07280
May 14, 2007

PJC says ordination standards include ministerial candidates

Mission Presbytery case moot since candidate withdrew from consideration

by Evan Silverstein

LOUISVILLE — The highest court of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) has affirmed that the standards for ordaining non-celibate gays and lesbians extend to those seeking to become candidates for the ministry.

     The statement came in a ruling issued last week by the PC(USA)’s General Assembly Permanent Judicial Commission (PJC) in the case of George R. Stewart vs. Mission Presbytery.

     The case involved a woman who in October 2005 was accepted as a candidate for ministry by Mission Presbytery, which is based in San Antonio, TX. The presbytery voted to approve her candidacy even though its moderator informed members that the candidate “is a lesbian and lives in a committed (same-sex) relationship.”

     Presbyterian church law allows for the ordination of only those who are in a faithful, heterosexual marriage or who are single and living in chastity. However, the moderator told the presbytery that under church case law, the requirement did not apply to those seeking to enter the candidacy process.

     “Although our Book of Order (G-14.0305a-i) requires those coming to be ordained to observe fidelity in marriage and chasteness in singleness, the Book of Order does not place this standard on those in the candidacy process,” the moderator said during the meeting, according to the PCJ’s history of the case.

     Mission Presbytery accepted the woman’s candidacy for the ministry 169-111 with none abstaining. Stewart, who is a retired Presbyterian minister, challenged the decision by initiating a remedial complaint against the presbytery in January 2006.

     He asked the Synod of the Sun to “order the presbytery to remove [the candidate] from the roll of candidates for minister of the Word and Sacrament.”

     The Permanent Judicial Commission of the Synod of the Sun heard his appeal on Sept. 8, 2006, but by tie vote did not sustain it.

     Stewart then appealed the case to the General Assembly PJC on Oct. 11, 2006. 
 
     The woman withdrew her candidacy on Nov. 17, 2006, and the presbytery then filed a motion, requesting the PJC drop the case on the grounds that the candidate’s withdrawal rendered it moot.

     The PJC agreed that the case is moot since the woman withdrew her candidacy, but also said that the presbytery had been “misled” in its understanding of church law.

     The PC(USA)’s highest court said the presbytery and the synod relied on an annotated edition of the Book of Order (G-014.0305d), where it cites a court case in 2000, Sheldon, et al. v. Presbytery of West Jersey,which  involved a gay candidate from New Jersey.

     The General Assembly PJC said the annotation is a “misstatement” because the inquirer being considered for candidacy was a “celibate gay man, and therefore eligible to become a candidate,” the PJC said in its decision.

     The ruling in the New Jersey case added: “However, if the [presbytery] should determine the candidate to be ineligible for candidacy at some point in the future, the [presbytery] should remove the candidate’s name from the roll of candidates, as provided by G-14.0312.”