New Yorkers go to mat for church control
By Parker T. Williamson, The Layman Online, January 25, 2000
NEW YORK – “We have here tonight some of the star wrestlers in the Presbyterian Church (USA),” declared Douglas Nave, co-chair of Presbyterians Welcome, an organization that is fighting to overturn the denomination’s ordination standards.
Not far from Madison Square Garden – where two hair-grabbing hulks were hurling one another to the mat – some 125 combatants gathered on the campus of New York’s Union Seminary to celebrate their heroes. “These are real stories of real people,” said Nave. “Tonight you will hear from panel members who wrestle not only for themselves but on behalf of us all. They are calling our denomination back to fidelity and integrity.”
Fidelity and integrity
Fidelity and integrity became Presbyterian buzz words in 1991 when a General Assembly committee proposed a revised moral code. The committee sought the church’s blessing on adultery and homosexual behavior when these relationships reflect mutual consent. Marital restrictions were described as “legalistic and rigid.” Fidelity and integrity, suggested the committee, have more to do with the quality of a relationship than its form.
The 1991 General Assembly overwhelmingly rejected the recommendations of its Special Committee on Human Sexuality (534-31), but fringe organizations like Presbyterians Welcome and the Covenant Network have continued to promote its themes. Covenant Network leaders, for example, used “fidelity and integrity” language in their 1997 bid to overturn the denomination’s ordination standards, a move that was defeated by the church in an almost 2 to 1 vote.
Struggling for Control
“We’re here to oppose narrow and legalistic Calvinism with warmhearted theology,” declared Barbara Wheeler, president of Auburn Seminary, and an executive board member of the Covenant Network. Wheeler said such battles had occurred in the Presbyterian past [1921-1924] and that “progressives,” her label for Union and Auburn seminary constituencies, won those battles. “The progressive position became the Presbyterian standard, and it will happen again” declared Wheeler to enthusiastic applause. Wheeler then pointed to members of the evening’s panel and described them as “Herculean.” Again the crowd cheered.
Wrestlers on stage
On Union Seminary’s stage that night were Michael Brown, Wayne Osborne, Cass Shaw, Wendy Eickenberg and Graham Van Keuren, all of whom are engaged in legal battles provoked by their refusal to uphold Presbyterian standards of sexual behavior. But although they were unanimous in their endorsement of same-sex coupling, panel members said their struggle with the church was not really about sex.
The issue is prejudice
Osborne, a homosexual elder in Stamford, CT who said he came to terms with his sexuality while a student at Princeton Seminary, declared that the real issue was “prejudice, discrimination and injustice.” “These are my targets,” said Osborne, “and God has called me to wrestle [with them] until we have won our victory.”
Osborne’s installation as an elder has been delayed by a synod court’s decision that his session failed to examine him sufficiently on the nature of his relationship with his live-in mate.
The issue is conscience and logic
Brown, a pastor who with his session in Burlington, VT declared he would defy portions of the Presbyterian Church (USA) constitution with which he does not agree, said the issue is “conscience and logic.” Brown said conscience requires his church to fully accept all persons for positions of leadership, regardless of their sexual behavior. Obedience to the constitution is impossible, he said, because when ordination standards were added, what was once an inclusive document became a self-contradiction.
Brown’s presbytery, Northern New England, has been declared out of order by a synod permanent judicial commission because it did not require Brown and his elders to obey the constitution. The presbytery has appealed that decision.
The issue is personal distress
Eickenberg, vice moderator of Brown’s presbytery, said the issue for her is “personal distress.” “We have sued ourselves,” she said, referring to the fact that some churches in her presbytery filed charges against the presbytery for allowing Brown’s church to selectively defy the constitution. Eickenberg said she felt the pain of both sides, although as a member of Brown’s congregation, she was clearly in its camp.
The issue is process
Shaw is on the defense team for Hudson River Presbytery, defending her presbytery’s decision that permits ministers to perform same-sex “holy unions” as long as they don’t call them marriages. She said she believes the fight is about “process.” What once was a pastoral concern about ministers and their people has become a matter of judicial process, she said. “I find the process extremely manipulative, professional, and legalistic,” she said.
A synod court upheld Hudson River Presbytery’s decision, but this case has been appealed to the denomination’s highest court.
The issue is vocation
Van Keuren, a homosexual who is attending Princeton Seminary, said the battle is over “vocation.” “The issue is not about equal rights for gays,” said Van Keuren. “It is about my vocation, my belief that I am called by God to a professional ministry in this church and to a same-sex partnership.”
Van Keuren complained that when his candidacy for the ministry was judicially challenged, the process abandoned any discussion of vocation and focussed only on sex. “They wanted to know when, how and with whom,” he said. “That’s why I feel frustrated, because I believe in vocation.”
One of the distinctive elements of Reformed theology – the theology to which the Presbyterian Church (USA) subscribes – is its doctrine of vocation. Reformed theology declares that although a person may feel that he or she has been called by God to a particular task, that call is not confirmed until, upon examination, the church concurs that it is truly a divine call. This doctrine constitutes a major difference between churches of the Reformed Tradition and those that allow self-ordinations based only on an individual’s personal opinion.
The issue is obedience
Not all who came to this New York event gave the panel a standing ovation. Seated during the applause were William and Shirley Prey, members of the Presbyterian Church of Old Greenwich, CT. They all avoided the real issue, said the Preys. The real issue has nothing to do with prejudice, entitlement, personal pain or someone’s novel doctrine of vocation, they said. The real issue is, quite simply, whether we are willing to obey God’s word, as God presented it, not as we might bend it to suit our purposes.