Overture wants two-thirds vote on constitutional issues
The Layman Online, January 16, 2002
An overture to the 2002 General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (USA) calls for a constitutional change that would make it more difficult for commissioners to continue asking presbyteries to repeal the “fidelity/chastity” ordination standard in the Book of Order.
The overture from the Mission Presbytery would require “super majority” approval of two-thirds of future general assemblies (after 2002) before they could submit proposed constitutional changes to the presbyteries.
The constitution is comprised of the Book of Order and The Book of Confessions. Currently, proposed amendments to the Book of Order must be approved by a simple majority of more than half the General Assembly commissioners. Amendments to The Book of Confessions already require support of at least two-thirds of the commissioners.
If approved by the 2002 General Assembly and presbyteries, the overture would make it more difficult for future General Assemblies to continue calling for the repeal of G-6.0106b, the ordination standard.
The ordination standard was adopted in 1996 and included in the 1998 Book of Order. Almost before the ink was dry, the 1998 General Assembly proposed Amendment A to replace G-6.0106b, which would have made the denomination’s historic prohibition against ordaining self-affirming, practicing homosexuals invalid.
Two-thirds of the presbyteries voted against the 1998 proposal.
In 2001, the General Assembly voted for what’s currently known as Amendment 01-A, which includes both the repeal of G-6.0106b and invalidation of the denomination’s theological view that sex outside of marriage between a man and a woman is sinful.
With nearly one-third of the votes reported in the current referendum, nearly 80 percent of the presbyteries have voted against Amendment 01-A.
Both in 1998 and 2001, the General Assembly votes to repeal the standard were less than a super majority.