Presbytery criticizes
2006-08 assemblies,
‘might’ leave PCUSA
The Layman, October 30, 2008
The Presbytery of Central Washington has approved a resolution declaring that the General Assemblies of 2006 and 2008 “have brought our PCUSA denomination to a point of crisis. Actions of these assemblies have broken the connection and covenant that has existed in our church since the first meetings of our General Assembly.”
In response to the resolution, the presbytery voted to establish a task force on sexuality that will have a number of duties, including investigating “what constitutional process we might use as a presbytery to move in a united way into a different denomination.”
The task force will also:
- “Investigate how we can use prayer, discernment, and worship in the process of seeking God’s will in these matters.”
- “Monitor changes to the current polity issues; specifically, actions of judicial commissions that may change the current status of ordination law.”
- “Contact individual congregations via their sessions to open dialogue about these issues.”
The resolution says the two assemblies have claimed “that our unity is found in Christ or in mission” but removed every common element of belief or personal standard. Consequently, there’s a “false unity, as if what we believe and what we do has no bearing on our life together.”
The resolution continues:
“While we respect our General Assembly, we affirm with our Book of Confessions:
As we do not rashly condemn what good men, assembled together in general councils lawfully gathered, have set before us; so we do not receive uncritically whatever has been declared to men under the name of the general councils, for it is plain that, being human, some of them have manifestly erred, and that in matters of great weight and importance. So far then as the council confirms its decrees by the plain Word of God, so far do we reverence and embrace them.
But if men, under the name of a council, pretend to forge for us new articles of faith, or to make decisions contrary to the Word of God, then we must utterly deny them as the doctrine of devils, drawing our souls from the voice of the one God to follow the doctrines and teachings of men. The reason why the general councils met was not to make any permanent law which God had not made before, nor yet to form new articles for our belief…” (BoC 3.20)
“Thus, following our Constitution and Confessions, we make the following affirmations:
1. That first and foremost, the church is captive to the Word of God and that God’s Word is not subject to the whims of any council that drifts upon the winds of modern cultural norms. We are compelled to follow truth as it is revealed to us in Scripture and to see that truth is embraced by our congregations and our ordained leadership.
“That truth is in order to goodness; and the great touchstone of truth, its tendency to promote holiness, according to our Savior’s rule, “By their fruits ye shall know them.” And that no opinion can be either more pernicious or more absurd than that which brings truth and falsehood upon a level, and represents it as of no consequence what a man’s opinions are. On the contrary, we are persuaded that there is an inseparable connection between faith and practice, truth and duty. Otherwise, it would be of no consequence either to discover truth or to embrace it.” (G1.0304)
2. That we reject any action that allows any part of the church to modify or ignore any mandatory provisions of the Book of Order without the advice and consent of the presbyteries. Thus, we declare that actions taken to make mandatory ordination standards optional will have no force or effect in Central Washington Presbytery.
3. For thirty years our denomination has been well guided by the definitive guidance/authoritative interpretation on human sexuality given in 1978. We believe that this report continues to accurately and graciously reflect the truth of Scripture on matters of homosexuality. We proclaim this guidance continues to hold authority in Central Washington Presbytery in all standards of belief and practice at the congregational and Presbytery level.
4. We reject as false the idea that there can be unity in our church without unified standards for faith and behavior in those who serve the church as ministers, elders, and deacons. There can be no universal ordination for the whole church when there are no shared ordination standards. No General Assembly Authoritative Interpretation can change any ordination standard found in The Book of Confessions or the Book of Order. Thus, we reject any ordinations done by any body that does so in violation of the Constitution, including G-6.0106b, and proclaim that such ordinations will have no force or effect in Central Washington Presbytery.
5. We regret that some Presbyteries have chosen to ignore the clear message of Scripture and our confessions on matters of human sexuality and have adopted ordination standards that neither conform to the historic Christian faith nor the standards of our church constitution. Central Washington Presbytery will survey the actions of these Presbyteries, through the Committee on Ministry, and shall direct that all ordained members of any Presbyteries determined by the COM to be in violation of our ordination standards shall not be allowed to labor within our bounds, nor submit a Personal Information Form directly to any Pastor Nominating Committee without prior approval of the COM.
6. Finally, we believe that we have come to a tipping point as a denomination. We affirm the words of Wolfhart Pannenberg:“Those who urge the church to change the norm of its teaching on this matter must know that they are promoting schism. If a church were to let itself be pushed to the point where it ceased to treat homosexual activity as a departure from the biblical norm, and recognized homosexual unions as a personal partnership of love equivalent to marriage, such a church would stand no longer on biblical ground but against the unequivocal witness of Scripture. A church that took this step would cease to be the one, holy, catholic, and apostolic church.” (Church Times, June 21, 1996)
“We believe that the PCUSA has come to the brink of becoming the church that Pannenberg warns us about. If the piece by piece dismantling of our historic and orthodox Christian faith and ordination standards continues and future assemblies fail to take actions that reverse the damaging actions of the 217th and 218th General Assemblies’, we will consider that the General Assembly of the PCUSA has broken the bonds that hold us together and will look at every and all options to address this, including options whereby our Presbytery may functionally withdraw from the PCUSA.”