In the same session, the Assembly considered the final report of the Special Committee to Study Issues of Civil Union and Christian Marriage, which was created at the direction of the 218th General Assembly (2008), as well as a minority report composed by three members of the special committee who disputed the final report.
The exhaustion of commissioners and staff showed when the assembly was allowed to make amendments that rendered a motion and its substitute effectively the same -— one to accept the final report of the special committee with the minority report attached, and another to accept the minority report with the final report of the special committee attached. The Assembly voted 439-208 to send the final report of the special committee – with the minority report attached – to presbyteries for further study.
This was a significant departure from the recommendation of the 219th General Assembly Committee on Civil Union and Marriage, which debated both reports at length earlier in the week, and referred just the majority report, with minor amendments, to the full Assembly.
The full Assembly’s action on the final and minority reports had far-reaching effects when a deft parliamentary move by Ryan Balsan of New Brunswick Presbytery made a successful substitute motion to use the approved reports to answer five overtures that would have changed the Directory for Worship of the Book of Order to allow marriage to be between “two people” rather than a man and a woman, and three overtures that would have provided an authoritative interpretation to allow marriages between “two people.”
An overture from Boston Presbytery that proposed changes to the Book of Order to allow clergy to perform same-gender marriages would have had to be ratified by a majority of the presbyteries. An overture from Albany Presbytery recommended that the General Assembly issue an authoritative interpretation to allow clergy to perform same-gender marriages, which would not require a presbytery vote. Both were approved by a strong margin in committee.
Debate showed commissioners and advisory delegates were grappling to reconcile cultural realities with the life and worship of congregations.
“The great action of God is not limited to the church,” said Chris Henry, a pastor from Greater Atlanta Presbytery. “God speaks to us in the realms of culture and society. I believe God is speaking to us.”
Paige Eubanks, a young adult advisory delegate from Mid-South Presbytery said, “We are to constantly strive to reflect the purity of Jesus,” Eubanks said. “My fear is that if we are to open up Scripture to interpretation, we compromise that purity, and in compromising that purity we become susceptible to deception, and that this body, my family, will disintegrate.”
In his motion to answer the eight overtures, Balsan argued before the full Assembly that approving any of the overtures that would allow marriages of same-gender couples would prejudice congregations’ study of the final report.
“Make space for discernment on this issue,” he said.
After the plenary session, Stated Clerk Gradye Parsons was asked if it might not confuse congregations to receive both reports.
“I think we’ll have to draft a pretty good cover letter,” he said.
A motion made the next morning (July 9) to reconsider the vote on the eight overtures that would have permitted pastors to perform marriage ceremonies for same-gender couples failed.
KATIE PATE is pastor of Milwaukie Church, just outside of Portland, Ore.
