JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — A Presbyterian court has ruled that churches may adopt controversial “confessional” statements but cannot use them as “litmus tests” for church officers.
The Sept. 13 ruling by the highest court in the church’s South Atlantic Synod ends a yearlong fight at First Presbyterian Church in Sebastian, Fla., that was widely seen as a test case for the insurgent Confessing Church Movement in the Presbyterian Church (USA) (PCUSA).
The case started last year when Norman Blessing, an elder at the church, objected to the adoption of a statement that affirmed the infallibility of the Bible and sexual purity in heterosexual marriage, among other things. Numerous PCUSA churches have adopted similar statements. Blessing said the statement attempted to replace centuries of well-tested Presbyterian confessional statements, and said he was told to leave the church if he didn’t sign the statement.
A midlevel court agreed with Blessing and ordered the church to rescind the statement. The Synod court, which covers Florida, Georgia and South Carolina, reversed that ruling but put limits on the statement’s authority.
The “so-called ‘confession’ is not binding upon any officer or member of the PCUSA,” the court unanimously ruled, and said the church “may not use its ‘confession’ as a litmus test for ordination or installation,” according to Presbyterian News Service.
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