Gay ordination gains
votes, overture proposed
By Edward Terry, The Layman, April 29, 2009
Two more have joined the growing group of presbyteries that switched sides in the battle over maintaining the “fidelity/chastity” standard in The Book of Order, and one congregation has taken action to start the process all over again.
According to preliminary results, Detroit and Lehigh presbyteries both voted Tuesday in favor of Amendment 08-b. In 2001, both had supported maintaining the standard. Detroit voted 141-92 in favor of the amendment (2001 vote: 102-111) and Lehigh was 60-46 (2001 vote: 50-62).
The vote against Amendment 08-b now stands at 89-71, two more than the simple majority (87) required to defeat it. The advocates of removing the “fidelity/chastity” requirements say they have been bolstered by the closeness in the referendum. The vote difference is the narrowest of the four referendums on the issue.
Wasting no time after the defeat became official, Northside Presbyterian Church in Ann Arbor, Mich., proposed an overture to amend the denomination’s constitution that would allow “anyone in the denomination whom God has called, regardless of sexual orientation,” according to a joint news release from the church and More Light Presbyterians – a PCUSA gay rights group. In contrast, G-6.0106b requires those called to office in the church to live in fidelity within the covenant of marriage between a man or woman or chastity in singleness.
“We are seeing something today akin to what happened in our denomination in the 1950s with the ordination of women,” said Brian Spolarich, elder and clerk of the session of the Northside Presbyterian Church. “It took over a decade of organizing, and multiple votes for our denomination to get it right, but in the end we recognized the Holy Spirit leading us to draw the circle of leadership more broadly, not more narrowly. I have faith that we will eventually get this one right, too.”
The new proposed overture will go to the Presbytery of Detroit for action. If approved, it will be sent to the 219th General Assembly of the PCUSA for action at its Minneapolis, Minn., meeting in 2010. Then, if approved by the General Assembly, the amendment would require approval from a majority of the 173 presbyteries in order to be ratified.
Including Detroit and Lehigh, 30 presbyteries changed their votes in this referendum. Twelve more presbyteries are scheduled to vote on the issue before the May 18 deadline.