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Women's ministries most affected.

28 workers lose jobs under plan approved by GAC panel. Click here for the list of people who have been dismissed.

Reverses presbytery in Van Kuiken case   [5-7-04]

On April 30, 2004, the Permanent Judicial Commission of the Synod of the Covenant (Ohio and Michigan) of the Presbyterian Church (USA) ruled that the Constitution does not prohibit same-sex marriages and that "the decision of the Permanent Judicial Commission of the Presbytery of Cincinnati is reversed and the rebuke of Rev. Van Kuiken is removed."

Seeking a more dynamic view of the Trinity    [4-1-04]

A study paper entitled "The Trinity: God’s Love Overflowing" has grown out of three years of work by a Trinity Working Group established by the General Assembly, and working under the Office of Theology and Worship.  At this summer's General Assembly, the General Assembly Council will recommend that this paper serve as the basis for a series of consultations on the Trinity throughout the church. A final report will be made at the General Assembly in 2006.

The paper is available in PDF format on the PC(USA) website.

Responding to the paper, theologian Larry Goleman argues that while it is helpful, it could be much more helpful by taking current thinking more seriously, as it emphasizes God’s nature as social/relational, and as dynamic – God as becoming rather than static being.

The Rev. Steve Van Kuiken will go to trial this week (Feb. 5 and 6) before the Permanent Judicial Commission of the Synod of the Covenant in Maumee, OH, just south of Toledo. Van Kuiken has brought an action against the Presbytery of Cincinnati seeking to retain his ordination following the presbytery’s action last June.

Early reports from today's l-o-n-g meeting of the Presbytery of Western North Carolina tell us that the recommendation of the presbytery's Committee on Ministry was basically accepted, with one important amendment. The committee had recommended that the ministry of the Rev. Parker Williamson as chief executive officer of the Presbyterian Lay Committee and editor in chief of its publications no longer be considered a validated ministry, and that he therefore be placed on suspended status as a member of the presbytery. After an hour or more of procedural skirmishes, followed by lunch, the Committee on Ministry presented its motion.

An amendment was then offered by the Rev. Pete Peery, pastor at First Presbyterian Church in Asheville. It would have affirmed the COM recommendation that Williamson's ministry not be validated, while softening the action by continuing him on the roll of presbytery as a member at large. Williamson and his defenders argued against the amendment, apparently wanting a clear action by the presbytery to reject him and his ministry. According to the Layman Online, Mr. Williamson himself denounced the amendment as an "oily compromise."

The presbytery approved the amendment, which was seen by some as separating the ministry of the Presbyterian Lay Committee from consideration of Mr. Williamson personally, and focusing on the ministry of the Presbyterian Lay Committee as being considered invalid.

With the amendment on the floor, the Committee on Ministry then gave a twenty-minute presentation of the reasons for its recommendation; the Lay Committee was then given twenty minutes to make its case against the recommended action, with two of the Lay Committee's leading attorneys arguing that the issue should be dealt with in the church's judicial system, and not by the Presbytery.

Some members of the Committee on Ministry spoke as evangelicals who share many of the views of the Lay Committee, but who said they cannot accept the ways that group is pursuing them. One speaker said that if someone wants to work for change within the Presbyterian Church, they must work within the rules of the system; if they choose to work outside those rules, they are apparently choosing to work outside the church itself.

One speaker noted that the Lay Committee had declared that the 2001 General Assembly was "apostate," and more recently has charged through its "Declaration Conscience" that no part of the denomination's budget is worthy of support. He then asked why, if this group thinks the denomination is so completely on the wrong track, they still want to be a part of it.

One participant observed that the COM succeeded in focusing the debate on the legitimacy of the Lay Committee's work, rather than letting it shift to a debate on the personal ministry of Parker Williamson - which is the way he and his defenders have been trying to "spin" it.

Following the presentations and a long debate, the amendment was passed "pretty convincingly," thus becoming the main motion.

Williamson's supporters offered a substitute motion which would have rejected the COM recommendation completely. That motion failed.

After further debate, a secret ballot was taken. The result was 150 votes for the COM motion as amended, to 106 against.

After the result was announced, Mr. Williamson went to the podium and proclaimed his intention to file a complaint about "irregularities" in the process. Saying that one third of those present must support his complaint, he invited his supporters forward. About a third of the group went forward. As one person put it, they "marched up and then left."

It was noted that the Committee on Ministry, in its presentation and in the debates, made clear that "per capita" (and Williamson's urging churches not to support it) was not the only issue. The style of his work through the Layman was clearly a part of the problem as well.

One observer expressed his sense that Mr. Williamson and the Lay Committee came to the meeting expecting to lose, and determined to make the process into a matter of martyrdom. It appeared that the general tone of the debate, and the amendment to keep Williamson on the roll of presbytery, might help to soften that appeal to sympathy for a "martyr."

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Leslie Scanlon of Outlook has a brief report from the scene.

The Presbyterian Health, Education and Welfare Association (PHEWA), National Ministries Division, is seeking nominations for five General Assembly Ministry Awards, during the 216th General Assembly (2004) in Richmond, VA.

By a vote of 26 in favor to 76 opposed, the Presbytery of Washington, in western Pennsylvania, rejected the proposal that has been put forward by a number of conservative groups in the PC(USA). [The vote count comes from the Washington County [PA] Observer-Reporter; the Layman Online reports a vote of 28 in favor.]

The Rev. L. Rus Howard, pastor of Peters Creek United Presbyterian Church, introduced the motion calling for an overture on gracious separation. The Rev. Mr. Hubbard gained national attention in October of 2002 when he, with four other Presbyterian ministers, taped a "Call to Confession and Repentance" on a wall of the Presbyterian Center in Louisville, charging that the PC(USA) is "decaying and dying in the belly of the beast" and is "irretrievably apostate under current management." The Peters Creek church is a member of the "Confessing Church" movement.

HOW CAN WE LIVE TOGETHER AS ONE CHURCH?
Reflections on the Anglican dilemma   [1-15-04]

Stated Clerk Clifton Kirkpatrick reflects on the upcoming General Council of the World Alliance of Reformed Churches.  The Bible study prepared for that gathering, as well as the study for our own 216th General Assembly, both invite us to reflect on the fullness of life in Christ -- and the unity of the church that flows from that new life.

Click here for a summary of the case as it stood in June, 2003.

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The Administrative Commission that was appointed by the Presbytery of Cincinnati in May, 2002, will report to the Presbytery at its meeting on Saturday, January 10, on its recommendations for responding to the actions of Mt. Auburn Presbyterian Church that have been alleged as defying the Constitution of the Presbyterian Church, specifically in relation to the ordination of GLBT people and the blessing of same-sex unions.

Perhaps the most creative element of their recommendations has led them to propose an overture to the 215^th General Assembly that would be needed to make it possible. This would establish the category of a "provisional status" for a congregation such as Mt. Auburn, which it describes as "an intentional, consistent, and conscientious objector to certain responsibilities in the Constitution of the Presbyterian Church." It would require a two-thirds vote of the presbytery to place the congregation in this status.

Under this provisional status, the presbytery would hold conversations with the congregation to explain the reasons for the action, and to hear comments from the members. During the two-year period, the congregation "would lose voting privileges, but would continue to have voice in presbytery matters."

The commission also recommends that the Presbytery "establish and facilitate a Presbytery-wide "Year of Exchange" during which delegations from congregations within our Presbytery would visit one another, share their varying points of view, arrange pulpit exchanges, and form collaborative prayer groups and mission projects."

The final recommendation would "establish a three-year moratorium whereby member churches of the Presbytery voluntarily comply to refrain from legal or procedural challenges to one another in issues related to inclusiveness, with reference to the Book of Order Section G-6.0106b."

The full text of the Commission report, and the proposed overture are available on the Presbytery website, in PDF format. Click here, and scroll down to the bottom of the page for the links to each of them.

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