Santa Fe Presbytery joins moderator, clerk supporters
The Layman Online, February 18, 2003
Santa Fe has become the fifth presbytery – out of 173 in the Presbyterian Church (USA) – to issue a statement supporting Moderator Fahed Abu-Akel and Stated Clerk Clifton Kirkpatrick since they scrapped a petition calling for a special meeting of the 214th General Assembly.
All of the presbyteries affirming the moderator and clerk voted against the “fidelity/chastity” constitutional ordination standard that would have been reviewed by the special meeting in light of widespread defiance by sessions and presbyteries.
Where support for moderator
and stated clerk is coming fromPresbyteries and organiz-ations supporting moderator, stated clerk Support for ordination standardVote on Amendment 01-A to repeal ordination standardDetroit *No102-112Hudson River (N.J.)No103-28Newton (N.J.)No82-34PalisadesNo59-33Santa Fe (N.M.)No108-42Covenant NetworkNoN/AThat All May Freely ServeNoN/AMore Light ChurchesNoN/AWitherspoon SocietyNoN/APresbyterians For RenewalYesN/ASynod of the Living WatersN/AN/A*The Presbytery of Detroit voted 153-103 against the ordination standard when it was approved and included in the Constitution of the PCUSA in 1998. But the Presbytery voted against repeal of the standard in 2001.
“We affirm the faith, integrity, wisdom and grace of these two leaders during turbulent times in the Presbyterian Church (USA),” Santa Fe’s statement said. “We are confident that they have faithfully, prayerfully and carefully carried out the requirements of the Constitution of the Presbyterian Church (USA) in accordance with their respective leadership offices and have encouraged their colleagues in the Office of the General Assembly to do the same.”
Two Santa Fe commissioners to the 214th General Assembly, the Rev. Barbara Dua and elder Joe Sayre, wrote the statement and sent a copy to Presbyweb, which posted the statement on its Web site.
Dua is a former associate director for the Women’s Ministry Program area of the PCUSA. While she was a member of the denomination’s staff, she had oversight for the National Network of Presbyterian College Women, a PCUSA-sponsored organization that came under fire for promoting lesbianism, goddess worship and using its Web site as an off-ramp to pornography.
Following a recommendation by a task force that investigated the Network, the General Assembly ordered that the Network’s materials, which were developed under Dua’s guidance, be taken out of circulation. It also ordered that the network be restructured with more theological oversight.
Dua was the staff leader for the Women’s Program Area when it selected lesbian activist Jane Spahr for its Women of Faith Award.
Shortly after the task force’s investigation of the National Network of Presbyterian College Women, Dua left the PCUSA to take a job with the New Mexico Conference of Churches in Santa Fe.
Sayre, who is a member of the Council of the Santa Fe Presbytery, also introduced a resolution “rejoicing” over a recent overture from the Presbytery of Des Moines to repeal the ordination standard and the 1978 General Assembly’s Definitive Guidance that declared that homosexual activity is sinful.