General Assembly votes to leave ‘fidelity-chastity’ in the constitution
Paula R. Kincaid, The Layman Online , June 20, 2006
217th General Assembly
Birmingham, Ala. BIRMINGHAM — Not long after the 217th General Assembly voted that the “fidelity-chastity” ordination requirement could be disregarded by sessions and presbyteries in the Presbyterian Church (USA), it voted to leave that requirement in the denomination’s constitution.
The assembly voted 405-92-4 to accept the recommendation of the Committee on Church Orders to not approve the overture from Heartland Presbytery to delete G-6.0106b from the Book of Order and declare the 1978 Authoritative Interpretation as having no “further force or effect.”
Rev. Tim Dalstrom of Greater Atlanta Presbytery questioned why the overture was even on the assembly’s docket. “A few minutes ago we passed the PUP report,” he said, which recommended that the assembly not delete the ordination requirement from the constitution. “I’m not sure why we are even discussing the issue if we just approved a report saying we wouldn’t.”
Stated Clerk Clifton Kirkpatrick answered the question by saying the committee was recommending that the overture be disapproved. But, he said, “constitutionally the General Assembly cannot bind itself or any other General Assembly from considering an issue.” He said the GA should consider the advice it just gave itself, and that he felt that was “one of the arguments in favor of the committee’s recommendation.”
Rev. Marilyn Allen of the Cascades Presbytery made the motion to refer the overture to the 218th General Assembly “in the spirit of the task force report … and therefore we will not have to deal with it today.”
Elder Barbara Bever from Heartland Presbytery said she was going to make the same motion. “In the spirit of the document we just passed, this seems a way to live out what we said we were going to do … it’s a new way of being the church.” She said presbyteries could consider the issue in the next two years “without potential divisive votes.”
The vote to refer the motion failed and the assembly went back to discussing the committee’s recommendation to disapprove the overture.
Youth Advisory Delegate Gillian Goodrich of Yellowstone Presbytery said she supported maintaining the ordination standards set forth in G-6.0106b. “In the world today leaders are called to a higher standard … in the church these standards are set forth by Christ in the Bible and in the Book of Order. … In this trying time for our culture and for our church, vote in favor of the committee’s recommendation.”