Baltimore presbytery to consider issue of same-gender ‘marriages’
By John H. Adams, The Layman Online, April 27, 2004
The Presbytery of Baltimore, which has shunned Presbyterian Church (USA) law prohibiting the ordination of practicing homosexuals, will hold a special meeting May 20 to determine the “temperature” of its commissioners on same-sex marriages.
That marriage issue is the only item on the agenda of the called meeting, which is scheduled to run from 4 to 9 p.m., with an hour break for dinner, at Dickey Memorial Presbyterian Church in Baltimore.
According to an announcement posted on the presbytery’s Web site, the meeting will use the “consensus” model for reaching agreement. The announcement describes how the group will try to reach consensus without using parliamentary procedures:
- “Once in your groups, you will be given blue and orange cards which you can display when you feel either cool or warm towards an idea being expressed. After the Presbytery hears the Learnings from each group, the Presbytery will decide if it wishes to continue the discussion or if there are some areas of consensus.”
The meeting will be divided into two parts – a discussion of Christian marriage before dinner and whether or not Presbyterian ministers should be permitted to conduct same-sex marriages or “Holy Unions” for homosexual couples.
Church law prohibits same-sex marriages. It does permit sessions to authorize their pastors to conduct services to “bless” same-gender couples, but specifically prohibits describing them as marriages or endorsing homosexual behavior.
In a May 22, 2000 ruling in Marc Benton et al v. the Presbytery of Hudson River, the General Assembly Permanent Judicial Commission, the highest court in the denomination, made emphatically clear that services for gay couples must not resemble weddings.
” … Ministers and sessions should take special care to avoid any confusion of such services with services of Christian marriage. Ministers should not appropriate specific liturgical forms from services of Christian marriage or services recognizing civil marriage in the conduct of such ceremonies. They should also instruct same-sex couples that the service to be conducted does not constitute a marriage ceremony and should not be held out as such,” the court said.
The court emphasized that the Book of Order defines marriage as being a union of a man and a woman only.
The Baltimore Presbytery is also scheduled to hold a regular stated meeting on April 29. In the agenda for the meeting, Charles Forbes, the presbytery’s stated clerk, said, “While no positions will be adopted nor actions of the Presbytery taken, we will seek to explore those areas in which we can find consensus, and record those in our minutes for future use and consideration.”
The minutes also address a related issue: the recent decision by the Synod of the Mid-Atlantic to appoint a second administrative review committee to determine whether the Presbytery of Baltimore is complying with church law.
The first review committee concluded that the presbytery had done nothing wrong in refusing to bring to trial the Rev. Donald Stroud, a homosexual minister who works with the Baltimore office of That All May Freely Serve. Forbes and other leaders in the presbytery have contributed money to That All May Freely Serve, which has its offices in the same building with the presbytery.
The presbytery’s leaders said they believe “a strong case can be made that the action of the Synod is not permitted under the Book of Order and is irregular in that it does not cite any irregularity or delinquency as the basis for special administrative review.” The presbytery has “directed that a remedial complaint be filed against the Synod with the GA PJC asking that the action be declared irregular.”
The Presbytery of Baltimore was one of the first presbyteries in the denomination to submit an overture (04-04) to the 216th General Assembly calling for the repeal of the constitutional “fidelity/chastity” ordination requirement.