Hudson River Presbytery approves openly gay man for ordination
The Layman Online, September 30, 2005
Hudson River Presbytery has approved for ordination an openly gay man in defiance of the “fidelity/chastity” ordination standard in the Book of Order of the Presbyterian Church (USA).
At its meeting Sept. 27, the presbytery voted 88-9 to approve for ordination Ray Bagnuolo, who in the past has described himself as a “self-affirming, practicing, non-repentant homosexual.” Earlier this month, the 139-member Palisades Presbyterian Church in Palisades, N.Y., extended a call to Bagnuolo.
Bagnuolo is a national board member for That All May Freely Serve, a gay activist organization that describes itself as “working for ordination of qualified gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender candidates in the Presbyterian Church (USA) as elders, deacons and ministers.”
Bagnuolo is an elder at South Presbyterian Church in Dobbs Ferry, N.Y., one of 16 congregations in the presbytery that have publicly declared their defiance of the “fidelity/chastity” ordination standard [G-6.0106b] in the PCUSA Constitution.
In a statement on its Web site, TAMFS described Bagnuolo as “an out gay man and an outspoken and passionate advocate for a fully alive and welcoming church!”
Jenna Tiitsman, another board member who was present at the presbytery meeting, said that, after the vote, “Someone stood up to remind us that we are standing on holy ground at this moment of transformation and a few of us took off our shoes … something new is happening!”
In 2004, in an article titled “In a word, no!” Bagnuolo wrote that “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.”
Before the vote, Rev. Allen Kemp, co-pastor of Suffern Presbyterian Church, told The Journal News that he would oppose Bagnuolo’s ordination.
“I think this will be a big deal nationally because he is so open about his homosexuality,” Kemp told the newspaper. “In the past, it’s been more like the military: Don’t ask, don’t tell. I will speak out against his ordination. But I don’t think we can enforce the constitution through a judicial process because the whole presbytery is so liberal.”
The Presbytery of Hudson River, which long has been a center of defiance in the denomination, had certified Bagnuolo as a candidate for the ministry of Word and Sacrament during its meeting May 15, 2004, at White Plains Presbyterian Church in New York. The certification, according to the Book of Order, meant that he was “ready for examination for ordination, pending a call.”
Palisades Presbyterian Church, on its Web site, says, “Ours is an Inclusive Church,” adding:
“At the national level within the Presbyterian Church, the issue of gay and lesbian people serving as church officers has been a divisive one. PCUSA, our national church organization, has adopted some rather draconian and exclusive rules, but these have been pretty widely ignored by many (but not all) local churches. To our shame, many angry words have been exchanged, and later reported in newspapers such as the New York Times.
“The Palisades Church does not have any sort of litmus test for church members or for church officers. We have only the expectation that a person genuinely desires to serve Christ and participate in the works of the Church. We do not exclude people on the basis of their sexual orientation, or for that matter, on the basis of race, sex or national origin. Any decision we make on whether a person should serve as a church officer is made by us alone, on our understanding of that individual’s calling.”
In 1999, Palisades Presbyterian Church and 12 other New York churches established a “G-6.0106b-Free Zone” in defiance of the Presbyterian Church (USA) constitution, and invited other Presbyterian churches to join them to be “free from the polity morass of a self-contradictory Book of Order.”
In a letter, the churches cited Christ Church in Burlington, Vt., for its “bold stand in articulating why, in good conscience, it cannot comply with G-6.0106b. We commend the session’s statement to your reading, as it outlines very clearly how ‘… no congregation can be fully in compliance with a Book of Order that contradicts that paragraph [G-6.0106b] with numerous provisions mandating an inclusive church.’ This is an example of faithful polity that both restores integrity to our denomination and dignifies the ministries of the lesbian, gay, and unmarried heterosexual members of our congregations, many of whom we have knowingly ordained as elders and deacons within the past several years and many of whom we intend to ordain in the future.”