Church courts release encouraging decisions
May 11, 2007

The General Assembly's Permanent Judicial Commission (GA-PJC) met recently and issued encouraging decisions that may indicate the direction they intend to take on constitutional matters of special importance to the church.

218-04: On enrollment of a "self-acknowledged practicing lesbian" as a candidate for ordination. The court declared moot a case in Mission Presbytery because the "self-acknowledged practicing lesbian" candidate was removed from the ordination process. However, the GAPJC decision "notes with concern" that the arguments in support of advancing the person as a candidate were based on an erroneous explanation and misstatement of a prior PJC decision given in the Book of Order: Annotated Edition. The court indicated that the Committee on Preparation for Ministry, the Presbytery, and the Synod of the Sun PJC may have been misled by the misstatement of the finding in Sheldon, et al. v. Presbytery of West Jersey. The PJC reminds governing bodies that the annotations in the Annotated Book of Order are not themselves authoritative interpretations.

218-03: On open meetings. Among the significant findings, the court secured agreement from the Advisory Committee on the Constitution that it is a body subject to the provisions of the General Assembly Open Meeting policy. The consent decree issued by the court obligates the ACC to limit closed meetings to the terms of the Open Meeting Policy even when it seeks advice from the Office of the Stated Clerk. This policy has been strained to the breaking point by a number of General Assembly entities. It is encouraging to see a sign that the policy is still in working order.

In addition, the court secured agreement from the ACC that its advice on constitutional matters under G- 13.0112 must conform to strict standards.

218-07: On the Redwoods/Jane Spahr Disciplinary case. The GAPJC sent this case back to the synod court for trial. Although Rev. Spahr was acquitted in the original trial, the case was appealed as having been unconstitutionally decided. It will now be heard by the synod court. Any decision there can still be appealed by either party to the GA-PJC.

The wording of specific court decisions are found at http://www.pcusa.org/gapjc/decisions/decisions.htm.

Synod court supports presbytery action of Olympia Presbytery to uphold ordination requirements
We are keeping track ( http://www.presbycoalition.org/comply.htm) of presbyteries that adopt resolutions committing themselves to uphold constitutional requirements for ordination. Four of the presbyteries adopting such resolutions have been the subject of remedial cases. The first of the cases has been decided by the permanent judicial commission in Synod of Alaska- Northwest. The court voted not to sustain the charges against the presbytery on this matter and concluded their decision with the following statement:

The resolution, adopted by Olympia Presbytery on September 21, 2006, does not preclude Olympia Presbytery from conducting a meaningful examination to assess the fitness of individual candidates on a case by case basis, and the PJC reminds the presbytery that they are obligated to conduct such examinations in a thorough and fair manner.
The wording of the decision can be found on the presbytery's website at: http://www.olypres.org/Resources/NewsandEvents/ tabid/1545/newsid3030/321/mid/3030/Default.aspx .

We in the Coalition hope these decisions help to resolve some of the controversy around these issues. We hope they are an encouragement to you as well.

Terry Schlossberg
The Presbyterian Coalition

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