Presbytery leader-pastor calls for defying constitution
By John H. Adams, The Layman Online, March 21, 2002
In his other role as co-pastor of one of the congregations in the Presbytery of Yellowstone, the presbytery’s executive has signed a resolution saying the church will not abide by the Constitution of the Presbyterian Church (USA).
The resolution, adopted by First Presbyterian Church in Anaconda, Mont., and signed by its elders and presbytery executive Paul Peterson, takes exception to the “fidelity/chastity” ordination standard in the Book of Order.
The Anaconda congregation joins a small but growing number of local churches that have issued public statements of constitutional defiance in the wake of the overwhelming defeat of Amendment 01-A, which would have repealed the ordination standard.
The Anaconda statement is unique in that it is advocated by a person who serves as the church’s pastor and the presbytery’s staff leader and, therefore, would be in a position to work against those who might seek to enforce the constitution.
Clifton Kirkpatrick, the stated clerk of the PCUSA, while expressing sympathy with those who oppose the ordination standard, has told presbytery and other middle-governing body leaders that the standard is the “law of the church” and they had a duty to enforce it.
The Anaconda resolution called the ordination standard – G-6.0106b in the Book of Order – “the confessional stance of a particular group of people” and the “imposition of one interpretation through the exercise of power.”
The resolution argues that the ordination standard would be legitimate only if it had been approved for inclusion in The Book of Confessions. Amending The Book of Confessions requires a sequence of super-majority votes (at least two-thirds) by the General Assembly, the presbyteries and final action by the General Assembly.
The requirements for amending the Book of Order are simple-majority votes by the General Assembly calling for a referendum and by the presbyteries in a national referendum. In the current referendum on Amendment 01-A, in which 171 of 173 presbyteries have voted, more than 73 percent of the presbyteries have affirmed the constitutional standard.
“Categorically denying a group of people [practicing homosexuals and adulterers] the right to hold office because they do not meet the subjective theological interpretation of a narrow majority of the presbyteries creates a two-tier system of membership contrary to the historic principles of our denomination,” the Anaconda resolution says.
The resolution said the Anaconda congregation “cannot in good conscience” comply with G-6.0106b, “which contains certain restrictions on the rights of governing bodies to discern the will of Christ in choosing leaders.”