Fidelity-chastity standard
faces another assault
By Edward Terry, The Layman, June 14, 2010
Nearly getting the votes needed to ratify major changes to the Presbyterian Church (USA)’s constitution a year ago, opponents of the denomination’s fidelity-chastity standard are hoping that Presbyterians will go the way of the Lutherans and Episcopalians at the General Assembly in Minneapolis, Minn., this summer.
In 2009, both the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) and The Episcopal Church (ECUSA) voted at their assemblies, also in Minneapolis, to remove Biblically-based, traditional sexual standards from their respective constitutions. Both have faced backlash from the decision including the departure of conservative members and congregations.
This summer, the PCUSA GA will consider more than a dozen proposals to rephrase, or remove altogether, language that requires ordained officers – including pastors, elders and deacons – remain faithful in heterosexual marriage or chaste in singleness. There also are a handful of overtures advocating for the current wording, which will be considered in the same committee as overtures that oppose it. Found in section G-6.0106b of the Book of Order, opponents of the standard argue that it unfairly excludes practicing lesbian, gay, bi-sexual and transsexual (LGBT) people from ministry. The issue of sexual standards has been a consistent topic of discussion at GA for the last 30 years.
The 2008 GA approved an overture that would have reworded the standard, removing the requirements on sexual practice in favor of less restrictive language.
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When the changes were put to a vote before the PCUSA’s 173 presbyteries, the standard as it is currently worded was upheld 95-78. After the closest vote yet on ordination standards, leading LGBT advocate organizations More Light Presbyterians and Covenant Network of Presbyterians celebrated at their respective conferences last fall, then quickly turned eyes to 2010 as a priority.
On its Web site, the Covenant Network includes removing G-6.0106b as one of its top priorities at GA.
“Covenant Network chapters and members were active in urging 21 presbyteries to send overtures to this assembly,” according to the Covenant statement. “While these overtures … use somewhat different language, all propose to replace G-6.0106b with statements that preserve high standards for officers but are better aligned with Reformed theology and practice of ordination. As in the past, Covenant Network will work through the General Assembly’s process of discernment to bring about the full inclusion of all whom God calls to ordained leadership in the church.”
In an advisory bulletin on ordination standards, The Presbyterian Coalition defends G-6.0106b and urges commissioners to protect it.
“Those who wrote that policy had the conviction that they were saying nothing new, but that the church’s ‘calling and charter in Scripture’ had always called on those who were engaging in activity Scripture calls sin to renounce their sin and repent of it in order to meet the requirements for leadership in the Church including the PCUSA,” the bulletin said. “Refusal to repent of sinful sexual practice is not different from refusing to repent of sexism or racism, sins which also currently preclude ordination in the PCUSA.”
The Coalition recommends restoring authoritative interpretations that clarify and support historic sexual standards and disapproving overtures that amend or delete G-6.0106b.