Reports from the 220th
General Assembly in Pittsburgh note that the Church Orders and Ministry Committee
has approved with amendment, an overture from Sacramento Presbytery. The overture asks the GA to make a statement
(this is a sense of the body statement rather than a binding theological
document) on the nature of our disagreement about human sexuality and calling the
church into a season of prayer, discernment and healing.
It is far too early in the week
to know what the GA will do with the ordination issues before it. It does seem that the committee has indicated
its own hesitancy to take a firm stand on one “side” or the other preferring to
allow time for the church to reach consensus.
The committee’s action, if
indeed they do follow a neutral path, is a welcome witness to a possible third
way in the church. By steering a middle
course between the reductionist duality of yes or no, they show the church a
way to live together in the midst of disagreement.
The decision of the committee
was by no means unanimous. According to
published reports 37 commissioners voted to affirm the Sacramento statement
while 16 pressed to return the church to the “fidelity and chastity” language
removed last year by a 97-75 vote of the presbyteries. This language would effectively ban the
ordination and installation of GLBTQ candidates. No commissioners voted to press the
denomination toward a position requiring ordination of GLBTQ candidates preferring a season of prayer and discernment over yet another season of discord.
Hopefully the GA as a whole
will follow the committee’s advice and keep the denomination away from either
extreme- banning ordination of GLBTQ candidates or mandating it. By choosing to steer the middle course, the
Church Orders and Ministry Committee has taken a firm stand with the whole
church rather than taking sides. There
is no perfect solution to the business before them, but they have gotten closer
to finding a happy medium than many groups in recent years.
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