Detroit Presbytery votes against rescinding overture
By John H. Adams, The Layman Online, April 28, 2004
The Presbytery of Detroit has reaffirmed its commitment to seek to rescind the General Assembly’s authoritative interpretation that declares homosexual behavior sinful.
By voice vote – which the presbytery’s moderator declared to be a two-thirds majority – the presbytery rejected a motion that it withdraw Overture 04-27 to the 216th General Assembly.
The overture is one of a number of proposals submitted by an alliance of the Detroit and nine other presbyteries that seeks to convince the General Assembly that the denomination’s constitution and historic opposition to the ordination of practicing homosexuals should end.
The motion at Tuesday night’s meeting of the Detroit Presbytery contended that Overture 04-27 was harmful to the peace, unity and purity of the denomination when considered in the light of three national referendums on the ordination issue. In the most recent referendum, 2001, presbyteries voted nearly 75 percent against removing the “fidelity/chastity” ordination clause from the Book of Order.
On Monday, the session of Beverly Heights Presbyterian Church in Pennsylvania issued a statement saying that it would sever communion with Detroit and the nine other presbyteries seeking to change church law.
That information was conveyed to the Detroit Presbytery before it voted on the motion to withdraw its overture.
Doug Hepner, a member of First Presbyterian Church of Royal Oak, was one of a handful of lay people who were behind the effort to get the presbytery to rescind its overture.
But Hepner, who spoke briefly at the presbytery meeting before he was ruled out of order – he was not a commissioner – told The Layman Online that he was disappointed, but not surprised, by the outcome.
He noted that the presbytery had accommodated a number of gay activist groups by allowing them to place literature on a presbytery table, including:
- “Welcoming Churches,” including 18 congregations in the presbytery, which invite “gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender individuals” to become “partners in Christ’s work of reconciliation.”
- “That All May Freely Serve” in Michigan, an organization that recently heralded the homosexual “marriages” of some of its members. (That All May Freely Serve distributed a brochure promoting a movie titled Daddy & Pappa about homosexual couples and their adopted children.)
- A brochure on “Marriage Rites & Rights” sponsored by the presbytery’s Justice and Peacemaking Team.
The peacemaking team’s brochure promoted an upcoming presbytery event on marriage – including same-sex marriage. One of the major speakers for the event will be the Rev. Gloria Albrecht, a sociologist who served as the consultant to the Advisory Committee on Social Witness Policy that submitted a paper on “Families in Transition” to the 215th General Assembly.
The 215th General Assembly rejected the families paper as written and ordered that it be redone to include the denomination’s historic theological view of marriage and families. Albrecht objected strongly to that decision and criticized it during the redrafting process. She favored a paper that stressed a view of family that placed gay couples, unwed mothers and cohabitating couples on par with traditional families.
During the presbytery meeting, Hepner said, “Our elder, Jack Ruppert, got up and moved that Overture 04-27 be rescinded. He was told that since we did not have a previous notice, it would need a two-thirds vote.”
“I went to the microphone and asked to be recognized,” Hepner added. “As I was speaking, our interim pastor, John Bush, said, “‘Point of Order. The man at the microphone is not a commisioner.’ At this point the moderator un-recognized me and told me that I was not allowed to speak.”
While the moderator ruled that more than two-thirds of the commissioners voted against the motion for recission, Hepner said the effort has not died. The presbytery will take another vote at its June meeting, shortly before the 216th General Assembly meets in Richmond, Va., June 27-July 4.
A simple majority – anything over 50 percent – will determine the final outcome.