Behind gentle phrases, an ‘amicable split’ sought
By John H. Adams, The Layman Online, May 14, 1999
The language of the proposed Beaver-Butler Presbytery resolution is intentionally moderate: “inviting” the General Assembly to appoint a group “to explore the possibility” of “permitting governing bodies… .”
But behind that language there is a growing conviction that the time has come to tell governing bodies and individuals in the Presbyterian Church that they should leave the PCUSA if they cannot abide by the denomination’s ordinance standards.
As John Towns, a retired business executive and Beaver-Butler Presbytery leader, says, “We are spending so much time on this that we’re not getting on with the great commission of the church.”
Another elder, Tom McMeekin, said, “It is time that we began a discussion about those who cannot agree on separating from the Presbyterian Church. I hope it would be an amicable split.”
Issues spawn resolution
McMeekin, a mechanical engineer who owns a garden store, is a member of Mars United Presbyterian Church, where the presbytery will meet Tuesday night. He said he read and copied Layman Online accounts of a presbytery’s permanent judicial commission allowing the installation of an openly gay elder to stand and the Women of Faith award for lesbian evangelist Jane Spahr. He took those to his pastor, Robert McCrumb, and they agreed to seek presbytery approval for a resolution.
McMeekin was a commissioner to the 1998 General Assembly. He said he was heartened by most of the decisions made by 1998 commissioners, but disappointed that a “small vocal group is trying” to defy the constitution and gain control of the denomination.
For McMeekin, the issue boils down to definitions of righteousness. He said he believes that the gay community thinks righteousness means adhering to present-day cultural norms. “My definition of righteousness is that you have to live according to the Scriptures.”
Favors connectionalism
Towns, a former Beaver-Butler Presbytery moderator, has long been a champion of Presbyterian connectionalism. A few years ago, when several sessions considered withholding funds from the denomination, Towns visited them individually and encouraged them not to withhold their gifts.
He still thinks that way, even though he is a party to a resolution that, in its gentle phrases, suggests that congregations that defy the Constitution would be better off in denominations that believe it is acceptable to ordain practicing homosexuals.
“I agree with the resolution, or I would not have signed it,” Towns said. Furthermore, it was Towns who asked Bill Jamison, a retired minister and moderator of the Beaver-Butler Presbytery, to call a special meeting of the presbytery to consider the resolution.
“My purpose for calling the meeting was to get the issue before the presbytery. We need to discuss this. We need to settle this issue,” Towns said.
Prayer meetings scheduled
Towns pointed out that the presbytery approaches its meeting on Tuesday soberly – and spiritually.
“The moderator has called for four district meetings at churches Sunday at 3 p.m.,” he said. “We’re asking ministers and lay commissioners to attend for Scripture reading, prayer and meditation – and not to discuss the issue. That will take place Tuesday night.”
McCrumb described the resolution as “very much middle of the road.” He says he believes that the resolution will be supported by an overwhelming majority of elders and, possibly, a majority of pastors.
“We asked the question, Are we trying to do the work of the Lord or supplying lawyers’ funds for the next few years?”
– Robert McCrumb McCrumb said the language of the resolution was intentionally moderate so that a principled split might occur, with governing bodies that favor ordaining homosexuals allowed to leave the PCUSA peaceably with their funds and assets.
When writing the resolution, McCrumb said, “We asked the question, Are we trying to do the work of the Lord or supplying lawyers’ funds for the next few years?”