PCUSA committee seeks input
from members on the marriage debate
By Carmen Fowler, The Layman, July 8, 2009
Make your statement
As the GA’s special committee studies the issues of civil union and Christian marriage and prepares its recommendations for the 2010 General Assembly, the input of the whole church is being invited.
Now is the time to advise the committee as to your understanding of Biblical boundaries of marriage.
Submissions are limited to 1,000 words and must be received on or before Aug. 16, 2009.
Input is being received
via email at:
civilunion.marriage@pcusa.org
Or via regular mail at
Civil Union and Christian
Marriage Committee,
Office of the General Assembly
Room 4621
100 Witherspoon Street
Louisville, KY 40202-1396.
As you send your input to the committee, you are invited to send a copy to us at laymanletters@gmail.com so we might share your input with others.
Reader responses are pouring in. You can read them by clicking here.
When the 218th General Assembly (2008) of the Presbyterian Church (USA) called for its moderator to appoint a special committee to study issues of civil union and Christian marriage, it outlined the following mandate: to study “the history of the laws governing marriage and civil union, including current policy debates; how the theology and practice of marriage have developed in the Reformed and broader Christian tradition; the relationship between civil union and Christian marriage; the effects of current laws on same-gender partners and their children, and the place of covenanted same-gender partnerships in the Christian community.”
The committee is now asking for the counsel of the PCUSA as it approaches its work. Specifically, the committee is looking for input on the question of the place of covenanted same-gender partnerships in the Christian community.
Input to the special committee is limited to 1,000 words per submission and is being received electronically at civilunion.marriage@pcusa.org or by regular mail at Civil Union and Christian Marriage Committee, Office of the General Assembly, Room 4621, 100 Witherspoon Street, Louisville, KY 40202-1396.
Members of the committee include: Revs. Clayton F. Allard (Grace Presbytery), Emily J. Anderson (East Tennessee Presbytery), Margaret Aymer Oget (Greater Atlanta Presbytery), Steve Hancock (Arkansas Presbytery), Tracie Mayes Stewart (Salem Presbytery), James Szeyller (Charlotte Presbytery), chairman, and William Teng (National Capital Presbytery) and elders Luis Antonio De La Rosa (Pacific Presbytery), Katina Miner (San Francisco Presbytery), Stephen L. Salyards (San Gabriel Presbytery), Lisa Cooper Van Riper (Foothills Presbytery), Emily W. Miller (Shenandoah Presbytery) and Derrick Weston (Pittsburgh Presbytery).
The Presbytery of Mississippi has submitted a statement adopted by presbytery commissioners during the presbytery’s May 20 meeting:
“We believe that marriage is a gift God has given to all humankind for the well-being of the entire human family. In addition to marriage being a civil contract between a woman and a man, marriage for Christians is also a covenant through which a man and a woman are called to live out together before God their lives of discipleship. In a service of Christian marriage a lifelong commitment is made by a woman and a man to each other, publicly witnessed and acknowledged by the community of faith.”
“We believe that ‘same gender unions’ are clearly in opposition to Scripture and the constitution of the Presbyterian Church (USA).”
Amendment O
This is not the first time that the PCUSA have examined or debated the issues surrounding the sanctity of marriage as currently defined by the denomination’s constitution.
In 1999, the General Assembly Permanent Judicial Commission (GAPJC) ruled that PCUSA ministers of Word and sacrament could perform same-sex unions provided the ceremonies were not similar to weddings and were not called marriages.
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In response to presbytery overtures, the 2000 General Assembly approved an amendment to the Book of Order, that would have prohibited pastors from participating in any ceremonies that approved or blessed relationships that fail the constitutional test for marriage (between one man and one woman). It read:
“Scripture and our Confessions teach that God’s intention for all people is to live either in fidelity within the covenant of marriage between a man and a woman or in chastity in singleness. Church property shall not be used for, and church officers shall not take part in conducting, any ceremony or event that pronounces blessing or gives approval of the church or invokes the blessing of God upon any relationship that is inconsistent with God’s intention as expressed in the preceding sentence.”
The amendment, known as 00-O or Amendment O, was sent to the PCUSA’s presbyteries for ratification, but the amendment failed – not receiving a majority of the presbytery votes.
Before and after statements
Before the vote, 350+ Korean congregations in the PCUSA issued a plea reminding the church that: “Scripture defines the marriage God instituted in terms of heterosexual monogamy. Scripture envisages no other kind of marriage or sexual intercourse, for God provided no alternative. Any sexual behavior outside of this definition, whether heterosexual or homosexual, is displeasing to God. Thus, there is no doubt that modern loving homosexual partnerships are incompatible with God’s created order. It is not a matter of whether same-sex relationships are as loving and fulfilling as heterosexual relationships, but a matter of obedience to the revealed will of God no matter how painful it is to obey it.”
After the amendment failed, Presbyterian renewal leaders said that the issue of the sanctity of marriage between one man and one woman “is far from over. It will be before us again – notably at the General Assembly in June – in efforts to remove fidelity and chastity requirements from our denomination’s ordination standards. Until and unless God’s people take a definitive stand against them, these efforts will not cease until that union instituted by God and blessed by our Lord Jesus Christ has been stripped of all special honor and recognition.”
The renewal leaders declared that the requirement of obedience to moral law is non-negotiable and that those “who openly defy Biblical faith and ethics are pushing our denomination perilously toward schism.”