Overture 04-18. On Issuing an Authoritative Interpretation Clarifying Standards for Ordination—From the Presbytery of the Western Reserve.

The Presbytery of the Western Reserve respectfully overtures the 216th General Assembly (2004) to issue the following authoritative interpretation:

In carrying out their responsibilities under the Constitution to determine fitness for office, sessions and presbyteries are not bound by statements of the General Assembly and its commissions, regarding ordained service by homosexual persons, that predate the adoption of G-6.0106b.

Rationale

In the decades preceding the adoption of G-6.0106b, General Assemblies and Permanent Judicial Commissions of the PC(USA), the UPCUSA, and the PCUS issued various policy and interpretive statements regarding ordained service by “self-affirming, practicing homosexual persons.” Such statements were largely grounded in the “Policy Statement and Recommendations” issued in 1978 by the 190th General Assembly of the UPCUSA, known as “definitive guidance.”

“Definitive guidance” and the “authoritative interpretations” that followed had the effect of amending our constitutional standards for ordination without the ratification of the presbyteries. This effect has been neither definitive nor authoritative. Rather, these statements have contributed to conflict and confusion in the church, and have undermined respect for the Constitution.

The 208th General Assembly (1996) moved to end this conflict and confusion by approving a new provision in the Constitution, G-6.0106b, that specifically addresses our standards for the sexual conduct of candidates for ordained office. This provision was ratified by the presbyteries, and actually changed the Book of Order. In order to eliminate continuing confusion and conflict, the 216th General Assembly (2004) should make clear that the language of the Constitution itself takes precedence over older General Assembly statements interpreting the Constitution before it was changed.

Concurrences to Overture 04-18 from the Presbyteries of Milwaukee and New York City.