Many of you have read or will read various articles that suggest that a change has been made in the denomination of which our church is a member (PC-USA). Specifically, the change reported is a change to allow practicing homosexuals to serve as clergy, elders or deacons. Here is a short answer to a discussion that will continue on our church level and in our local Presbytery Level.
- What has changed?
- What does this mean for our Presbytery and church?
- What is the road ahead look like?
The long and the short of it is that there is a fundamental change on the national level of our denomination, but on the local Presbytery level, and, accordingly, for our own church, nothing has fundamentally changed.
What has changed?
A majority of Presbyteries in the PC-USA have voted to remove an existing ordination standard for pastors, elders and deacons which read:
Those who are called to office in the church are to lead a life in obedience to Scripture and in conformity to the historic confessional standards of the church. Among these standards is the requirement to live either in fidelity within the covenant of marriage between a man and a woman (W-4.9001), or chastity in singleness. Persons refusing to repent of any self-acknowledged practice which the confessions call sin shall not be ordained and/or installed as deacons, elders, or ministers of the Word and Sacrament.
And replace this language with:
Standards for ordained service reflect the church’s desire to submit joyfully to the Lordship of Jesus Christ in all aspects of life (G-1.0000). The governing body responsible for ordination and/or installation (G.14.0240; G-14.0450) shall examine each candidate’s calling, gifts, preparation, and suitability for the responsibilities of office. The examination shall include, but not be limited to, a determination of the candidate’s ability and commitment to fulfill all requirements as expressed in the constitutional questions for ordination and installation (W-4.4003). Governing bodies shall be guided by Scripture and the confessions in applying standards to individual candidates.”
To be clear, what this change does is to slightly open the door for local Presbyterys (a regional collection of churches) to potentially ordain a person who is a practicing homosexual. This is because the explicit prohibition “fidelity within the covenant of marriage between a man and a woman or chastity in singleness” has been deleted.
Puzzlingly, though, the Book of Order reference in the old language (W-4.9001), namely that marriage is between a man and a woman remains in effect in our church’s constitution. What should be obvious to most is that there is a severe contradiction in place. Thus, the potential ordination of practicing homosexuals in liberal Presbyteries will be challenged in church courts for the next few years because of this. For, how can such an ordination be “guided by Scripture and confessions in applying standards” when our own standards prohibit such actions in its own understanding of marriage?
Some might be asking, this change has been rejected at least four times in past 10 years – what changed this year? Namely, we’ve had at least 100 congregations leave the denomination and there is a direct correlation to their leaving and the change of this year’s vote. This change is reflective of a theological drift in the denomination.
In conclusion, the change opens the door by removing an outright prohibition but it does not replace it with an endorsement. It rather leaves the “ordination” decision up to local Presbyteries. So it is untrue that the Denomination as a whole has “endorsed” an ordination change – it rather has endorsed what we might call a “local option” for Presbyteries to enact.
What does this mean for our Presbytery and Church?
Our own Presbytery opposed this change to the Book of Order by a vote of 44 to 4, a clear and decisive rejection of this change. The Presbytery of Stockton, according to the new language adopted (and affirmed by a denominational FAQ release – see below), is still free to examine candidates on their theology and practice and therefore examinations in the spirit of the old language will continue in our Presbytery for the forseeable future. To put it more clearly, our own Presbytery’s theological position has not changed nor will it change as a result of this new direction. Our Presbytery has decisively shown the denomination that it affirms for ordained officers “the requirement to live either in fidelity within the covenant of marriage between a man and a woman (W-4.9001)” and will more than certainly uphold this for candidates in the future.
What does the road ahead look like?
Even though our Presbytery’s position on this particular issue is clear, this theological drift of the denomination is the tip of a much larger iceberg. For this issue is merely a flashpoint for deeper issues concerning the authority of Scripture and our understanding of the Lordship of Jesus Christ (to name a few). Our own Presbytery will be discussing these changes in an upcoming Presbytery Meeting, the Presbytery Council is receiving advice on the road ahead, and many in our Presbytery will be attending a meeting in Minneapolis in August to discuss potential denominational changes. The group meeting there is called the “Presbytery Fellowship” and they are advocating, as one possibility, a new denomination within the administrative framework of our existing denomination.
For all practical purposes, I want to be clear that in terms of our own ministry and practice, nothing has changed within the bounds of the Presbytery of Stockton. We will be having conversations and strategy sessions for the road ahead. We will keep you posted on the road ahead.
- Denomination FAQ: 10-A_FAQ_April_7
- Response of Presbyterians for Renewal: response-to-removal-fidelity-chastity-standard
- Information about Presbyterian Fellowship: http://www.fellowship-pcusa.org/
