Ovt 061

On Replacing G-6.0106b with New Text—From the Presbytery of Chicago.

The Presbytery of Chicago respectfully overtures the 219th General Assembly (2010) of the
Presbyterian Church (USA) to do the following:

Direct the Stated Clerk to send the following proposed amendment to the presbyteries for their
affirmative or negative votes:

Shall the current language of G-6.0106b be stricken and be replaced with the following:

b. Standards for ordained service are derived from the church’s desire to submit joyfully to the
Lordship of Jesus Christ in all aspects of life (G-1.0000). Those who are called to ordained service in the
church shall give their assent to the Constitutional questions for ordination and installation (W-4.4003),
pledging themselves to live lives obedient to Jesus Christ the Head of the Church, following where he leads
through the witness of the Scriptures, and understanding the Scriptures through the guidance of the
Confessions. The governing body responsible for ordination and/or installation (G-14.0240 and G-
14.0450) shall examine each candidate’s calling, gifts, preparation, and suitability for the responsibilities
of office, including assessing his or her adherence to the church’s standards.

Rationale

Regrettably, the process of communal discernment for decision making on the difficult issue of ordination
standards, recommended by the Theological Task Force on Peace, Unity, and Purity of the Church and adopted
by the 217th General Assembly (2006), has been underutilized. Continued recourse to parliamentary procedures
and judicial process has undermined decision-making, prolonged resolution, and consumed resources. In light of
this experience, change in the language of G-6.0106b provides the way forward on this difficult issue.

The impact of the current language in G-6.0106(b) in its application has been far greater than simply
excluding some from ordained office. It has allowed a class distinction to be constitutionally enshrined, creating
two classes of baptized Christians — those who are clearly eligible for ordained office in the church, and those
who are not. Not since the now-abandoned prohibitions on divorced officers and clergy in our predecessor
denominations has one class of members been singled out in a Presbyterian constitution for automatic
disqualification from eligibility for ordained office.

The summary exclusion of any member from meaningful eligibility inexcusably divides the body of Christ.
In the second letter to the church at Corinth, the Apostle Paul reminds us: For in the one Spirit we were all
baptized into one body -- and we were all made to drink of one Spirit. Indeed, the body does not consist of one
member but of many. If the foot would say, "Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body," that would
not make it any less a part of the body... The eye cannot say to the hand, "I have no need of you," nor again the
head to the feet, "I have no need of you."

But G-6.0106(b) does precisely that. One class of Christians is effectively being told, “the body has no need
of you.” This communicates to those same children of God that in our denomination, they are not part of One
Body, but are foreign, to be isolated and treated differently from all others. Such a position invalidates what
scripture says about baptism and what our Book of Order says about the meaning of active membership (G-
5.0202) and the relationship between membership and ordained office (G-6.0102).

Though its proponents argue that the measure deals only with conduct, in reality, G-6.0106(b) is a statement
by one portion of the baptized body of Christ to all lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender Christians, whether
partnered or not, sexually active or not, that in the Presbyterian Church (USA) their “membership” in the body is
at best second class, and, at worst, neither desired nor honored as equal with all other members. This is a scandal
to the gospel of Jesus Christ and has no place in the Constitution of the PC(USA).

This second class status is unaffected by the recent elimination of older Authoritative Interpretations and the
adoption of additional interpretations of Chapter 6 because whether or not a particular session or presbytery is
permitted — often after protracted ecclesial litigation involving those interpretations—to call and/or ordain a
particular lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender member, that member is constitutionally singled out under the
current language of G-6.0106(b) in ways that straight members are not.

The proposed language takes seriously the responsibilities of those bodies of the church charged with
examining, calling and installing church officers, but places those examinations in the greater context of
Presbyterian polity. It also ensures a more consistent approach in the treatment of all members, appropriately
acknowledging the weight and importance of authority in our tradition: Christ first, scripture second, and
tradition (Confessions) third. This restores consistency between the provisions of Chapter 6 and the Ordination
Vows (W-4.4003).

G-6.0106b Overture: Endorsed by Fourth