During its General Assembly in Birmingham June 15–22, the Presbyterian Church (USA) passed two controversial proposals, one to allow the ordination of gay clergy and another to allow alternative names for the Trinity.
The nation’s largest Presbyterian denomination, in a seismic shift on the role of gays and lesbians in the church, voted June 20 to allow local and regional bodies to ordain gays to the church’s ministries.
After nearly three hours of debate, delegates voted 298 to 221 to approve a complex proposal that allows local congregations and regional bodies known as presbyteries to bypass the church’s current ban on “self-avowed practicing” gay clergy.
Current rules from 1996 that require “fidelity in marriage … and chastity in singleness” will remain on the books, but local bodies can now allow exceptions to those standards if they wish.
Those exceptions will still be subject to review by higher bodies.
The proposal came from a blue-ribbon task force that has spent four years studying the issue.
“This is not an ‘anything goes’ proposal,” said Blair Monie, chairman of the committee that brought the proposal.
Rather, he said, it was a way to hold the church together by relying on some of its oldest practices.
Opponents, meanwhile, said the new policy “changes everything” in the life of the church and was a “transitional point” on the march toward tossing out all current prohibitions on gay clergy.
The 2.4 million-member church has been debating the issue for nearly 30 years. This time, the debate was intense but polite and restrained — and sometimes emotional.
The so-called “third way” proposal, by the 20-member Theological Task Force on Peace, Unity and Purity of the Church, revolves around a distinction between “standards” and “essentials.”
It would allow individuals who cannot abide by the standards to be ordained if local bodies do not find them in violation of the “essentials” required of new clergy.
In addition, the task force’s proposal is being offered as a new “authoritative interpretation” of church policy that would immediately go into effect. Unlike previous attempts to rescind the gay clergy ban, this policy will not have to be ratified by the denomination’s 173 regional presbyteries.
Delegates to the General Assembly also accepted a report June 19 that encourages — but does not mandate — using alternatives to traditional references to the Trinity.
“The language of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, rooted in Scripture and creed, remains an indispensable anchor for our efforts to speak faithfully of God,” the theological report said.
Some members of the committee that handled the statement said the church had taken a noncontroversial issue and created a controversy over gender-inclusive language. They offered a dissenting minority report, which was rejected by the General Assembly. The minority report charged that the Trinity paper makes the biblical names of God equivalent to metaphors or analogies for God.
The theological report, five years in the making, explores and encourages such alternative formulations for the Trinity as:
• “Rainbow of Promise, Ark of Salvation and Dove of Peace,”
• “Speaker, Word and Breath,”
• “Giver, Gift and Giving,”
• “Lover, Beloved and Love that binds together Lover and Beloved” and
• “Rock, Cornerstone and Temple.”
In other business, delegates elected Joan Gray as the denomination’s new moderator, its top spokeswoman for the next two years. The newly elected moderator presided at the assembly.
Gray is the author of the book “Presbyterian Polity for Church Officers” and has been interim pastor at seven churches in Atlanta.
She was chosen on the third ballot, drawing 307 votes, and beat out three other candidates for the unpaid position. (RNS)
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