Organizing to Approve Amendment 08-B

The Covenant Network of Presbyterians is actively working for the approval of Amendment 08-B.

Amendment 08-B would replace the current language of G-6.0106b with the following:

Those who are called to ordained service in the church, by their assent to the constitutional questions for ordination and installation (W-4.4003), pledge themselves to 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. In so doing, they declare their fidelity to the standards of the Church. Each governing body charged with examination for ordination and/or installation (G-14.0240 and G-14.0450) establishes the candidate’s sincere efforts to adhere to these standards.

The amendment also adds line to sections G-14.0240 and G-14.0450, requiring that sessions and presbyteries determine candidates’ “readiness to assent to the constitutional questions for ordination and installation.”

For the past 30 years the PCUSA has been actively discriminating against its own sons and daughters who are lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender; that prejudice was written into our Constitution 11 years ago in G-6.0106b. We are working for the passage of Amendment 08-B, to replace the language of G-6.0106b, for the sake of our congregations and presbyteries, our families and friends, our church’s witness to the world.

Our Board has also been clear that we believe it to be very important how these conversations happen. The need to talk about the issues raised by 08-B in every presbytery is an opportunity for the PCUSA to move forward in our understanding of the issues and one another, and so we are organizing for conversations, not combat.

Here is a growing collection of resources that might help as your presbytery considers Amendment 08-B.

G-6.0106b: Current and proposed language, compared (PDF)
Constitutional and confessional perspectives on G-6.0106b (PDF)
Responses to Frequently Asked Questions/Objections to 08-B (PDF)
218th G.A. actions on ordination
Tricia Dykers Koenig - The Case for Amendment 08-B
Douglas Oldenburg - Voting and Church Unity
Keenan Kelsey - Why Our Church Needs Amendment 08-B

If you have suggestions to add, or would like to plug into our ongoing work, please contact National Organizer Tricia Dykers Koenig at triciadk@covenantnetwork.org or 216-658-1770.