Pittsburgh, July 3, 2012—Despite repeatedly being told that any action toward changing the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)’s definition of marriage to include same-gender couples might lead to schism and loss of world mission partners, the General Assembly Committee on Civil Unions and Marriage Issues voted 28-24 late Tuesday to do just that.
The committee approved an overture, 13-04 from Hudson River Presbytery, which would change the definition of Christian marriage in the denomination’s constitution from being “a covenant through which a man and a woman are called to live out together before God their lives of discipleship” to being a covenant involving “two people,” among several alterations.
To take effect, that change in the PC(USA) constitution still would require approval from the full General Assembly later this week – a vote which may come on Friday afternoon – and then approval from a majority of the denomination’s 173 presbyteries. The committee chose that more arduous route rather than approving an authoritative interpretation, which would not need ratification from the presbyteries, to give PC(USA) pastors leeway to perform same-gender marriages in states where such weddings are legal.
The committee’s controversial action came at the end of a long day in which parliamentary procedure was discussed more often than Scripture.
Prior to the vote, which came after 10 p.m. and left committee members scurrying to catch the last shuttle buses to their hotels, the committee had only approved one item of business.
Earlier the committee voted down two motions with different intents. One was a statement that would have affirmed the traditional definition of Christian marriage as based in the confessions, leaving it not affected by changes in civil law. The other was an authoritative interpretation that would have provided pastors in states where same-gender marriage is legal the discretion to perform marriages for those couples – a measure the committee defeated by a vote of 24-26.
Throughout the day several committee members requested guidance for filing a minority report.
Moderated by Aimee Moiso, a teaching elder from San Jose Presbytery, the committee opted for a listening approach on Monday and started Tuesday in the same informal fashion, defeating one early motion to start conducting business. The committee heard on-the-ground stories from people struggling with these issues – including those whose congregations are split on this issue and pastors who have had to say “no” when asked if they would marry a gay or lesbian couple.
Just prior to 5 p.m. Tuesday, the committee finally approved its first item of business, recommending 29-23 that the church study marriage issues for another two years.
The committee-initiated statement calls for two years of “serious study and discernment concerning the meaning of Christian marriage.”
The recommendation further asks the PC(USA) Office of Theology and Worship to prepare and distribute materials to the presbyteries and churches, including “relevant Scripture, key methods of biblical interpretation, current understandings of our constitution, and some suggested guidance for prayerful and reconciling ways of listening to one another.”
If the study proposal passes the full assembly, presbyteries will be asked to report to the Office of General Assembly on how the study was conducted in their congregations at least three months prior to the 221st General Assembly (2012).
The committee said it offered the proposal “in the hope and trust that such discernment will genuinely seek the rule and will of God be done in our Presbyterian Church as it is in heaven under the guidance of the triune God.”
The committee defeated a proposal to offer a longer period of study, four years, which also would have included a task force.
