Monthly Archives: September 2006

Presbyterian Church in Ireland to hold GA in the Republic

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And finally, a news item today in the Belfast Telegraph says that the 2007 GA of the Presbyterian Church in Ireland will vote on holding the 2008 GA in the Republic of Ireland at Sligo.  While the church is the governing body for Presbyterians across the whole island, the GA has met in the Republic only five times in the last century, always in Dublin, with the last time being in 1991.  The 2007 GA of the PCI will meet in Belfast June 4-8, 2007.

Presbytery of San Diego Action

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The other news item that I somehow overlooked was the presbytery meeting of the Presbytery of San Diego this past Tuesday.  The presbytery heard a report from their task force on “The Way Forward.”  While I have not seen meeting minutes yet, or heard any reports, from the new, prominent placement of the task force report on the web site I must conclude that it was received or adopted on Tuesday.

As I look over the task force report from San Diego again, what strikes me is some parallels to the statement “The Challenge of out Times” that the Presbytery of San Joaquin was supposed to debate last night at their presbytery meeting.  (I’m watching for word on that meeting.)  Both statements encourage a two year period for discernment.  And the statements encourage the maintenance of connectionalism, and having churches not quickly abandon the PC(USA).  This parallelism I see not as a direct collaborative effort but as the embodiment of what many of us hope and pray for the PC(USA).

More as details become available.

Presbyterian Lay Committee Board Statement

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Greetings,
   In looking over my blog entries I am noticing a couple of things that I thought I posted but I guess I missed.  My apologies for this.

   One of these items is a statement from the board of directors of the Presbyterian Lay Committee dated September 6, 2006, titled “A call for Presbyterian decency and order.”  The statement speaks out against the strategies outlined in the PC(USA) legal memos on property and the juxtaposition of these memos at a time when the stated clerk was promoting the PUP report.  The board writes:

On the one hand, Stated Clerk Kirkpatrick publicly called for
Presbyterians who differ to “endeavor to outdo one another in
honoring one another’s decisions.” He endorsed task force
recommendation seven, asking all church members to acknowledge their
traditional Biblical obligation, as set forth in Matthew 18:15-17,
Matthew 5:23-25, and in the Rules of Discipline in the Book of Order, “to
conciliate, mediate, and adjust differences without strife”
prayerfully and deliberately (D-1.0103) and to institute administrative
or judicial proceedings only when other efforts fail to preserve the
purposes and purity of the church.”

On the other hand, in January 2006, while Stated Clerk Kirkpatrick was
publicly advocating such peaceable procedures, his office was privately
training presbytery executives and lawyers in closed-door meetings to
take aggressive, pre-emptive legal actions against local churches whose
ministers and sessions might be prayerfully and openly seeking to
discern the Lord’s will regarding their continuing association with
the Presbyterian Church (USA) in light of recent General Assembly
actions.

The statement concludes with a call for church-wide denunciation of the legal memos and strategies.

Follow up on Ridgebury decision

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First the Ridgebury decision has been posted by the NY court system.  You can go to e-court and search on decisions using the case index number 6144/2005 for the County of Orange to get a text copy or get the presbytery’s scanned copy. 

Second, at their September 6 meeting the council of the Presbytery of Hudson River voted unanimously to appeal the trial court decision.  I have not found the appeal in the system yet.  Also, the council decided to compile a list of all church incorporation dates.

New York Church Property Rulings – New Ruling for Episcopals in Rochester

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Greetings,
    Following the Ridgebury (Ridgeberry) Church decision where the judge ruled against the Presbytery of Hudson River and in favor of the congregation allowing them to keep their property it is interesting to see another case from New York go the other way.  On September 13 Justice Kenneth Fisher of the 7th Judicial District, County of Monroe, in a summary judgment, ruled against All-Saints Anglican Church (formerly Episcopal church) and in favor of the Diocese of Rochester that the diocese gets to keep the property.  It is interesting that this was decided in summary judgment since this was a strategy advocated in the legal memos generated in the PC(USA) denominational headquarters.  While no basis for the decision has been mentioned in the coverage it would be an educated guess that it is based on the hierarchical nature of the Episcopal denomination.  News coverage is available from the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle.

Layman Online article on “PCUSA dispatches teams…”

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Greetings,
    On Friday, September 15, the Layman Online published an article entitled “PCUSA dispatches teams to advise synod officials on property issues.”  The article talks about lawyers and others from the PC(USA) denominational headquarters sending teams out to talk to synod officials about property disputes.

There seems to be no question from the “Louisville Papers,” as the Layman calls, them that the national headquarters is concerned about property issues. And from recent events and continuing disputes it seems certain that property cases will be contested for a while.  Also, several of the older cases, that is pre-TTF report, are in the Synod of Southern California and Hawaii.  It is in that setting that the article talks about a case in the Presbytery of San Gabriel over a year before the 217th GA adopted the PUP report.

I wanted to add a bit of context to that part of the Layman article since it makes up a significant portion of that whole piece.  The article mentions an Administrative Commission active in the winter and spring of 2005.  It is important to know that while this commission was dealing with property, the property was in no way contested.  The Presbytery of San Gabriel formed the commission to dissolve a church at the church’s request.  With the dissolution the property was transferred to another PC(USA) congregation that was sharing the space with the dissolving congregation.  There was no dispute and no property ownership contested by any entity here, be it one of the churches or a middle governing body.

Yes, as part of that process the administrative commission made a series of recommendations to the presbytery that were suggested in the spirit of making similar events easier in the future.  And, the commission did consult with property specialist to be sure that the transfer was done properly, legally, decently and in order.  As far as I can discover talking with people involved in the process the recommendations were made and accepted in good faith and in the context of working with struggling churches. For those on the presbytery level who I know these events predate the release of the TTF report by almost a year and no connection to the present disputes is seen. 

San Joaquin Presbytery meeting this Thursday

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At the stated presbytery meeting of June 29, 2006, the Presbytery of San Joaquin adopted a document entitled  “The Challenge of Our Time” expressing concern for the direction of the  PC(USA).  Since the statement was written before the 217th GA the presbytery sent it back to the task force for appropriate revisions.  At the presbytery meeting this Thursday, September 21, the revised document will be considered.  A second, responding document entitled “The September Statement of Conscience,” has been prepared by another group.

The original (now revised) document seeks to discern a “corporate solution” for the Presbytery of San Joaquin in light of the PC(USA) GA adopting the authoritative interpretation as part of the Theological Task Force report.  The statement calls for short-term work to understand the immediate implications of connectionalism, especially recognizing ordinations from other ordaining bodies.  It also has a long-term component that focuses on a two year period of discernment that includes prayer, networking with presbyteries and other groups that have a similar concern for the direction of the PC(USA), and investigation of legal implications.  It also calls on the churches and the presbytery to not disengage from the PC(USA) during this two year period and to be sensitive to individuals and churches that take the minority position on these issues.

The alternative document begins by saying that the first document actually encourages congregations to disengage rather than having them stay.  It goes on to say that while the actions taken by the 217th GA are not the ideal solution for either side in the ordination standards debate they are being mis-represented in the press so many in the church have misinformation about them.  Next it talks about the unity of the church and how the PC(USA) disagreements have not reached a level that justifies separations and the negative witness to the world any separations would be.

We will see how this develops Thursday night.

Sacramento Presbytery meeting packet for Sept. 23

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In putting together my previous post I was surfing the Sacramento Presbytery web site and read the packet for their meeting this Saturday.  While there are some interesting internal items the packet includes the general letter of September 8, 2006, from GA Stated Clerk Rev. Clifton Kirkpatrick to stated clerks that responded to presbyteries passing resolutions that say they will uphold constitutional standards.  The packet also includes a letter dated September 12, 2006, from Joey Mills, Stated Clerk of the Synod of the Pacific, to Sacramento Presbytery stating that the resolutions at the September 9 called presbytery meeting are “contrary to the Constitution of the Presbyterian Church (USA)” and asking the presbytery to reconsider their actions.

Ordination standards in Sacramento. A challange?

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The Sacramento Bee on Saturday reported on a gay couple, active in the Westminster PC in Sacramento Presbytery, who are moving towards ordination as church officers, one as an elder the other as a deacon.  While the news article was not specific, reading it as a Presbyterian and reading the church newsletter it would seem that the congregational meeting to elect officers was yesterday, Sunday September 17.  I have seen no additional reaction post-meeting yet.

It should be noted however, that my post’s title is a bit misleading.  The Sacramento Presbytery resolutions apply specifically to presbytery examinations so it is only for ministers.  This present news item is for church examination and ordination so the resolution does not specifically apply.

PJC Case in Pittsburgh Presbytery over same-sex marriage

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It is being widely reported, including a PC(USA) new service item, that the Rev. Janet Edwards, a member of
Pittsburgh Presbytery, will be charged by an investigating committee with preforming a same-sex marriage in violation of the PC(USA) Book of Order.  The presbytery Permanent Judicial Commission (PJC) has not set a hearing date. 

This case follows the acquittal of the Rev. Jane Adams Spahr by the Presbytery of the Redwoods PJC on similar charges this past spring.  That case is being appealed to the Synod PJC.  Rev. Edwards has retained a member of Rev. Spahr’s legal team.

In an interesting human-interest side bar, it is also reported that the Rev. Edwards is a direct descendant of THE Rev. Edwards, the Rev. Jonathan Edwards, born in 1703 and an influential colonial American clergy-man, well known for his sermon “Sinners in the hands of an angry God.”

Rev. Edwards is a board member of More Light Presbyterians, a network of churches working for the full participation of LGBT people in the life and witness of the presbyterian church.