Synod to receive report on Baltimore Presbytery’s accepting gay minister
By John H. Adams, The Layman Online, October 14, 2005
A synod administrative commission will soon issue its report on whether the Presbytery of Baltimore complied with the “lawful injunctions of a higher body” when it accepted Don Stroud, a homosexual activist, as a ministerial member of the presbytery and later threw out a disciplinary complaint contending that Stroud should be defrocked.
Stroud had told the presbytery that he would not comply with the constitutional “fidelity/chastity” requirement in the Book of Order “because to do so, for me, can come only at the price of denying my faith in God’s grace in Jesus Christ. My conscience will not allow me to do such a thing.”
The report will be presented at the stated meeting of the Synod of the Mid-Atlantic in Wilmington, Del., on Oct. 25-28.
The Rev. Lawrence Chapin of Abingdon, Va., the chairman of the synod’s administrative commission, told The Layman Online that he and the committee decided at the outset not to make the review of the presbytery a public issue. He said he would not comment on the report’s conclusions until after it is presented to the synod.
The only public inkling on the possible direction of the report is in a letter Chapin wrote to Peter Nord, Baltimore’s executive presbyter, on June 9. In that letter, without stating any details, Chapin reveals that the commission’s consensus includes a number of “particular concerns.”
However, he added, “We have also focused on the possibility that, in the brief time left to us, there might be an opportunity for us, together with you, to find solutions to these concerns, so that the report we make to Synod might be something other than, and much more than, a log of things that still need to be fixed, and healing that needs to be begin.”
Chapin asked the presbytery to establish its own “Special Commission” and agree to a joint meeting of the presbytery group and the synod commission “to explore and settle upon ways of addressing our concerns.”
He also said, “This special Presbytery Commission would represent all the differing views regarding the validation of Rev. Stroud’s ministry, and would be empowered to speak for the Presbytery of Baltimore in this matter.”
The overwhelming majority of the presbytery’s members and lay commissioners have supported Stroud and voted in favor of numerous overtures seeking to repeal the denomination’s constitutional ordination standards.
The presbytery appointed its special commission and the meeting of the synod and presbytery groups was held in August. Chapin would not comment on how that meeting went.
The administrative commission, which the synod established by a 19-14 vote on March 27, 2004, is the second commission to review Baltimore’s vote to accept Stroud, who is employed by That All May Freely Service, an activist group that works for the repeal of the ordination standard and the sanctioning of same-gender “marriages.”
Several leaders in the presbytery, including Stated Clerk Charles Forbes, have financially supported That All May Freely Service. The presbytery also shares office space with That All May Freely Serve.
The first commission issued a report saying that the Presbytery of Baltimore had met all procedural requirements in approving Stroud’s membership. That report was approved at a stated meeting. But some members of the synod council called for reconsideration.
At its called meeting on March 27, the synod concluded that its first administrative commission had failed to determine whether the presbytery had complied with constitutional requirements to determine whether Baltimore had complied with the “lawful injunctions” of the PCUSA.
The first administrative commission arose after a disciplinary complaint was filed against Stroud, alleging that he persisted in violating the denomination’s ordination law and, therefore, had renounced the jurisdiction of the church. A presbytery investigating committee threw out the complaint.