TUCSON, Ariz. – Advocates for changing the definition of marriage will be hard at work between now and the 221st General Assembly hoping to push measures through the 221st General Assembly that, if approved, will allow same-sex marriage in the Presbyterian Church (USA) by June 21, 2014.
More Light Presbyterians (MLP) and the Covenant Network (CN) of Presbyterians announced at the MLP 2013 National Conference held Sept. 27-29, that they have joined forces to try to press the PCUSA to change its stance on marriage to not only allow marriage between couples of the same gender, but to also allow PCUSA pastors to conduct the services on church property.
Following an early summer meeting of MLP and CN representatives, the board of directors for both organizations were in agreement that an Authoritative Interpretation (AI) of the PCUSA constitution and an amendment to the constitution are two things “that this assembly must pass,” said Brian Ellison, executive director of CN.
An AI of the constitution would protect congregations, sessions and pastors, said Ellison, and it is “absolutely essential” for it to be passed at the 2014 General Assembly. Both organizations also agree that an amendment to “enshrine marriage equality in the Book of Order is essential,” as part of the denomination’s witness to God’s justice.
Both groups advocate for full lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer rights and privileges in the PCUSA and society, and also advocate for same-sex marriage in the PCUSA.
Currently, the PCUSA constitution states that marriage is between “one man and one woman,” and its pastors are not allowed to perform same-gender marriages. However, MLP advocates and celebrates through its “Stand for Love” campaign pastors who openly defy the church’s constitution and General Assembly Permanent Judicial Commission rulings and perform same-gender marriages now.
Heidi A. Peterson, co-moderator of MLP, along with Ellison, told the approximately 90 people at the conference of the preparations and plans being made to advocate for marriage equality at the 221st General Assembly.
She said that MLP and CN worked together on the successful Amendment 10A campaign — where the 2012 General Assembly and a majority of PCUSA presbyteries approved an amendment to the PCUSA constitution that allowed for the ordination of gays, lesbians, bisexuals and transgendered people to the offices of deacon, elder and pastor. They hope to build on that success when it comes to same-sex marriage.
The work will be divided, said Ellison, with the CN working to get the AI approved by the GA and the MLP advocating for the amendment.
The Authoritative Interpretation
Ellison described an AI as a “privilege that the GA has. It is one of only two ways that we can agree on what the constitution means to our church.” The other is a ruling of the General Assembly Permanent Judicial Commission, the highest judicial body of the PCUSA.
Once an AI is approved by the General Assembly, it goes into effect immediately. Unlike an amendment to the constitution, it does not need to be ratified by the presbyteries. The 221st GA will meet June 14-21 in Detroit. Therefore, if the assembly does approve the AI, same-sex marriage would be allowed in the PCUSA on the day of the vote, which at the very latest would be the closing day of the assembly — June 21, 2014.
Ellison said there was a lot of talk about AI’s at the last General Assembly. Some thought it was a way to get around a church-wide discussion of same-sex marriage. Others thought it was a “sneaky way for us to get what we want,” he added.
“Every bit of policy in marriage,” he said, “has been the result of an AI — an AI by the GAPJC … all those cases by the GAPJC have created policy by the PCUSA.” And that policy is all the PCUSA has, since the Book of Order doesn’t say a word about same-gender marriage.
Ellison said that an AI from the General Assembly would be “immediate, coherent” and would “bring immediate relief to the pastoral crisis we are now facing … where pastors are dealing with the reality that people in their churches” want to have the same opportunity to marry.
The amendment
“An amendment would actually change our Book of Order,” said Peterson, so it doesn’t just require a majority vote of the assembly, but also a majority vote of the PCUSA’s 173 presbyteries.
The starting place on writing an amendment, she said, “was a blank sheet of paper. We didn’t look at what was in the book and think about how to change it … We thought about what is marriage in the Reformed tradition? Is it about gender identity or is marriage in our faith tradition about covenant, abiding love and commitment?”
Peterson said that the previous efforts to change the constitutional language concerning marriage had just changing the words “a man and a woman” to “two people” had not been persuasive.
“We need to bring our church to where we need to be and where we ought to be,” she said.
Ellison added that there are some draft amendments “circulating around the church … there is language out there that is developing some consensus.”
He told those interested in the draft amendments to contact Tricia Dykers-Koenig of the Covenant Network. “She can offer a glimpse of where things are,” he said.
Peterson told the crowd that this is not the same issue that was approved in 2012.
“People who felt our way about 10A may not feel the same way about marriage equality … the cultural tide is in a whole different place than it was at the last General Assembly … we can’t know how those two factors will play off of each other,” she said.
During a question and answer session, Ellison and Peterson were asked if the AI and the amendment would go before one General Assembly committee or could measures be sent to different assembly committees?
Ellison said that it is the job of Stated Clerk Gradye Parsons to assign business to the committees. “He refers as he pleases,” said Ellison. “We have a hard time imaging that the stated clerk would assign those items to different committees,” since no conflicting business can come out of two different committees that would confuse the assembly.
“The very worst outcome is for some of us to pursue an amendment and lose the AI,” he said. Then, if the assembly passes the amendment, and it was voted down in the presbyteries, “we end up with nothing. An AI is essential right now. I would argue an amendment is also essential, and we need both right now.”
Related articles and archives:
Covenant Network plans to go around back if they can’t redefine marriage directly
Theology Matters: Is Marriage Worth Defending? Part I
21 Comments. Leave new
In the year that Amendment 10(A) passed, a new record was set in PCUSA membership losses: 5.26%, or 103,000 people. If those who are pushing for this change get their way, that record may not last much longer.
“The time is always right to do what’s right.” (MLK speaking at Oberlin College, October 22 1964)
I really pray that the Presbyterian Church hold off on this. The numbers of churches leaving were high, but this might destroy it. I have been a Presbyterian since birth and I will leave if this goes through. God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit should be our main focus, with bringing others to God. It is a sad day to read of this plan. This is not what we should be doing as a church, it is political only. Our nation in the US needs to set God first and center. If we follow His plan the other issues will heal through Him. Satan loves to see this happen and the church will become non usable to do God’s plan.
Paula, I always enjoy the clarity and thoroughness of your reporting. Keep up the good work! Thanks.
I think the dates are in error. My recollection is that the Amendment 10A was approved at the GA in 2010 and ratified by the Presbyteries the following year 2011. I believe it was at the 2012 GA that the gay marriage changes were proposed and denied.
People….there are OTHER Presbyterian (Reformed Tradition) Churches out there. Please google PCA or EPC or even ECO. You don’t have to leave the Presbyterian Church. PC-USA has been infiltrated by Satan’s emissaries and they are trying to crucify the Body of Christ once again with their evil practices of calling sin good. You do not want your children brought up in such an environment. Find a Presbyterian church where the word of God is preached and taught. Start really listening to the sermon, reading your Bible, going to Sunday School and questioning the curriculum. Speak up and change the church or leave. And don’t look back or you will be turned into a pillar of salt.
I left out another branch of Presbyterianism….OPC or Orthodox Presbyterian Church.
Dick, you’re correct, my error. Thanks.
I am actually hoping that these proposals are accepted and incorporated into the PCUSA. This should put the denomination on life support and force true believers: those that are left, anyway, to finally leave the denomination and go to one that still holds true to the faith. The PCUSA has become insignificant and now is the time for it to fade away into history.
It makes no sense not to allow this to happen. The PCUSA is already allowing for the ordination of GLBT, isn’t it? Seems kind of split-minded not to include GLBT marriage. And Peggy, with all due respect, if you didn’t leave over the ordination issue, I doubt you will leave over this.
Dianna,
There is also the ARP: Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church.
I could almost agree with you about the PCUSA becoming so watered-down theologically that true believers would leave the denomination. But what would become of the misguided who stay within? They wouldn’t hear the true gospel message from the pulpit. Scripture would be distorted like a plastic nose. Liberalism will always have a life-suport system…..but it won’t be saving souls for eternity.
We also are watching prayerfully to determine how long we can remain within the PCUSA. We have children and grandchildren who are watching us.
We left the UCC for the ARP, and are very happy that we did.
When I consider the tactics and aims of the Covenant Network and More Light Presbyterians, and their impact on the PC(USA), I am unavoidably reminded of this quote from Tacitus: “They made a desert and called it peace.”
Where should I begin with this? “An amendment to ‘enshrine marriage equality (i.e., the tacit approval of homosexual acts by granting “marriage” rights to two people of the same gender) in the (PCUSA) Book of Order is essential’” in order to “witness to God’s justice”? This is sheer and utter madness. God’s justice not only does not demand this, but is mocked by even suggesting this blasphemy. God’s justice demands a death in recompense for sin—either the death of the sinner or the death of the Messiah to atone for the sinner—and homosexuality, according to God’s Law, is a sin (Gen. 19.4-9,24-25 [cf. Jude 7], Lev. 18.22, 20.13, Dt. 23.17, Judg. 19.22-25, Rom. 1.24-27, I Cor. 6.9-11, I Tim. 1.9-10). This is not to say that God is calling us to enact this penalty, “for we know him who said, ‘Vengeance is mine; I will repay;’ and again, ‘The Lord will judge his people.’ It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.” (Heb. 10.30-31)
Likewise those who teach that God’s justice somehow demands that homosexual acts be legitimized within the covenant of marriage are like unto “that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess”, that is, a woman who taught in the Church of Thyatira during the first century, whom the Lord Jesus condemned because she “is teaching and seducing my servants to practice sexual immorality and to eat food sacrificed to idols. I (that is, the Lord Jesus Himself) gave her time to repent, but she refuses to repent of her sexual immorality. Behold, I will throw her onto a sickbed, and those who commit adultery with her I will throw into great tribulation, unless they repent of her works, and I will strike all her children dead.” (Rev. 2.20-23) Inasmuch as these false teachers are doing the same thing, they are courting the same judgment. God will not be so mocked.
And supposing that any of those who practice homosexuality while at the same time advocating for its normalization, this does not constitute integrity between belief and action that the Lord is somehow obligated to respect. The Apostle Paul wrote of such, “Though they know God’s decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them.” (Rom. 1.32)
And you, dear reader, if you teach that God’s justice demands the recognition of same-gender sexual union as “marriage”, I implore you to repent, for what you are doing is extremely offensive to God, for you are leading His children astray. Remember the Lord Jesus’ words: “Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a great millstone fastened around his neck and to be drowned in the depth of the sea.” (Mt. 18.6, Mk. 9.42, Lk. 17.2) Or do you not fear of God (Ps. 111.10, Prov. 1.7, 9.10, 15.33)? “Do you presume on the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God’s kindness is meant to lead you to repentance? But because of your hard and impenitent heart you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath when God’s righteous judgment will be revealed.” (Rom. 2.4-5) “Have I any pleasure in the death of the wicked, declares the Lord GOD, and not rather that he should turn from his way and live?” (Ezek. 18.23) And so I implore you again to repent!
Yet, even as I write these words, I know that they will fall on deaf ears, closed minds, and hardened hearts. Such have already made up their minds and have bought into the world’s lies that God does not consider sexual intercourse outside of marriage or sexual intercourse between two people to be sin, when He has, in fact, declared them to be sin. “Let marriage be held in honor among all, and let the marriage bed be undefiled, for God will judge the sexually immoral and adulterous.” (Heb. 13.4) And be warned, “It is time for judgment to begin at the household of God; and if it begins with us, what will be the outcome for those who do not obey the gospel of God? And, ‘If the righteous is scarcely saved, what will become of the ungodly and the sinner?’” (I Pet. 4.17-18) And be warned of the sexual immorality of Hophni and Phinehas, the sons of Eli (I Sam. 2.22), how “they would not listen to the (rebuke) of their father, for it was the will of the LORD to put them to death.” (I Sam. 2.25)
“…openly defy the church’s constitution and General Assembly Permanent Judicial Commission rulings and perform same-gender marriages now.”
This is so wrong, advocating violation of the constitution of the church just to prove a point. These groups have lost any and all credibility with me. Complying with the law and exhibiting how it is unfair or unjust is the right way to go. Violating the law and thumping one’s chest to show how right it was to do so is not justifiable.
Thank you for this excellent summary of what we can look forward to at the next GA! Great news! (And a surprisingly respectfully written and balanced article from the Layman. Nice to see, and quite a change from the past.)
Viola Larson has posted a commentary on this article: http://naminghisgrace.blogspot.com/2013/10/more-light-presbyterians-and-covenant.html
My friend, God has anointed you in a mighty way to be a voice in this controversy. I feel compelled to encourage you. Many people voice their positions, even to the point of arguing. Your words come directly from God’s word, which so many are trying to twist for their own use. Your words are God’s words. You have a special ability to articulate, punctuate, and resonate His voice in the midst of this horrible mess. Thank you and God bless you.
If they are successful, I will have to say goodbye too.
“People who felt our way about 10A may not feel the same way about marriage equality …the cultural tide is in a whole different place than it was at the last General Assembly … we can’t know how those two factors will play off of each other,” Heidi A. Peterson, co-moderator of MLP
This isn’t about “cultural tide” or how people feel Ms. Peterson. For us who are followers of Christ it is about God’s eternal truth, what God has declared as sin, the authority of Scripture and our obedience to GOD and GOD’s written word. You have summed up well the source of the abominable efforts of the MLP/CN in your statement.