Tropical Florida asks commissioners to reject PUP task force’s final report
The Layman Online, February 17, 2006
The Presbytery of Tropical Florida is asking the 217th General Assembly to reject the report of the Theological Task Force on Peace, Unity and Purity or, at the least, to delete the report’s Recommendation No. 5.
The presbytery’s overture, proposed by three congregations and approved during its Feb. 11 meeting, states that the task force’s report “as written, constitutes a blend of truth and error that, if adopted, will undermine the PCUSA’s peace, unity and purity, furthering the denomination’s disunity and, thereby, promoting deeper schism.”
The overture is a response to the report’s Recommendation No. 5, which says ordaining bodies should follow “historical” Presbyterian principles and decide on their own whether the “fidelity/chastity” clause in the Book of Order is an essential requirement.
The complete text of the overture is as follows:
Response to the Recommendations of the Theological Task Force on Peace, Unity and Purity of the Church
Whereas, the General Assembly’s Theological Task Force on Peace, Unity and Purity of the Church hasissued a report to the denomination which is to be presented to the 217 th General Assembly in Birmingham, Alabama on June 15-22, 2006, and,
Whereas, we appreciate that Task Force members worked diligently to create an instrument whose purpose is to help the church discern how to live in peace unity, and purity, with Recommendations 1-4 providing a sound basis to that end, but,
Whereas, Recommendation 5 will not promote the peace and unity of the church because it promotes radical change, though claiming to make no change, through a de facto local option which will lead to a congregational and not connectional form of government, and,
Whereas, Recommendation 5 blurs the explicit authority of the Book of Order by giving ordaining bodies the right to determine what is “essential” in the faith, allowing them to disregard explicit constitutional standards, including but not limited to the well-debated fidelity/chastity requirement of G-6.0106b, effectively making these and other standards” optional, and,
Whereas, Recommendation 5 subverts the Church’s constitutional position on God’s will in matters of sexual morality for its officers which have been repeatedly reaffirmed by the PCUSA, guided by careful Biblical exegesis, centuries of Church tradition, and authoritative interpretations for the past quarter century, and,
Whereas, higher governing bodies reviewing the work of lower ordaining/governing bodies are encouraged in this report to “honor” the work of those who disagree with the Book of Order with a “presumption of wisdom” by them rather than being directed to respect the Presbyterian way of delineating and maintaining appropriate boundaries for our connectional community by honoring the constitution or changing it through constitutionally-mandated processes, and,
Whereas, the proposed authoritative interpretation will give ordaining bodies and courts latitude to reinterpret the Book of Order provisions which have an unambiguous “shall” into a permissible “may” or “might” in matters they deem non-essential to faith (though the Book of Order may deem those issues essential), even though the Book of Order carefully distinguishes between these distinctions, and,
Whereas, many faithful and conscientious Presbyterian leaders and organizations are voicing disappointment and opposition to the Task Force’s Report, and,
Whereas, we believe that the adoption of the Task Force’s report, as printed, will further strain the peace, purity and unity of our denomination, not to mention our relationships with the worldwide church where many brothers and sisters find our moral confusion troubling and unscriptural,
Therefore, be it resolved that the Presbytery of Tropical Florida:
- 1. takes the position that the report of the Theological Task Force on Peace, Unity and Purity of the Church, as written, constitutes a blend of truth and error that, if adopted, will undermine the PCUSA’s peace, unity and purity, furthering the denomination’s disunity and, thereby, promoting deeper schism;
- 2. overtures the 217th General Assembly of the PCUSA to either reject the report as a whole or delete Recommendation 5.