Group on West Coast affirms standard for ordination; East Coast group ignores it
By Craig M. Kibler, The Layman Online, April 30, 2004
Just days after a presbytery committee on the West Coast rejected a lesbian’s request to be certified ready for ministry, a presbytery committee on the East Coast declared that a gay man was ready “in all respects to seek a call to ordained ministry.”
The cases involve Lisa Larges in the Presbytery of San Francisco and Ray Bagnuolo in the Presbytery of Hudson River.
The Presbyterian Church (USA)’s constitutional ordination standard, G-6.0106b in the Book of Order, states that, “Those who are called to office in the church are to lead a life in obedience to Scripture and in conformity to the historic confessional standards of the church. Among these standards is the requirement to live either in fidelity within the covenant of marriage between a man and a woman, or chastity in singleness. Persons refusing to repent of any self-acknowledged practice with the confessions call sin shall not be ordained and/or installed as deacons, elders, or ministers of Word and Sacrament.”
In 2001, the 213th General Assembly approved a proposed constitutional amendment that would have repealed the ordination standard but, by a 3-1 margin, the presbyteries voted against it – the third time by ever-increasing margins that G-6.0106b was affirmed as the denominational standard.
On the West Coast, the Committee on Preparation for Ministry of the Presbytery of San Francisco affirmed that standard by rejecting a request by Larges to be certified ready for ministry, a step in seeking a position as a minister in the PCUSA.
Asked “explicitly whether the long-term committed and covenantal relationship in which she is living ‘is sexual,'” according to the Witherspoon Society, “she answered with integrity and honesty, affirming once again that her partnership ‘is a marriage in every sense of that word, before God.'”
This is not the first time Larges’ request for certification has been rejected. In 1992, in a case about a similar request before the Presbytery of the Twin Cities that was decided by the General Assembly Permanent Judicial Commission (LeTourneau vs. The Presbytery of the Twin Cities Area), she was denied certification because she is a lesbian.
In 2001, Larges, a 1989 graduate of San Francisco Theological Seminary, was appointed the regional partnership coordinator for That All May Freely Serve, an activist special-interest organization that has lobbied for years to repeal the ordination standard. She is a deacon at Noe Valley Ministry Presbyterian Church, a More Light church in San Francisco.
In a story dated Dec. 7, 2001, on the TAMFS Web site, she was described this way:
“From 1993 to 1997 Larges organized the Witness for Reconciliation project to promote dialogue concerning the full participation of GLBT Presbyterians, following the General Assembly’s call for three years of dialogue on the issue. Through sermons, addresses, and workshops, she has worked to spread the Good News of radical inclusion in Presbyterian churches and conferences across the country. She also served on the Executive Board of More Light Presbyterians from 1993 to 2000.
“Lisa lives with her partner Angie in the San Francisco Bay area. This December marked the second anniversary of their service of Holy Union.”
In a statement released after the Committee on Preparation for Ministry of the Presbytery of San Francisco affirmed the ordination standard by denying Larges certification, the board of That All May Freely Serve said it was “deeply grieved and heartsick at the action taken by the Preparation Committee of the San Francisco Presbytery, which voted not to send Lisa Larges forward for ordination but to continue her as a candidate.”
“Lisa, a candidate for ministry since 1985, was denied being certified a Call because she was fully honest about her marriage to her partner…. San Francisco Presbytery had an opportunity to make the realm of God more imminent, touchable, relevant, and alive…. Our denomination could have given hope to those who are systematically kept out of leadership by rules that exclude even the church’s own children.”
The executive committee of the Witherspoon Society said that, “The majority of committee members apparently felt they were compelled by the Presbyterian Book of Order to deny her certification.” A similar statement was issued by More Light Presbyterians, which said, “This is yet one more example of why we believe that justice delayed is justice denied.”
Both organizations, like TAMFS, have been in the forefront of efforts to repeal the denomination’s ordination standard and redefine marriage as being a committed relationship between two people, not a union of a man and a woman as Scripture and 2,000 years of church teaching defines it.
One of the other negative responses to the action of the Committee on Preparation for Ministry of the Presbytery of San Francisco came from Bagnuolo on the East Coast, who called it a “spiritual roadblock.”
Bagnulo describes himself as “gay, an Elder, a Candidate for the Word & Sacrament, and a self-affirming, practicing, non-repentant homosexual. As a member of a dissenting church in the Presbytery of Hudson River in New York, I have learned that telling my story is the same as witnessing to my call. I have signed the ‘Cloud of Witnesses‘ statement to stand in solidarity with all those who support the removal of G-6.0106b.”
He also is the Web master for That All May Freely Serve and developed the Web site for the Hudson River Presbytery. When he left his contract position with the presbytery (August 2002), the stated clerk, Harriet Sandmeir, said he was “happily not leaving the Presbytery, his church (South Dobbs Ferry), nor his status as candidate for Minister of Word and Sacrament.”
Unlike Larges, however, the Committee on Preparation for Ministry of the Hudson River Presbytery voted to certify him as ready “in all respects to seek a call to ordained ministry.”
In response, self-described lesbian evangelist Jane Spahr, the leader of TAMFS, said her group “wishes to extend our most profound gratitude to the members, Session, and Pastors of South Church in Dobbs Ferry and to the Committee on Preparation for Ministry of Hudson River as the committee voted to certify Raymond Bagnuolo, our web TAMFS spinner and resident prophet, as ready in all respects to seek a call to ordained ministry. As God continues to call gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender persons to serve this church, we are thankful to those governing bodies who do not act to thwart God’s spirit.”
“When he called with the news, Ray said, ‘It appears that the fires of justice burn unevenly across this church,’ referring to the committee that so recently voted to deny the remarkable gifts of our own Lisa Larges.”
Bagnuolo also has been involved in efforts to repeal the denomination’s ordination standard. In writing about the upcoming 216th General Assembly in Richmond, he said:
“I have long said that I am in favor of full, active, and engaged efforts to remove G-6.0106b at every turn, whether the odds are good or not…. Once more, there are overtures to remove G-6.0106b from the Book of Order at GA. Will these sacred documents out of the hearts and souls of their authors suffer the same demise as last year’s?”
The Presbytery of Hudson River long has been a center of defiance in the denomination, but moved into the limelight in 1999 when judicial action was brought against it for allowing its ministers to conduct same-gender blessing services. The General Assembly Permanent Judicial Commission ruled that ministers could conduct the services if they did not call the unions “marriages.” The decision avoided describing the services as “holy unions,” which is how homosexuals referred to them.
Since then, some of its congregations have made public declarations that they conduct same-sex unions and recognize them as marriages, as well as practicing open communion, both in defiance of the constitution.
In another case, the presbytery promoted by e-mail to its ministers a “Universal Worship Service” in which the participants offered prayers to a smorgasbord of gods – including those who, “whether known or unknown to the world, have held aloft the light of truth through the darkness of human ignorance.”
After the congregations in Hudson River declared that they would not obey the standards, the presbytery formed a committee to discuss the matter with those sessions. To date, the presbytery has initiated no disciplinary or remedial actions to require these congregations to comply with the constitution.
The Rev. Clifton Kirkpatrick, stated clerk of the General Assembly, also has declined to take any administrative action that would require the presbytery to ensure compliance. According to the standing rules of the General Assembly, Kirkpatrick’s duty is to “preserve and defend the Constitution,” but his office has told leaders of the Presbyterian Coalition who have criticized his inaction that ensuring constitutional compliance is not his job.
In late 2002, church officers in the presbytery held a public worship service to reaffirm their acts of defiance. “Christian conscience calls us together to support our Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender (LGBT) sisters and brothers,” the invitation read. “Churches and individuals from across the Tri-State Area of New York, Connecticut, and New Jersey will celebrate the gifts and diversity of all God’s people.”
In 1998, South Presbyterian Church in Dobbs Ferry was charged with violating the Book of Order because it allowed – as it had for many years – the use of its property for same-sex union ceremonies.
In October 2002, it was the host site for the public worship service. Hundreds of participants from throughout the region nailed messages to the denomination to the door of South Church, and then reaffirmed the ordinations of LGBT clergy.