Recommendation
for a Statement to be
adopted by each presbytery and session
(From the Open Letter sent by renewal organizations)
The standards for ordination have not changed. Everyone agrees on that. Therefore, Presbyteries and Sessions still have the authority to use those standards as requirements that preclude the ordination of those not in compliance with the express standards of the Book of Order and the Book of Confessions. To ensure that these standards continue to be effective boundaries, we prayerfully ask that every governing body consider adopting this resolution:
In its discernment of the essentials of Reformed polity and for the sake of the peace, unity, and purity of the church, this governing body adopts the principle that compliance with the standards for ordination adopted by the whole church in the Book of Order is an essential of Reformed polity. Therefore, any departure from the standards for ordination expressed in the Book of Order will bar a candidate from ordination and/or installation by this governing body. Provisions of the Book of Order are signified as being standards by use of the term "shall," "is/are to be," “requirement,” or equivalent expression.
Questions to ask candidates for ordination and installation
Coalition Discipline Task Force
This summer’s
Authoritative Interpretation directs more thorough examinations of candidates.
The right of presbyters to inquire is expressly supported by the PJC rulings
that affirm the right to ask any question of all candidates who are before the
body for examination at the same time.
Therefore, the following questions may be asked of each candidate:
Regarding sexual practice standards:
The Stated Clerk and the General Assembly agree that our current constitutional standards categorically preclude the ordination and/or installation of any person who, without repentance, engages in intimate sexual activity outside the bounds of a marriage of a man and a woman. In light of that understanding of the requirements for ordination are you personally in compliance with the Constitutional boundaries for ordination? And do you intend to continue to be in compliance?*
If ordained, would you advise a session or another ordaining governing body to be in compliance with those standards as long as they are the expressed requirements of the Constitution of the PC (USA)? If part of an examining body, would you vote to ordain/install a candidate not in compliance with the Constitution as thus understood?
Regarding the person and work of Christ:
Whom does the atoning work of Jesus Christ effectively save?
Do you believe in the bodily resurrection of Jesus from the grave? Why or why not?
What is the role of personal faith in the salvation of individuals?
*If
these questions are asked of any candidate without additional prior basis, they
must be asked of all candidates. The other questions need not be asked of every
candidate, but may be.