EMerge: The Blog

Committee rejects new definition of marriage

by Janet Tuck

SAN JOSE, June 24, 2008 — By a vote of 38-20 on Tuesday the Assembly Committee on Church Polity rejected a proposal from Baltimore Presbytery that would have changed the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) constitutional definition of marriage from a man and a woman to “two people.”

Passion, anger, deep-seated pain and a great love of the church were evidenced during the debate throughout the day. During a lengthy deliberation of the overture, (Item 04-08) minister commissioner Jay Hull of Nevada Presbytery stated, “I am not hearing any compelling scriptural evidence to redefine marriage.”

Speaking in favor of the overture the Rev. Bill Myers of Great Rivers Presbytery said, “there is no clear and common standard for purity for those who find themselves created and called to be in committed monogamous and godly gay and lesbian relationships,” stating that this overture would allow gay and lesbian Presbyterians a standard.

The committee paused for a reading of Matthew 5:1-16 followed by prayer before voting to disapprove the overture with a pastoral comment (38-20-1).

The committee then considered Item 04-13 to study same-sex families and affirm civil rights for those families. This was approved (46-10-1).

Business continued into the evening with the committee considering a commissioner resolution on urging a gracious and pastoral response to congregations seeking to leave the denomination. The motion (Item 04-28) was approved by a 49-3-1vote.

Finally, the committee revisited the question of membership vows (04-02) approved Monday by reconsidering and substituting new language. The new language allows the session of a congregation to provide the form of a new member’s confession of Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior rather than dictating a rite. This motion was approved by a 50-2 vote.

The Rev. Byron Wade is 218th General Assembly vice moderator

by Dee H. Wade

SAN JOSE, June 25, 2008 — The Rev. Byron Wade, pastor of the Davie Street Presbyterian Church of Raleigh, N.C., was confirmed as vice moderator of the 218th General Assembly on Wednesday. In his address before the Assembly, Wade demonstrated the hope and enthusiasm he has for the church of Jesus Christ. He answered the installation questions while the one who chose him for his new role, GA Moderator the Rev. Bruce Reyes-Chow, looked on.

Over the next two years, Wade will travel the country on behalf of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), sharing and listening to stories of mission and faith.  He will also assume other duties as needed from Reyes-Chow. The two men have known each other for 20 years, working together at Montreat, the Young Urban Presbyterian Pastors’ Group and Youth Triennium.

PTCA Pastor Preaches at General Assembly

Kim calls Presbyterian Church to set aside privilege

by Duane Sweep

SAN JOSE, June 25, 2008 — Using his own church as an example, the Rev. Jin Kim, pastor of the Church of All Nations in Minneapolis, Minn., called for Christians to “lay down their sword of power and privilege and to walk humbly with God.”

Preaching Tuesday morning at the meeting of the General Assembly here, Kim noted that “racism remains the mega-idolatry in the metanarrative of American history,” and called for the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) to adopt the Belhar Confession, a confession with roots in the struggle against apartheid in South Africa and drafted in 1982 by the Dutch Reformed Mission Church.

Kim noted that he was speaking on the 40th anniversary year of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination, and said, “Clearly, nations have tried to dominate other nations from the beginning of time; that’s nothing new.”

View from the Stated Clerk

Stated Clerk, Nancy Grittman is at the 218th General Assembly as a visitor. She shares these comments:

"The decision of the GA last evening to adopt the amended overture from Newton Presbytery (re:relations with Muslims and Jews) was, for me, very impressive. After several presentations and commissioners' comments dealing with the language nuances of "one God", "same God", "common God", the commissioners voted to reaffirm seeking understanding among the three religions who are monogamous in their worship, and to strongly affirm that Christians worship a triune God of which Jesus Christ is the way in which God reveals himself to us through the power and blessing of the Holy Spirit."

Church Orders and Ministry recommends new authoritative interpretation on ‘scrupling’

Proposal would allow ordaining bodies to consider conscientious objection to G-6.0106b

by Jerry L. Van Marter

SAN JOSE, June 24, 2008 — The General Assembly Committee on Church Orders and Ministry has voted to recommend that the 218th General Assembly adopt a supplementary authoritative interpretation of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) constitution that applies the historical practice of “scrupling” — the declaration of conscientious objection by candidates for ordination coupled with discernment by the ordaining body whether the declared objection is disqualifying — equally to all ordination standards of the denomination.

The authoritative interpretation, brought to the assembly by John Knox Presbytery, reaffirms the scrupling practice affirmed by the 217th General Assembly when it approved the report of the Theological Task Force on Peace, Unity and Purity of the Church (PUP) and effectively overturns a recent General Assembly Permanent Judicial Commission ruling — Bush vs. Presbytery of Pittsburgh — that G-6.0106b, the commonly called “fidelity and chastity” ordination standard, cannot be scrupled.

The committee vote was 43-15.

“We cannot be cherry-picking the constitutional provisions,” said the Rev. Mark Achtemeier, the overture advocate for John Knox Presbytery and a member of PUP. “Room for allowing scrupling must be equally applied or it makes no theological sense.”

The committee adopted slightly different wording suggested by the Advisory Committee on the Constitution that makes the new authoritative interpretation supplementary to that included in the PUP report rather than a replacement of it.

Woman to be ordained as minister of the arts

by Janet Tuck

SAN JOSE, June 24, 2008 — Brenda Grauer believes that the arts feed spirituality and are vital to congregations. And she’s not talking about what a church chooses to hang on the walls.

“I believe that the arts provide a lens into the way we need to do ministry in post-modernity,” Grauer said as she sat at a table under the trees outside the San Jose Convention Center on Monday (June 23). Displayed beneath those trees were some of the handmade stoles of Grauer’s design.

In Stitches: Center for Liturgical Art is home to an academy for the art of ministry, a liturgical fabric art studio and Grauer’s banners and stoles. It is a place to “practice creative and innovative ways to communicate the gospel and to revitalize congregations” according to the Web site.

Grauer took the long road to this unique ministry. She enrolled at McCormick Seminary in Chicago in 1968 but did not complete her degree. The fulfillment of that dream waited until 2002 when she received her Master of Divinity degree from Methodist Theological School in Ohio.

In between her times at seminary Grauer taught school, worked on the staff of Baltimore Presbytery and owned a needlework, quilting and sewing machine store. When a friend asked her to make a stole, her love of sewing, creative spirit and calling to ministry met, growing into a passion.

She has received that call from the Federated Church (United Church of Christ) in Chagrin Falls, Ohio, that will ordain and install her on August 30 as Minister of the Arts. Hoping to tap into the spirituality of individuals and groups, she will continue teaching, sewing and encouraging people to create art as a spiritual expression.

“There really is so much in the arts that feeds spirituality,” Grauer said, “and it is available to everyone, homeless people on the margins, wounded people. Ministry of the arts and the spirit can bring healing to the world.”

Photo: Brenda Grauer displayed her handmade stoles at the National Association of Presbyterian Clergywomen luncheon. Grauer, who first started seminary in 1968, will be ordained as Minister of the Arts in August. Photo by Danny Bolin

Church Orders votes 41-11 to recommend deletion of G-6.0106b

by Jerry L. Van Marter

SAN JOSE, June 24, 2008 — By a vote of 41-11 Tuesday evening, the Assembly Committee on Church Orders and Ministry recommended to the 218th General Assembly that it send an amendment to the presbyteries to delete G-6.0106b — which requires “fidelity within the covenant of marriage between a man and a woman or chastity in singleness” for church officers — from the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)’s Book of Order.

A number of committee members, knowing the inevitable vote was coming, didn’t return to the committee’s meeting room after the dinner break. The Rev. Emily McColl, who was on the losing side of the vote, asked committee members to call those who didn’t return for the evening, saying she was “so saddened by their absence that my heart can hardly stand it.”

She also expressed hope that congregations that simply cannot tolerate another debate over ordination standards will be allowed to “graciously leave” the denomination.

The overture approved by the committee came from Boston Presbytery. Overture advocate the Rev. Roderick MacDonald said the proposal — which includes replacement wording for the current G-6.0106b as well as amendments to G-14.0240 and G-14.0450—“offers something in place of what is removed. It reaffirms standards that are important to us in our ordination questions.” (Read more)

PTCA Commissioners Hard at Work

Rev. Cindy Ray, a commissioner from the PTCA at General Assembly sent this photo of her fellow PTCA Commissioners hard at work (click on the photo for a larger version:

The Presbytery's Commissioners include:

Elders:

• Susan Goodspeed, Minneapolis, Lake Nokomis
• Terryl Schermer, Buffalo, Buffalo
• Thomas Soulen, Minneapolis, Westminster
• Brenda Tiefenbruck, Hastings, First

Ministers:

• April Davis Campbell, Stillwater, First
• Walter F. Chuquimia, Minneapolis, Familia de Fe New Church Development
• Andrew Lindahl, Austin, Westminster
• Cynthia Ray, At-Large

Youth Advisory Delegate:

• Dale A. Utt, Rochester, First

General Assembly 218: Thoughts from the COLA Chair for GA 219

Here is what Sandra Hawley has observed about the 218th General Assembly in San Jose.  Hawley is an elder at Plymouth Presbyterian in Plymouth and is the co-chair along with Manley Olson with the Committee on Local Arrangements (COLA) for the 219th General Assembly to be held in Minneapolis in 2010:

Things at GA going extremely well. We've had a LOT of interest at our booth even though we are off in a less--than-high-traffic area. Lots of people say they'll be in Minneapolis/St. Paul in 2010, lots with family in Minnesota, lots very excited to come to MSP, lots say they LOVE MSP. Fun!! We're attending the San Jose COLA meeting every evening, which has been excellent and they have been extremely gracious to us. And, as always, LOTS of old friends, hugs, catching up, talking, meeting new folk, information gathering, discovering new resources, extreme walking, too much food, etc, etc. I literally drop into bed at the end of the day.

New Form of Government seeks flexibility, Assembly told

Form of Government Task Force (FOGTF) member the Rev. Gemechisa Guja knows what it means to do a new thing and have the flexibility to make it work.

An immigrant pastor from Ethiopia who started a new fellowship that first opened in Philadelphia and later moved to Lancaster, PA, he has personally experienced how critical flexibility is when you engage in something different.

Sunday, at a FOGTF presentation during the 218th General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), Guja shared his experience, and related it to the importance of flexibility in the missional polity of the PC(USA).

Both in Philadelphia, under Philadelphia Presbytery; and in Lancaster, under Donegal Presbytery, the Oromoo-speaking fellowship under Guja’s leadership was “accepted and cared for as Christian brothers and sisters in Christ,” he said.

“We knew we were strangers, but they did not see (us) as strangers but as friends in Christ Jesus,” Guja told the group gathered. Office and sanctuary space were provided, and at times worship services were joined, he said. [Read more]

Photo: Form of Government Task Force members the Rev. James Kim, the Rev. Paige McRight, Diana Barber and the Rev. Gemechisa Guja listened to the presentation. Photo by Joseph Williams