Ordination standard overtures deferred until 2001 Assembly
By John H. Adams, The Layman Online, June 25, 2000
LONG BEACH, Calif. – Handling their first major item of business for the 212th General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (USA), commissioners voted Saturday afternoon to keep off their agenda anything to do with G-6.0106b, the “fidelity/chastity” clause in the Book of Order. The clause prohibits the ordination of persons who insist on practicing sexual activity outside of marriage.
But that deferment did not include overtures to outlaw blessing homosexual couples.
Instead, they followed the recommendation of the General Assembly’s Committee on Bills and Overtures, which asked that all G-6.0106b issues be referred to the 213th General Assembly when it meets next year in Louisville – the home of PCUSA headquarters. A large number of Louisville staff members and their regional infrastructure favors elimination of the ordination standard.
In effect, this year’s Assembly allowed the 1999 Assembly to dictate its action. In 1999, the commissioners voted against an overture that would have called for a constitutional referendum on removing G-6.0106b from the denomination’s constitution. Instead, the 1999 commissioners called for a two-year moratorium during which presbyteries and synods throughout the denomination would reflect on “unity in the midst of diversity” – a vaguely defined quest to promote “common ground” among Presbyterians.
While commissioners voted to defer eight overtures – seven proposed by presbyteries that want to eliminate G-6.0106b altogether or make changes in the Book of Order that would make the ordination standard of no effect – no roadblocks were erected to stop consideration of three overtures that deal with a related issue.
The three overtures call for a national referendum on whether to prohibit Presbyterian pastors from conducting ceremonies to bless same-sex unions. The Permanent Judicial Commission of the General Assembly, the highest court in the denomination, ruled earlier this year that ministers were allowed to bless homosexual couples as long as the ceremonies were not considered marriages.
At the meeting of the Committee on Bills and Overtures, there was vigorous discussion on the issue of blessing homosexual couples. Overtures opposing these ceremonies were referred to the General Assembly Committee on Physical and Spiritual Well-Being, which will make a recommendation to the entire Assembly later this week.
During the meeting of the Committee on Bills and Overtures, Stated Clerk Clifton Kirkpatrick suggested that two national referenda on the ordination standard have not settled the issue. (The first was the adoption of G-6.0106b and the second was a 2-1 vote against watering down the standard).
“Obviously,” Kirkpatrick told the committee, “there is a deep disagreement in the life of the church. We have as a church made a decision, but we have not reached the common mind of Christ.”
Commenting on Kirkpatrick’s statement, Parker T. Williamson, executive editor of The Presbyterian Layman, said, “This is an astounding statement. It suggests Mr. Kirkpatrick’s lack of respect for our denomination’s confessional standards and constitutional process. It is distressing to hear such language from the denomination’s chief constitutional officer. Presbyterians all across this nation, by a nearly 2-1 majority and with overwhelming Biblical justification, have spoken on this issue. The voice of the church should be respected by all of us, but particularly by its highest elected officials.”