The North Shore of Lake Superior is dotted with lighthouses that once guided ships through dangerous waters. Before automation, lighthouse keepers and their families maintained the lights around the clock, hauling fuel, repairing equipment, keeping watch through every season. And when the light could not penetrate a thick, rolling mist, they turned to other signals: the low call of a foghorn or the crackle of a short-range radio.
Today, the lights still shine, but technology has replaced the keepers. What remains is more than a monument to a vanished way of life. These lighthouses remind us that communities must continually ask which inherited practices still serve their purpose and which can be released — without assuming the answer beforehand.
Not long after the 227th General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) adjourned, I drove the North Shore and stopped at Split Rock Lighthouse. Standing below its sheer cliff, I found myself thinking about the assembly. Split Rock no longer guides ships; modern navigation has rendered its light unnecessary. Yet it still stands as a witness to a faithful calling. Looking up at it, I wondered: What in our common life is truly worth keeping, and what have we simply never thought to question? Standing beneath that light, I was no longer sure the two are easy to tell apart.
At the assembly, commissioners voted to refer an overture that would require ministers in the PC(USA) to practice monogamy in any relationship. Rather than deciding the question immediately, they concluded the overture needed further work and referred it to the newly created “Beyond Changing Families” study, which will examine family structures and the church’s pastoral response more broadly.
The path to that referral was not without conflict. A motion to dismiss the overture outright was offered, and language questioning its proponents’ motives was proposed. The committee ultimately chose to acknowledge genuine disagreement without assigning bad faith.
Related reading: “PC(USA) overture on monogamy deemed out of order, referred for further study” by Gregg Brekke, Outlook reporting
Some have characterized the assembly’s action as a failure to affirm monogamy. Others viewed it as a missed opportunity to embrace new forms of relationship. I believe the referral reflected something more important: the church’s commitment to careful discernment before reaching a conclusion.
The church has long wrestled with difficult questions rather than resolving them by instinct. In Acts 15, the apostles gathered to discern together how Gentiles would be welcomed into the church. The Council of Nicaea heard Arius’s arguments before reaffirming Christ’s full divinity. Calvin revisited longstanding teachings on charging interest to a loan, reaching a more nuanced conclusion than many before him. The Synod of Dort carefully considered the Remonstrants before reaffirming Reformed teaching on grace and election. In our own denominational story, we once proclaimed chattel slavery to be perfectly acceptable and have spent many long years correcting the harm of this error, with much work left to do.
These were not simple, trivial matters. Each of these debates touched the heart of Christian faith and practice. They remind us that discernment is rarely quick and that the Holy Spirit often works through sustained conversation rather than immediate certainty.
None of those councils deferred forever. Each eventually concluded. But each did so only after genuine wrestling. That distinction matters. To decide by reflex is not the same as deciding through discernment.
At the same time, it would be a mistake to reduce this conversation to process alone. Real people are waiting on its outcome.
Related reading: “PC(USA) General Assembly 227 votes to approve all Committee on Constitutional Interpretation recommendations” by Gregg Brekke, Outlook reporting
Many Presbyterians believe monogamy is foundational to Christian discipleship, bound up with their relationships, the future they intend for their children, and their sense of what the church is for. Others, including ethically non-monogamous members already present in our congregations, wonder whether there is a place for them in the church. Both convictions were well represented in the committee’s work and on the plenary floor. Referring the question leaves both groups in an unfinished sentence, asked to wait at least two more years for its close. That is a genuine cost, and it should not be minimized. There is also a third group: those who are not primarily defending a predetermined conclusion but earnestly seeking the Spirit’s guidance. I count myself among them. Asking whether a matter is truly settled is not an act of unfaithfulness. It is one of the ways the church has always pursued truth.
That brings me back to the lighthouse.
Automation transformed navigation because people were willing to reevaluate inherited practices. Yet something valuable was lost as well. An entire way of ordered life disappeared along with the keepers who tended the lights. Progress came with both gain and loss.
The church faces similar moments throughout its history. When we examine our traditions honestly – neither clinging to them out of habit nor abandoning them out of novelty – we often emerge with a clearer sense of who we are.
The “Beyond Changing Families” study team now begins that work. Grounded in Scripture, theological reflection and prayer, it has been asked to wrestle with difficult questions about human relationships. We do not yet know where that discernment will lead. But like the lighthouse keepers before us, our calling is not to manufacture the light. It is simply to tend it faithfully, regardless of what the night may require of us.
