Good News from G.A. 218

The 218th General Assembly fully lived into its theme, “Do Justice, Love Kindness, Walk Humbly with your God.”  It took important and historic steps toward a more welcoming church and spoke prophetically on many issues.

Authoritative Interpretations

The General Assembly...

• Passed the John Knox overture to restore the full reach of the 2006 Authoritative Interpretation (A.I.) of G-6.0108, permitting presbyteries to consider the full scope of candidates' faith, life, and any declared "departure" - and (not incidentally) overturning the recent, unhelpful GAPJC decision in Bush vs. Presbytery of Pittsburgh.
• Issued an Authoritative Interpretation that "interpretive statements concerning ordained service of homosexual church members" from 1978 and 1979 "and all subsequent affirmations thereof, have no further force or effect." 

Both of these A.I.'s became effective with the close of G.A. and do not need to be ratified by the presbyteries. 

Covenant Network Co-Moderators Deborah Block and Jon Walton said, "This is a day that has been thirty years in coming and we give thanks for the hope that it offers to so many in the church who have been and still are excluded from ordained office." 

The effect of the two AI’s is to allow presbyteries to consider all candidates for ordination, regardless of sexual orientation, individually and on the same terms.

Amend G-6.0106b

The G.A. also passed an overture that would amend G-6.0106b, which currently requires that candidates live 'in obedience to Scripture and in conformity to the historic confessional standards of the church' and singles out 'fidelity in marriage between a man and a woman or chastity in singleness' as an example of confessional standards.  

If 87 presbyteries vote in favor, that language would be replaced with a requirement that candidates 'live lives obedient to Jesus Christ the Head of the Church, striving to follow where he leads through the witness of the Scriptures, and to understand the Scriptures through the instruction of the Confessions.'  The proposed amendment would reaffirm the pre-eminent authority of Jesus Christ in the life of the church, and refocus this section on discipleship rather than debates about human sexuality.

The G.A. “strongly encouraged” presbyteries to “consider this overture using a process of listening and discernment.”

Additional Overtures

The G.A. passed two other overtures supported by the Covenant Network.

• It approved an overture from Denver strongly reaffirming our church's longstanding support for full civil and legal rights for same-gender couples and their families, and authorizing a study of the theological meaning of marriage. 
• It began the four-year process for approving a more faithful translation of the Heidelberg Catechism, correcting several mistranslations including an egregious 1962 translator's insertion of the term "homosexual perversion" in a list of sins in Q. 87.

Other Significant Actions

Commissioners elected the youngest-ever Moderator, Bruce Reyes-Chow (a plenary speaker at the 2003 Covenant Conference in Washington). They also elected Gradye Parsons as Stated Clerk, by a strong majority on the first ballot.  (Gradye was the unanimous choice of the Stated Clerk Nominating Committee.)

The G.A. also took any number of interesting and important actions, including...

• beginning the process for adding the Belhar Confession from South Africa to our Book of Confessions,
• adopting a new Social Creed for the 21st Century,
• endorsing the "Amman Call" for a just, two-state resolution in Israel/Palestine,
• supporting peacemaking efforts in Iraq,
• unanimously endorsing a plan for enhanced cooperation in international mission
• adopting major reports on mental illness and on homelessness, and
• issuing strong statements on gun violence, pay equity for women, and workers' rights.

CovNet Events

In a week full of special events, Covenant Network hosted two sold-out gatherings. Our Commissioner Convocation Dinner drew 300 people to San Jose’s beautiful City Hall Rotunda on the eve of G.A. Susan Andrews, Moderator of the 215th G.A. and currently Executive Presbyter of Hudson River, recalled past attempts to remove the exclusive provisions of G-6.0106b and our hopes for the week ahead in “From Syracuse to San Jose: The Perseverance of the Saints.”

John Buchanan, Moderator of the 208th G.A., pastor of Fourth Presbyterian Church in Chicago, Editor/Publisher of the Christian
Century, and founding Co-Moderator of the Covenant Network, keynoted the Covenant Network Luncheon on Monday, June 23.  He expressed Covenant Network’s continuing vision of “A Church as Generous and Just as God’s Grace.” McCormick Seminary President Cynthia Campbell remembered Jack Stotts, President Emeritus of both McCormick and Austin Seminaries, who among much else delivered the address at Covenant Network’s first G.A. Luncheon in 1998.

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