renouncing the jurisdiction of the Presbyterian Church – or self ex-communication.
Another issue at San Diego has been its own list of “Essential Tenets and Reformed Distinctives” that it recommends to sessions as models for evaluating candidates for office. That list represents Reformed orthodoxy, but it has been ridiculed by some denominational leaders. Former General Assembly Moderator Herb Valentine, for one, accused San Diego of trying to prescribe “lockstep belief and check-off orthodoxy.”
Officially, the denomination does not have a list of “essential tenets” for officers, although the General Assembly Permanent Judicial Commission has ruled that the ordination standard is required.
In the draft paper that circulated before the proposed resolution was finalized, the presbytery’s working group said, “We have watched and participated with growing concern in our denomination; especially as the actions, judgments, policies and pronouncements of the upper governing bodies have become unmoored from Biblical faith and confessional standards.”
The document adds, “We have been hurt by having to explain away the lack of clarity within the Presbyterian Church (USA) and the oppressive discouragement of holding Biblical faith conviction.”