Passed 1/10/06 by 118-95
On issuing an authoritative interpretation clarifying standards for ordination, and deleting G-6.0106b:
The Presbytery of San Francisco respectfully overtures the 217th General Assembly (2006) to do the following:
Interpretative statements concerning ordained service of homosexual church members by the 190th General Assembly (1978) of the United Presbyterian Church in the United States of America and the 119th General Assembly (1979) of the Presbyterian Church in the United States, and all subsequent affirmations thereof, have no further force or effect.
Shall G-6.0106b be stricken?
With the Church Universal, the Presbyterian Church is commanded to “go and make disciples of all nations” (Matt. 28:19). We have good news – life-saving news – to share. People in our cities – confronted by unrelenting economic demands, surrounded by clashing social cultures, buffeted by despair, anxiety, and hopelessness, and often very far from home – need especially to hear the good news of the Gospel of the unfathomable and unfailing love of God. Like first-century Corinth, or Ephesus, or Rome, our cities are ripe mission fields.
Yet evangelism in cities and beyond is greatly hampered by our church’s rules that exclude and disqualify a whole class of people whom our members and potential members know well. A polity that appears to welcome gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender people to sit in our pews, sing in our choirs, teach in our Sunday Schools, and contribute to our offerings – but not to serve in ordained office – is unpersuasive as “good news.” Our own Confessions remind us that “congregations, individuals, or groups of Christians who exclude, dominate, or patronize their fellowmen, however subtly, resist the Spirit of God and bring contempt on the faith which they profess” (9:44).
Our church has in recent years made significant changes to offer needed flexibility in order to provide leadership in diverse and emerging contexts. These actions appropriately recognized that “there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit” (I Cor 12:4) and that it is the Spirit (not the Presbyterian Church) that “calls women and men to all ministries of the Church” (10.4).
G-6.0106b as usually interpreted excludes an entire class of Presbyterians from service. Categorically refusing to consider a substantial percentage of our members for ordained service impedes the work of the Spirit, stands in the way of discipleship, and impoverishes the work of the Kingdom.