A Draft of Hemlock

Today, Tuesday June 20, at 5.18 pm (if my watch was right) the denomination stepped over the line. The PUP Report was passed without substantial alteration. I don't remember what the percentages were, but the numbers were somewhere in the region of 280 to 230. The events was seen around he world on streaming video, as was yours truly, at about 5.20 pm!
It's been a long day. This morning was taken up with a number of challenges to the action of the Nominating Committee. Usually, they get away with doing their work without having any of their nominations challenged at all. Not today. There were about 8 or 10 challenges.
The nominating committee is charged with filling spots on GA committees. They have a whole slew of requirements. A certain percentage of every committee must be women, a percentage must be from a minority, a percentage must be disabled. You must have balance between clergy (I dislike that word, by the way) and lay. I don't know how they do it, but they manage to find enough left handed mulatto sheep herders with one leg two inches shorter than the other to fill the vacancies. Of course they are also supposed to have theological diversity, so a percentage must be evangelical. They tend to ignore that requirement.
Well, this morning, they were reminded that they are not going to get away with ignoring evangelicals. Out of the positions contested, we managed to get two overturned. Not a great percentage, but a darn sight better than 0%. Of course, those nominated by the committee have a natural advantage. Many commissioners just assume that they have done their homework. So, for example, they elected a 31 year old, totally unqualified office assistant to a position on the Permanent Judicial Commission of General Assembly, the most important legislative body in the denomination, instead of Rev Catherine Purves, one of the most respected evangelical women in the denomination. Doesn't make much sense to me, either. It took us all morning to get this done.
Then, in the afternoon, we began the assault on the recommendation of the Ecclesiastical Committee on the PUP report. After presentations by everyone and his mother, we dealt with the first four recommendations. These were not particularly controversial, especially since they didn't contain any language that requires us to take any notice of them! Then, we got onto the meat of the matter with recommendation five. This is the one that advocates for local option, though I actually prefer what Jerry Andrews called it - "local licence." Basically it says that, although we have national standards, and that those standards matter, local ordaining bodies are free to examine candidates for office, and to decide whether or not any scruples they declare pertain to the essentials of the faith. If the local ordaining body (Session for elders, Presbytery for ministers) decides that some part of the constitution is not an essential of the faith, then they can declare that person suitable for ordination. Now, in fairness, that decision can be appealed to a higher body, but given some of the crazy decisions made by the permanent judicial commissions over the last few years, don't hold your breath for any appeals to be upheld.
We heard a report from members of the Task Force, then a minority report was presented by several courageous members of the Ecclesiology committee who refused to be cowed by all of the theological heavyweights ranged against them. I thought it was well-presented, and Moderator Joan Gray did a great job of conducting the meeting in a fair manner. (I came up in an elevator with her just a little while ago and thanked her for her work. She looked like she was completely drained and ready to burst into tears. I think she realises what they have done - and it is on her watch).
After perfecting both motions, the question was put "Shall the substitute become the main motion?" We debated long and hard. The minority report people had worked really hard and they were very well prepared, but the motion failed by a narrow margin. Immediately, a member of the minority report team moved to refer the matter to the Presbyteries (in effect, treating the proposed authoritative interpretation in recommendation five as if it was a regular constitutional change, which requires the approval of the presbyteries). After equally lengthy debate, this too failed. We knew it was all over at that stage. The motion to approve swiftly followed and the deed was done. General Assembly has adopted a comstitutional change by a backdoor approach which, at the very least, opens the door to the ordination of those who do not adhere to the standards in the Book of Order. Effectively, the constitution of the whole church is rendered optional, since local bodies can declare scruples, and do what they like. From now on, standards are "aspirational." That means that they something to which we aspire, not something we require. Our connectionalism is broken. Expect a rush of legal battles across the denomination as those presbyteries that are only too ready to ordain gays and lesbians try to push the boundaries as far as they can as quickly as they can. Some presbyteries have already announced that ordination standards will be rigidly enforced in their jurisdiction, but what happens when a pastor or elder wants to move? Is their ordination rendered void, or do we just fudge through? This result can only result in anarchy.
The Moderator called for prayer, just after the decision, but I had already gone to the microphone. Commissioners prayed. Some wept. Others just kept silent. I couldn't believe my ears when somebody started singing kum-ba-yah! Then, the assembly came to order and I got to ask my question. I wanted to know how to register my dissent, to have my name recorded in the minutes of the General Assembly as one who wished not to be associated with the decision of the assembly. The stated clerk replied. To tell the utter truth, I already knew how to register a dissent, but I wanted other people to know also. During a five minute break, I led a line of people to a table set up by staff members of the OGA. Dozens of people came forward to sign. Many of them were in tears. It seemed that a change was upon us.
The rest of the afternoon was a bit of a blur. In fact we had to go back and redo a couple of votes because folks said we had moved too fast and they were in shock. None of the reconsiderations changed the votes. We still failed to approve motions supporting the traditional understanding of Christian marriage. Actually, in this instance, I understand why. Our constitution already contains language that affirms traditional marriage, so we didn't need to add more. (You can't reaffirm the constitution - it is just there!) One telling moment came in the middle of that debate, however, when a Lebanese elder stood up and asked why we were bothering talking about the constitution when we had just voted to make it optional. As I remember it, he conclude with "Unbelievable!" and someone near the microphone said "God help us."
One last point, and then I think I deserve a refreshing beverage (as Letterman would say). The Assembly roundly defeated a challenge to the ordination standards. 22 presbyteries had sent overtures asking for the removal of the fidelity/chastity standard (fidelity in marriage between one man and one woman or chastity in singleness). It went down by over 400 to about 100, but before you get carried away, we should note that the PUP report had recommended that there be no changes made in the constitution for at least two years, in order to allow their recommendations to work. Some people clearly voted against the overtures because of the advice in the PUP report. Of course, it's a bit of a hollow victory, because we have just declared the ordination standards are open to local interpretation.
After the session broke up there were lots of people just walking round with blank expressions, barely able to believe what they had witnessed. One commentator summed it up well for me when he said that the PUP Task Force prepared the hemlock, and the General Assembly drank it.
What next? Nothing too drastic or too sudden, I hope. We have gatherings of evangelicals over the summer at Tulsa and Atlanta. I want to be at both. Apparently there will be some kind of major statement coming out by one of the renewal groups within a month. I believe that the Task Force gambled that the evangelicals would roll over and do nothing, after all we all have our pension credits and our property to worry about, not to mention the $1.8 billion the PC(USA) holds in assets, and of course the $150 million outreach gift we have just received. It may just be, however, that, this time, they will be surprised, and the gamble will fail. Who knows what God will make out of all of this.
Presbuteros