In the verdict issued Monday, April 21, Van Kuiken was found not guilty on a charge of participating in ordination and installation of deacons and elders who are active homosexuals. The responsibility for ordination and installation of deacons and elders belongs with the session and not the pastor, ruled the judicial commission. The pastor’s role in that process is more or less ceremonial and he did nothing wrong in performing that function, it said.
In a statement released after the decision was announced, Van Kuiken said he would appeal the guilty verdict because he feels “that this decision of the PJC is theologically wrong and contrary to the Scriptures. And because it is contrary to the Scriptures, it is also unconstitutional.”
He added, “The PJC’s decision regarding ordination did not address the rightness or wrongness of ordaining sexually active gay and lesbian persons but focused on the technicality of the role of the pastor in ordination. It is significant that pastors are let off the hook with ordinations and that only the session, the governing body of the local church, should be held accountable.”
It’s a stance in line with what the Cincinnati minister has beein saying throughout the proceedings. Some weeks ago, he made it clear that he’s acting out of conscience – as he put it, “I agree with Martin Luther King that ‘one has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws.’ ” Van Kuiken admitted that he had participated in the ordination and installation of “nonrepentant, sexually active homosexual persons” and “I performed ceremonies between same-sex couples that were the equivalent of Christian marriage.”
But Van Kuiken also contended that if the Bible conflicts with the PC(USA) constitution, he’s obligated to follow the Scriptures. And, despite admitting that he’d participating in ordaining gays and lesbians who were sexually active and presided over same-sex union ceremonies, he also wrote that “I do not admit that any of this conduct constitutes an offense” and “I will not accept a guilty verdict, for I am convinced beyond doubt that the actions of which I have been accused are not wrong. Nor will I accept any degree of censure, for this would imply my acceptance of a guilty verdict.”
Van Kuiken wrote that “this trial is about the struggle for the ability to live openly in the Presbyterian Church” and that disobeying what he sees as unjust rules “is necessary for reform and progress in the PC(USA).
Van Kuiken’s trial was held at a church in Cincinnati on April 8 – but exactly what was said there isn’t known, because the judicial commission limited attendance at the trial only to members of the presbytery.
