A searchable, downloadable PDF of the original article appears below. Judy MacLeod attended the PCUSA General Assembly in Orlando, Florida with her husband, Rev. Don MacLeod, former chairperson of the Renewal Fellowship. They now live in Boston, MA.
A Canadian Presbyterian attending a General Assembly of our American counterpart is immediately struck by the size of the gathering, the sophistication of its procedures and administration, and the complexity of the issues facing this representation of some two and three quarter million congregants.
The 205th General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (USA) was held in Orlando, Florida, June 2-9. Financial cutbacks in the denomination created some austerities. The time frame of the meeting had been shortened by a day (from nine to eight). But in spite of those limitations, the complexity and breadth of the meetings leaves anyone used to the simpler procedures of the Canadian Assembly staggered.
As the wife of a commissioner, and a correspondent for The Presbyterian Record with press privileges, I had the opportunity to observe the proceedings from several points of view. This Assembly was billed as “historic,” though that description has become almost predictable as year after year general assemblies have been forced to address the issue of the denomination’s continued struggle to find common ground.
This Assembly had to deal with substantial items: the reorganization of the structures of the Louisville headquarters was an obvious imperative, dictated by failing financial resources. The report of the Consultation on Church Union marked the culmination of a thirty-year process.
And, predictably, there was a “sex issue.” “Only Presbyterians could make sex boring,” opined former Moderator Joan Salmon Campbell, after the Assembly had stayed up until twelve-thirty the previous evening (or morning) to approve initiating a tliree-year study of the question as to whether gays, lesbians and bisexuals could be ordained to office.
Because of the explosively emotional nature of the debate, the ordination of homosexuals tended to dominate discussion during the early days of the Assembly. The election of the Moderator was affected, observers claimed, by the forthright way in which one of the three candidates for office identified himself with the “definitive guidance” (now called “authoritative interpretation”) of 1978 and 1979 that no homosexual can be called by the church to ordained office.
David Dobler, who was elected moderator after a narrow vote of 293 (50.6 per cent) over the so-called (or perceived) “establishment” candidate “Margy” Wentz, an elder from Kansas. A Puerto Rican elder was the third candidate and trailed the ballot tally. Dobler has been a minister in Alaska for all of his thirteen years in the ordained ministry. His theme was “Mission, mission, mission.” “The purpose of the church is mission,” Dobler stated. “As the church and its people engage in mission we discover who we are, we discover a place where the church can find itself and we discover a place where we can heal ourselves from the divisions that threaten us.”
Unfortunately the church had difficulty in finding who they were. The repeated comment by commissioners was: “This is my church!” “But whose church is it?” one commissioner responded as a hundred gays, lesbians and bisexuals paraded before the Assembly to “tell their story.” Debate on the issue proved acrimonious and divisive. The previous Moderator, John Fife from Tucson, Arizona, had been criticized for making his year in office an opportunity to lobby heavily for the homosexual agenda. His appointee as chair of the Representative Committee on Human Sexuality, Lin Team, was perceived by many to be less than neutral or objective as she moderated the sixty hours of debate on the issue.
Eventually her committee presented to the Assembly a motion that affirmed the “authoritative interpretation” that gays, lesbians and bisexuals were not to be ordained, but called for a three-year study of the matter. At the Assembly of 1996 the present position could be altered or reversed.
In the lengthy discussion that followed, evangelicals took a prominent part in debate. Guided by Harry Hassell, Senior Associate Minister of the Highland Park Presbyterian Church in Dallas – until three years ago the largest congregation in the country – an amendment proposed by Rev. John Sloop of Shenandoah Presbytery called for the church to reaffirm its position. His substitute motion asked for the elimination of the study period and requested presbyteries to vote on adding a Book of Order requirement that those in office must exercise fidelity in marriage or celibacy.
The vigorous debate highlighted the impatience of many with the inability of Presbyterians to speak forcefully on any issue. As commissioner Julian Walthall of South Alabama Presbytery commented: “This church has been studying this issue for fifteen years. It is time to say what this church stands for.” John Sloop, in speaking to his substitute motion, spoke of the perception that “the church can’t seem to make a decision” and in the meantime will lose members and funding. In a close vote his amendment failed by 260 to 307 with 2 abstentions.
The denomination has, indeed, lost members. The Stated Clerk of the General Assembly, James Andrews, disclosed that since union in 1983, the reunited Presbyterian Church (USA) has lost a third of its membership. In the same ten- year period the number of congregations has dropped by 10%.
The final decision of the Assembly, 365 in favour with 155 opposed, for a three-year study of the gay ordination issue, opens the door to further polarization. The plea of Lin Team to “listen as we’ve never listened before, speak as we’ve never spoken before so that, together, we can uphold the church as a model of reconciliation in a divided world.” The prospect did not appeal either to the homosexuals whose ability to dialogue was compromised, they felt, by the unwillingness of the Assembly to waive the disciplinary structures should they “come out of the closet” and dialogue openly. Nor was it a prospect that brought much joy to beleaguered pastors of evangelical congregations whose members have already voted with their feet. “Our son and his family have already left the church of his birth for the local PCA” (the evangelical body that split in 1973), stated one elder commissioner in a private conversation, with visible emotion.
Canadians who have watched parallel events in the United Church of Canada will be aware of the cost of approving gay ordination. The Assembly thought they had reached an amicable compromise. But at the conclusion of the vote, at the moment of adjournment, a rowdy demonstration of over sixty people, parading with a cross and a quilt disrupted the closing moments of the after-midnight Assembly. Commissioners were asked to remain quietly in their seats as they were taunted with the question: “How long, oh church, how long?” The harangue was led by Jane Spahr, whose call to Downtown Presbyterian Church, Rochester, NY, had been disallowed by the denomination’s Permanent Judicial commission last November. A self-professed lesbian, her comments were joined by theological student advisory delegate Susan Leo (from San Francisco Seminary) who had earlier stated that there were a hundred gay, lesbian and bisexual candidates for ministry waiting on the decision of 1996 Assembly so that they could “offer the gifts of their sexuality” to the church.
The length and acrimony of the debate left little time for debate on other substantive issues. The final approval of the Consultation on Church Union, that the Presbyterian Church enter into a covenanting relationship with six other mainline churches was actually made at one o’clock in the morning on the final day of Assembly. This historic vote, which opens the way to unknown prospects of union, whose constitutional implications are still to become apparent, was approved by a seventy percent majority.
Many impressions remain from a crowded week. One reflects on the comment of Tom Gillespie, president of Princeton Seminary. Dr. Gillespie is quoted as having said that “At the congregational level, the Presbyterian Church (USA) is healthy, but beyond that, at the judicatories, we are seriously dysfunctional.” Tom Gillespie’s own courage in signing a statement of the Princeton Seminary Technological Student Fellowship condemning gay ordination (along with over 60 students, professors and retired administrators) has been challenged by sixteen of his leading professors. The debate will continue, but the opinion of the pew member is overwhelmingly (a recent poll conducted by The Presbyterian Layman put the figure at 81.6%, a Presbyterian panel set it at 80%) opposed to the ordination of gays.
The real danger in the restructuring process that Assembly approved, and the likelihood that meetings will be held every other year after 1997, is – as the Moderator stated before his election – that more and more power will be concentrated in the hands of fewer and fewer people. Canadian Presbyterians will not be unfamiliar with this fear.
“This is my church.” The often repeated claim of gays raised a much wider question: whose church is the Presbyterian Church (USA) anyway? The four leading evangelical agencies in the denomination – the Presbyterian Lay Committee, Presbyterians Pro-Life, Presbyterians For Renewal and the (charismatic) Presbyterian Renewal Ministries – will be gathering to come up with a common strategy to respond that “It’s still our church.”
Members of the Renewal Fellowship Within The Presbyterian Church in Canada will be able to identify with the variety of their strategies as they confront the question of how inclusive can a mainline church be without losing its identity altogether.
The Presbyterian Lay Committee was highly visible in the press room, gathered information, took pictures, and attempted to reflect the real situation. Though decried by many as too confrontational, it remains the most powerful of all the evangelical groups within the PC(USA). It has a budget of 1.1 million dollars and a circulation of its periodical, The Presbyterian Layman, of almost half a million.
The Presbyterians For Renewal, a union of the Presbyterians For Biblical Concerns of the Northern Church and the Covenant Fellowship of the Southern Church, provided a noon gathering. The Director, Betty Moore, is highly regarded and the approach of the organization is positive, attempting to influence rather than confront, and to emphasize what is positive and helpful.
The Presbyterians Pro-Life were highly visible as their broadsheet, “Daily Delivery,” was distributed by willing volunteers to all commissioners as they gathered each morning. Presbyterians Pro-Life focus on abortion issues, but this year they also emphasized homosexuality and sponsored Elizabeth Achte- meier, a well-known author and adjunct professor at Union Seminary, Richmond, Virginia. They also provided resources for counselling and other pastoral responses to problem pregnancies at the Assembly.
And, as well, Presbyterian Elders in Prayer, featured a forty-day prayer vigil leading up to the Assembly and a round-the-clock prayer room.
What Canadians will not appreciate until they have visited an Assembly like that at Orlando, is the highly politicized nature of a national convocation such as the Presbyterian General Assembly. Indeed, democracy in the United States owes much to Presbyterianism. The increasing polarities of the country, the distrust many have in their national leadership, the breakdown of civil dialogue, and the manipulation of the electoral process by special interest groups/political action committees, all find their counterpart in what goes on in the eight days of General Assembly.
The real danger in the restructuring process that Assembly approved, and the likelihood that meetings will be held every other year after 1997, is – as the Moderator stated before his election – that more and more power will be concentrated in the hands of fewer and fewer people. Canadian Presbyterians will not be unfamiliar with this fear. The result may be an even less representative, responsive, leadership. The risk is great.
Evangelicals left the Assembly feeling that the task before them – particularly in the next three years over the homosexual ordination issue – is daunting. To retain order in the ranks, to avoid polarizing tensions and inflammatory calls for schism, will test their mettle. The encouragement comes from the reality that the “tall steeple churches,” congregations of over 3000 members, of which there are at least a score, most of which are solidly evangelical, have committed themselves to active involvement beyond their self-sufficient and self-reliant congregations, to participate with all their resources, in an effort to return the denomination to its historical heritage and biblical roots.
Some may dismiss this effort as too little, too late. But the importance of the Presbyterian Church in the total Christian impact in the United States is too great to allow for retreat, withdrawal of defeatism. The Spirit is still at work in the Presbyterian Church (USA).