Gay elder judged eligible for installation
By Robert P. Mills, The Layman Online, November 9, 2000
In a split decision, an openly gay elder has been judged eligible for installation by the Permanent Judicial Commission of the Synod of the Northeast. However, a stay of enforcement has already been granted, allowing for an appeal of the November 6 decision.
A brief history
In 1997 the session of the First Presbyterian Church of Stamford, Conn., in the decision’s words, “declared a ‘scruple’ taking exception to Book of Order Section G-6.0106b,” which mandates that ordained officers are to live in fidelity in marriage or chastity in singleness.
Following the session’s decision to ignore the denomination’s constitution, Wayne Osborne, who according to the synod court decision “publicly declared his homosexual orientation at a regular meeting of the Presbytery of Southern New England,” was elected to the session of Stamford First and slated for installation in May 1998.
The election resulted in judicial action against the Stamford session, and in October, 1999 the synod court ordered the Presbytery of Southern New England “to re-open and complete Osborne’s examination.” In January 2000, the session re-examined Osborne and again found him eligible for installation, a decision upheld by the presbytery court, and now upheld again at the synod level.
Specifications of error
The synod decision rejected two specifications of error lodged by complainants Mairi Hair and James McCallum.
First, by a 7-3 vote, it rejected the assertion that “the examination of Mr. Osborne was irregular because he is ineligible for active service on session under G-6.0108b and G-6.0106b.”
Second, by a 6-4 vote, it rejected the claim that the examination “is still incomplete and inconclusive,” upholding the finding of the presbytery court that “the session’s examination was sufficient, procedurally and substantively.”
Next steps
The stay of enforcement allows for the complainants to appeal the synod’s decision to the General Assembly Permanent Judicial Commission. In a July 7 ruling regarding Christ Church in Burlington, Vt., the GA PJC said “there are no constitutional grounds for a governing body to fail to comply with an express provision of the constitution.” Christ Church had said it would not obey G-6.0106b.