Presbytery wants unfriendly language removed from AI
The Layman Online, January 17, 2006
The Presbytery of Cincinnati, taking a different tack from allied presbyteries that want the 217th General Assembly to repeal the “fidelity/chastity” ordination standard and the Authoritative Interpretation that undergirds it, has approved an overture that focuses on unfriendly language about homosexuality.
Profiles of 18 presbyteries opposing ordination standard and/or Authoritative Interpretation.The presbytery voted by a narrow margin – 79 to 74 – to ask the commissioners to remove some of the phraseology of the current General Assembly Authoritative Interpretation, which dates back to 1978.
The overture says, for instance, that the “hurtful and harmful language” includes this sentence: “On the basis of our understanding that the practice of homosexuality is sin, we are concerned that homosexual believers and the observing world should not be left in doubt about the church’s mind on this matter during any further study.”
The overture was submitted to the presbytery by the session of Mount Auburn Presbyterian Church in Cincinnati. The session and its former pastor – Stephen Van Kuiken – had long been in the forefront of defying constitutional prohibitions against ordaining practicing homosexuals as elders and deacons and conducting “marriages” for same-gender couples.
After a series of church court cases and a public reprimand – which Van Kuiken underwent with a response that he would continue to defy the constitution – the Presbytery of Cincinnati concluded that he had renounced the jurisdiction of the Presbyterian Church (USA) and stripped him of his ordination.
The approval of the overture seemed to indicate that the presbytery has changed its mindset – or its political makeup – from 2001, when Cincinnati presbytery commissioners voted 58 percent to 42 percent against repealing the constitutional ordination standard and the Authoritative Interpretation during the last churchwide referendum on the issue.
In its rationale, the Cincinnati overture says: “We ask the General Assembly to yield to the Spirit of God and delete from the Policy Statement of 1978 those statements of longstanding insult to our gay and lesbian members. No less than our brothers and sisters and children who are heterosexual, they are part of God’s good creation.”
Cincinnati became the 18th presbytery to submit an overture calling for a change in the denomination’s position on ordaining practicing homosexuals. The other 17 overtures call for outright repeal of G-6.0106b and the Authoritative Interpretation.
From 1997 through 2004, the 18 presbyteries have lost 35,067 members – 12.2 percent of their membership – according to the annual Comparative Statistics published by the denomination. During that same period, the PCUSA, one of the fastest declining denominations in the nation, has lost 9.5 percent of its members.
The full text of the Cincinnati overture was posted on the presbytery’s Web site but could not be downloaded today.