A draft report from Justice Ministries on the topic of human sexuality needed more work, the Life and Mission Agency decided at its March meeting. The report, which was originally intended to come before this year’s General Assembly, was written as a response to more than a dozen overtures referred to the national church department by presbyteries and sessions.
The LMA committee oversees the work of seven national church departments and approves their reports to the General Assembly each year.
A total of 23 overtures and one memorial on human sexuality were submitted to the 2015 General Assembly. Some overtures urged the church to change its current stance and allow lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans persons in monogamous relationships to be married in Presbyterian churches and ordained as ministers, while others asked for a reaffirmation of the church’s 1994 Statement on Human Sexuality, which considers homosexual intercourse a departure from God’s created order and calls for homosexual Christians to live in chastity. Other overtures asked for strategies and safe spaces so those in the courts of the church would be able to engage in honest dialogue and listening.
Some of the overtures were referred only to Justice Ministries or to the Committee on Church Doctrine, some were referred to both groups, and still others were referred to Justice Ministries “in consultation” with the Committee on Church Doctrine or to Church Doctrine “in consultation” with Justice Ministries.
Justice Ministries is a department of the LMA and reports to the LMA committee, while Church Doctrine is a standing committee of the General Assembly and reports directly to the highest court of the church.
“This is intended as a first step,” Stephen Allen, associate secretary of Justice Ministries, said of the seven-page draft report presented to the LMA committee.
The report provided some theological context and steps that could allow—but not require—churches and presbyteries to conduct weddings and ordinations for people in monogamous same-sex relationships, while affirming “freedom of conscience and action” for churches and ministers that hold to the church’s traditional views on homosexuality and marriage. The draft recommendations were intended to be sent to the courts of the church for study and report, and only then would they present recommendations for consideration by a future assembly.
Some committee members spoke favourably of the report and voted for it to be presented to the assembly, but others raised concerns about the extent to which Justice Ministries and the Church Doctrine committee had been able to consult with each other. Although the two groups shared responses to the jointly produced Mind, Body and Soul study guide and shared drafts of their reports, the Church Doctrine committee and the Justice Ministries team had not been able to formally meet together.
Others suggested the report was incomplete because it did not respond to all of the overtures referred to Justice Ministries, and did not overtly mention the feedback received from individuals and church groups as a result of the study guide.
A member from the Presbytery of Western Han Ca, Rev. Alfred Lee, made the motion to refer the report back to Justice Ministries. “Han Ca translated the [Mind, Body and Soul] document and a report is coming,” he said. “If you send the documents without feedback it will bring the revolt from some areas. … Chinese and ethnic oriented congregations, we’re not there yet. I urge people to understand. Let’s study about it. We are ecclesia, we need to embrace, go along, but we’re not there yet.”
The motion to refer the report back to the department for more work passed with a slim majority. This means Justice Ministries will ask the 2016 assembly for permission to report back in 2017.
Aubrey Hawton, an elder on the committee, fought back tears following the decision. “As a gay man, it’s been frustrating,” he said. “I waited and waited to be able to be married in the church I call home, but I couldn’t because I didn’t want to marry a woman.” Finally he and his husband gave up waiting and got married in another church. “I’m tired of it being ‘us and them,’” he said. “I’m tired of being a ‘them.’ I’m as much an ‘us’ as any of you sitting in this room are.”
The LMA committee decided a summary of responses to the study guide would be submitted to the General Assembly this year as a supplementary report.
“Congregations I know have worked hard to meet their deadlines,” said Rev. Lara Scholey who made the motion to submit a summary. “Even though we haven’t met ours we should give them something as evidence that they are being heard.”
You can read more about what happened at the LMA Committee meeting—including some dismal news for Presbyterians Sharing—on our website.
