The Assembly voted 259-255-2 instead to make a call for prayer and discernment its answer to five overtures which would have either weakened or deleted entirely the rules and interpretations which keep sexually active homosexuals from being ministers, elders or deacons.
The vote to adopt the call for prayer and discernment was 297-218, but it was the previous, closer vote — to replace the recommendation from the Assembly Committee on Church Orders and Ministry with a minority report — that made success achingly close for those who have struggled for almost three decades to change the rules.
Response in the convention center hall was muted as moderator Rick Ufford-Chase had asked commissioners not to applaud whichever way the vote went. Observers at the back of the hall audibly gasped at the closeness of the first vote.
Before the Assembly took a delayed dinner break, Ufford-Chase told commissioners that they could gather with those saddened by the outcome in a park across the street from the convention center.
In the muggy Richmond evening, several hundred persons gathered for about 15 minutes in a circle to pray, sing, and hear words of consolation from leaders who clearly wished they had gathered to celebrate.
But a defiant Janie Spahr thanked the crowd for coming to share in the disappointment. “All we wanted to do is serve and walk beside you and serve you in the church that we love.”
“We heard another ‘no,'” Spahr said, then vowed to work until the church answer became a joyful “yes.” “We will be back until we can serve as God has called us, because she has called us, surely she has.”
Ufford-Chase, who during his campaign statements last Saturday said he favors opening ordination to sexually active homosexuals, told those gathered “Jesus told us to take up our cross, and one mor time, it’s clear we must take up our cross and walk. Let’s do the work.”
Conservatives expressed relief after the votes. “The reason authoritative interpretation is so important is that it provides the meaning we’ve received over this whole conversation,” said Nancy Maffett, a member of the Presbyterians for Renewal resource team. “To take that away would have left a very good Book of Order statement [G-6.0106b], but nothing that speaks to the precise meaning what that statement is.”
G-6-0106b calls for fidelity in heterosexual marriage or chastity in singleness, but does not specifically mention homosexuality.
In an interview after the vote, outgoing moderator Susan Andrews, said, “My heart is heavy for those who feel left out of the church because of this act. I pray God’s blessing upon all of us as we continue to grow into the church that God is calling us to be.”
“Of course we’re disappointed,” said Kim Richter, incoming moderator of the Covenant Network, which supports gay and lesbian ordination. “We do believe that the Authoritative Interpretations are outdated and unnecessarily punitive and negative.”
Richter and others pointed to the close vote as a sign of the church’s deep division, and she said supporting the unity of the denomination will be a priority, as well as pushing ahead on the ordination issue.
For now, the church has both G-6.0106b and the authoritative interpretations. With no Assembly until June 2006, they will stay in effect until at least after the Theological Task Force on Peace, Unity and Purity has reported (as early as September 2005).
