Presbytery resolution would permit churches to leave PCUSA with their property
By John H. Adams, The Layman Online, May 14, 1999
The Beaver-Butler Presbytery in Pennsylvania will vote on a resolution Tuesday (May 17) inviting the General Assembly to begin steps toward permitting governing bodies that refuse to abide by the Constitution of the Presbyterian Church (USA) to leave the denomination.
The resolution also asks the presbytery to withhold its per-capita assessment from the General Assembly for the next year and, after that year, “we intend to re-examine the state of the church in order to determine our future actions. We encourage our congregations to continue to support Presbyterian mission causes.”
The resolution was triggered by growing opposition in the presbytery to the selection of Jane Spahr, who calls herself a lesbian evangelist, as one of three recipients of the PCUSA’s Women of Faith award.
Special meeting
The two-county presbytery north of Pittsburgh will hold a called meeting at 7:30 p.m. in Mars United Presbyterian Church. Mars’ pastor, the Rev. Robert McCrumb, is a former moderator of the presbytery and one of five ministers who signed the resolution. Another former presbytery moderator, John Towns, a CPA, is one of two elders who signed the document.
Both McCrumb and the Rev. Dan Reuter of Prospect Presbyterian Church predicted that it will be approved by the presbytery. McCrumb, Reuter and the Rev. Mary Sickles were leaders in an earlier Beaver-Butler Presbytery overture, approved 2-1 on voice vote, that asks the General Assembly to cease funding and sponsoring the National Network of Presbyterian College Women.
The resolution to be considered Tuesday comes too late to be an overture to the 211th General Assembly, which will meet June 19-26 in Ft. Worth. The deadline for overtures was May 5.
But Reuter and McCrumb said the proposed resolution could be considered by the General Assembly as a commissioner’s resolution. There is no pre-Assembly deadline for commissioners’ resolutions, but they can be derailed through parliamentary maneuvers.
Not ‘responsive to constitution’
The resolution criticizes the Executive Committee of the General Assembly Council for not being “responsive to the Constitution of the Presbyterian Church (USA) when it reversed the decision of the National Ministries Divison Steering Committee and ratified the Women of Faith Award to the Rev. Jane Spahr.”
The resolution also cited “a continuing reluctance to recognize, accept, and/or enforce the Book of Order, G-6.0106b,” the constitutional clause that requires candidates for ordination as ministers, elders and deacons to refrain from sexual relations outside marriage.
In calling for the General Assembly Council and the General Assembly to “establish the accountability of national church bodies to the constitution,” the resolution “invites” the General Assembly to appoint a group to “explore the possibility of permitting governing bodies which cannot comply with the constitution … to leave the denomination peaceably with an equitable adjustment of funds and assets.”
Ensuring constitutional government
The resolution also calls for an ongoing effort to ensure constitutional government through “appropriate strategies to the presbytery and corresponding with other governing bodies to solicit their views and enlist their support.”
Reuter said the presbytery’s approval of the resolution is not essential, but that presbytery endorsement would add clout to its submission as a commissioners’ resolution.
Other signatories
In addition to McCrumb, Reuter, Sickles and Towns, the other signatories to the resolution are the Rev. Dennis Molnar of Trinity Presbyterian Church, the Rev. Chris Marshall of Glade Run Presbyterian Church and elder Thomas McMeekin.