Presbytery rescinds invitation to General Assembly moderator
The Layman Online, July 17, 2001
The council of the Presbytery of Pittsburgh has voted 7-5 to rescind an invitation to General Assembly Moderator Jack B. Rogers to speak at its December meeting when the presbytery will decide whether to allow gay ordination.
The recission came in the wake of increased tension within the presbytery over Rogers’ comments during the 213th General Assembly and the actions of the denomination’s highest governing body.
The presbytery is in the center of the Confessing Church Movement and consistently has favored the “fidelity/chastity” ordination standard in the Book of Order.
During the 213th General Assembly, Rogers was highly critical of the Confessing Church Movement and he strongly opposes the ordination standard.
He called the movement that confesses Jesus alone as Lord, the Bible as authoritative for life and faith and God’s standards of holiness unchanging “a threat to the peace, purity and unity of the church.” Declaring himself to be the “confessing moderator,” Rogers also has suggested that the church needs to recognize the “moral equivalent of marriage” between homosexuals.
Two of the largest congregations in the Presbytery of Pittsburgh – the 1,600-member Memorial Park Presbyterian Church in Allison Park and the 1,000-member Mount Lebanon Presbyterian Church in Pittsburgh – are members of the Confessing Church Movement and leaders in the evangelical movement in the presbtyery.
Not everybody favors rescinding the invitation to Rogers. The Rev. Robert Chesnut, pastor of East Liberty Presbyterian Church and an advocate of gay ordination, wants the council to reconsider its action because half of its members were absent. “I think it’s a discourtesy to the moderator of our General Assembly,” he said.
Last year, Chestnut’s congregation hosted a Covenant Network-sponsored gathering that focused on deconstruction of evangelical and traditional methods of interpreting Scripture. Rogers was one of the seminary professors speaking at that gathering. He is listed on Covenant Network’s letterhead as one of its advisers.
The Confessing Church Movement began in the adjacent Presbytery of Beaver-Butler and now includes 120 congregations in Pennsylvania, including 10 in the city of Pittsburgh.
James Mead, former vice moderator of the General Assembly and pastor to the presbytery, told The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette that the situation is volatile. “There is an earnestness of talk about division that I have not heard before,” Mead said.
One pastor in the presbytery recently used his sermon to excoriate the leadership of the denomination and declare that he would not abide by its rule.
“Until such time as the Presbyterian Church (USA) mends its way and makes clear and unequivocal confession of the sole lordship and saviorhood of Jesus Christ, I will reject the authority of the church in any of its judicatories beyond that of our own session,” said the Rev. Richard Wolling of Beverly Heights Presbyterian Church in Mount Lebanon.
Wolling later said he was not renouncing the jurisdiction of the Presbyterian Church (USA).
In an effort to promote peace, the presbytery plans an evening of information, small group reflection, prayer and worship at 7:30 p.m. Aug. 16 in Southminster Presbyterian Church in Mt. Lebanon.
“People can pray about whatever they want to,” Mead said. “They can pray that their side wins. They can pray for the church, for its leaders. They can come and submit themselves to the Holy Spirit and ask the Spirit to pray in them.”