Saluda session wants to send GA a resolution with a warning
The Layman Online, January 17, 2006
The session of Saluda Presbyterian Church in South Carolina has asked Trinity Presbytery to send the 217th General Assembly a warning that there will be serious consequences if the national governing body “undermines the constitutional and doctrinal essentials of G-6.0106b” of the Book of Order.
The proposed resolution says abandonment of the constitutional standard that forbids the ordination of practicing homosexuals and adulterers would “be viewed by Trinity Presbytery as unacceptable, grave violations of our life together.”
The resolution does not spell out what recourse the presbytery might take if the General Assembly 1) approves the final report of the Theological Task Force on Peace, Unity and Purity or 2) calls for repeal of G-6.0106b in a constitutional referendum or 3) repeals the General Assembly Authoritative interpretation that undergirds the constitutional ordination standard.
But the resolution is patterned after a similar – although much longer – statement that will be debated in February by the Presbytery of San Diego.
The proposed San Diego resolution calls for “immediate action in the event of a change in those standards – whether changed by official action, approval of the Authoritative Interpretation recommended by the Theological Task Force or simply rendered meaningless by means of official inaction to uphold the standard of the historic Church.”
Furthermore, the resolution would declare that “the Presbyterian Church (USA) is in a state of constitutional crisis and deep Biblical and confessional defection;” that there is a “breach in the covenant that binds our congregations and presbyteries together in the Presbyterian Church (USA);” that by its action, the PCUSA “will have broken covenant with us and divested itself of any authority to exercise governance over the Presbytery of San Diego.”
It also proposed that the San Diego Presbytery would explore “what, if any, long-term relationship with the Presbyterian Church (USA) will be sought collectively by the Presbytery of San Diego and by any individual congregation within the Presbytery of San Diego.”
Drafted by a group of ministers and approved by the sessions of their congregations, the San Diego resolution has also spawned an opposing statement signed by 28 ministers and elders in the presbytery, including the Rev. Gary Demarest, co-moderator of the Theological Task Force on Peace, Unity and Purity.
Saluda’s resolution, which does not directly address the possibility of breaking away from the denomination, will be on the agenda at the Trinity Presbytery meeting on Feb. 11 at Eastminster Presbyterian Church in Columbia, S.C.
The Presbytery of San Diego has scheduled consideration of its resolution in February. The deadline for submitting overtures and resolutions to the 217th General Assembly is Feb. 15, 120 days before the assembly convenes on June 15 in Birmingham, Ala.