Presbyterian turnabout

Christian Century, July 4, 2001 by John Dart

On the other side, elder Kathryn Morgan of New Jersey asked, "How can we ask the forbearance [of gays and lesbians] when others do not show forbearance themselves?" Former church moderator John Buchanan, a cofounder of the Covenant Network (and editor-publisher of the CENTURY), said, "In five years, I haven't seen peace" since the fidelity and chastity amendment was approved. "This action does not require any presbytery to do anything it does not want to," Buchanan said.

At the end of two hours of well-mannered debate and deliberation, the electronic ballot results were flashed on large television screens with little audible reaction. No applause could be heard, though hugs and tears were evident. The outward calm typified the week. If any demonstrations were held near the convention center during the meeting, they were brief. (The gay-rights Soulforce movement, which disrupted the Presbyterian and other church conventions last year, decided to stage its protest this June at the concurrent meeting of Southern Baptists in New Orleans.)

In order for the 3.6-million-member Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) to join the United Church of Christ, Unitarian Universalists and Reform Judaism in ordaining gay and lesbian clergy, a majority of the 173 presbyteries must ratify the proposal and have it affirmed by next year's General Assembly.

Hopes have been stirred for Martha Juillerat, who gave up a 15-year ministry in 1995 after she came out as a lesbian. "Nothing would give me greater joy" than to return, she told reporters. Likewise for lesbian Janie Spahr, whose call to a Rochester, New York, church was denied in 1992 by a Presbyterian court, and seminary graduate Katie Morrison of Oakland, California, who said her partner is now serving a United Church of Christ congregation.

Predicting the climate in the presbyteries is tricky. The regional bodies rejected a ban on same-sex unions that had been passed by last year's General Assembly, but many analysts faulted the wording of the amendement for its defeat.

Church observers expect the next stage to invigorate advocacy groups on both sides, especially the conservative Confessing Church Movement, which claims a growing number of congregations rallying to the cause. Yet "there is a great weariness in the church," said Elder Nancy Maffett of Colorado Springs, a Presbyterians for Renewal board member who was a distant second to Jack Rogers in the moderator election. Along with others, she agreed in a news conference that delegates this year were very cordial. "But I'm not sure being nice is going to get us out of this," she said.

Splitsville?

Outside the convention center, Presbyterian delegates regularly walked by a historical marker placed by the United Methodist Church which said that Henry Clay, Daniel Webster and John C. Calhoun--political giants of the pre-Civil War era--regarded the 1844 separation of the large Methodist Episcopal Church into northern and southern factions as a "significant rift in American society." Was historical sign an ominous reminder that church splits can develop slowly, and heal even more slowly? The marker notes: "Efforts to reconcile began in Louisville in 1874.... Division healed, 1939."