The Significance of an Authoritative Interpretation on Marriage

By Tricia Dykers Koenig: "It has been claimed that an authoritative interpretation of W-4.9000, the marriage section in the Directory for Worship, is an attempt to amend the Book of Order without votes from the presbyteries. On the contrary, an authoritative interpretation does not aim to amend what the Book of Order says about marriage – there are other overtures that would do that. An authoritative interpretation simply states that decisions made about pastoral care and worship that do not conform in every detail to the words of W-4.9000 do not necessarily constitute an offense subjecting a minister to discipline."

Read More
Marriage and the Book of Confessions

Marriage and the Book of Confessions

Would it be permissible for the PCUSA to interpret and/or amend the Book of Order section on marriage to reflect the reality of same-gender marriage, even though The Book of Confessions uses the language of “a man and a woman”?Based on the way the Confessions have functioned in the church – especially since 1967, when a collection of documents was substituted for the Westminster Confession – yes. The Book of Confessions is not a compilation of proof-texts from which to glean answers to questions not contemplated by the authors, and contains numerous examples of assertions that are no longer appropriate or necessary expressions of our faith. General Assemblies have taken actions in the past that are directly contradictory to the letter of the Confessions.

Read More
Why an Authoritative Interpretation Matters

Why an Authoritative Interpretation Matters

Clergy confidentiality. The uses of church property. Voting by email or on a conference call by presbyteries or sessions. How candidates for ordination are to be examined. The meaning of marriage.They’re all more or less important pieces of church life and governance. They’re all matters where contemporary practice outpaced what was anticipated when the church’s constitutional documents were written. And they are all areas where General Assemblies have made statements—known as authoritative interpretations—about how the Book of Order is to be understood in light of new situations and changing realities.This summer, we at the Covenant Network are encouraging the 221st General Assembly to make decisions that will deepen and enhance the church’s understanding of marriage—clarifying that its blessings are available to all people, including couples of the same gender. One way we hope the assembly does this is through an authoritative interpretation—a binding ruling by the church’s highest council about what the constitution does and doesn’t say. There’s a fair amount of confusion in the church about what an AI is… but there doesn’t need to be.

Read More
Queer Clergy
PC(USA) History & ... Brian Ellison PC(USA) History & ... Brian Ellison

Queer Clergy

R.W. Holmen, a Minnesota author and ally, chronicles the journey of gay and lesbian Christians to be fully accepted and fully included in the congregations of mainline Christianity in Queer Clergy: A History of Gay and Lesbian Ministry in American Protestantism, published by the Pilgrim Press.

Read More
General Assembly Preview - Tricia Dykers Koenig

General Assembly Preview - Tricia Dykers Koenig

The Saturday morning plenary at the 2013 Covenant Conference, "Marriage Matters," included a look at the Covenant Network's work leading up to the 221st General Assembly (2014), to be held in Detroit June 14-21. With a focus on marriage equality, the CovNet Board is supporting both an authoritative interpretation of the current language of the Book of Order to clarify that officiating at a same-gender marriage is not an offense subjecting a minister to discipline, and an amendment to the Directory for Worship to make it more accurate now that marriage equality is spreading in the United States.

Read More
Celebrating the Ordination and Installation of Dan Vigilante

Celebrating the Ordination and Installation of Dan Vigilante

On the afternoon of Sunday, August 25, 2013, the Presbytery of the Twin Cities Area ordained Daniel Vigilante as a Teaching Elder and installed him as Pastor of Grace-Trinity Community Church and Associate Pastor of Westminster Presbyterian Church, Minneapolis. Dan is a member of the Board of Directors of the Covenant Network, and we rejoice with him as he has, at long last, reached this stage in his ministry. Read more...

Read More
A Confessional Affirmation on Christian Marriage

A Confessional Affirmation on Christian Marriage

The Rev. Dr. Kenneth L. Cuthbertson is a Minister of the Word and Sacrament in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), a scholar of church history and historical theology, and a spiritual director. He is a native of Kansas and a graduate of Sterling College, Gordon-Conwell Seminary, and the School of Religion at the University of Iowa. His new book, The Last Presbyterian?, is a historical-theological-spiritual memoir about the "psalm-singing, Sabbath-keeping" strain of old-time Scots-American Presbyterianism from which his family came, and includes reflections on how we might carry key elements of that faith heritage forward into an inclusive, emergent, and missional church for the 21st century. Ken and his spouse, Doug, live in New Mexico.Ken offers a draft of a confessionally-based statement about marriage for our day and time.

Read More

"A Man and a Woman": A Look at the Presbyterian Confessions in Context

Ken Cuthbertson explores the historical contexts of the usage in the PCUSA’s Book of Confessions where marriage is specifically spoken of as being between “a man and a woman” -- particularly relevant since that phrase has become the focus in so much of the rhetoric in the current debates concerning same-sex marriage in the church, and in society in general.

Read More

Thoughts on Officiating at Same-Gender Blessing Services

May Presbyterian ministers officiate at weddings of same-gender couples? May Sessions give permission for such ceremonies to be held on their premises? The Board of the Covenant Network has analyzed the General Assembly Permanent Judicial Commission’s decisions in cases where teaching elders have been involved in same-gender marriages, and offers thoughts for those who are concerned with providing pastoral care that is consistent with the GAPJC’s authoritative interpretation of the PCUSA Constitution.

Read More
Marriage Equality in the PCUSA

Marriage Equality in the PCUSA

At the Rocky Mountain Regional Conference, Dan Saperstein's presentation included both background information - biblical, theological, and constitutional - and a new approach to moving toward marriage equality in the Presbyterian Church (USA). Read his address, with accompanying slides.

Read More
A Pastoral Emergency

A Pastoral Emergency

By Tricia Dykers Koenig: A more comprehensive version of the article first posted at ecclesio.com: "...With the spread of marriage equality, more and more Presbyterian ministers are being asked to perform for their LGBTQ congregants the same ministry that they provide with joy to their heterosexual congregants – to officiate at the services of worship in which couples commit their lives to one another in marriage. And yet, Presbyterian ministers are not free to exercise their own judgment in deciding whether or not to conduct such services..."

Read More

Resources on Church Unity Available

The Covenant Network of Presbyterians, from its founding, has had a twofold mission. We have worked for both the full inclusion of LGBTQ people in the life and leadership of the church and the real and manifest unity of that church. Sometimes these two goals seem in tension, but the value of either depends on the other. For either to matter, the church must be whole... Today, we post a collection of resources that we hope will assist those working for unity in their presbyteries.

Read More
PC(USA) History & ... Brian Ellison PC(USA) History & ... Brian Ellison

Union Presbytery?

Can a PC(USA) presbytery form a “union” with a “presbytery” that has been set up by a group that is not recognized as a denomination, and that has no existing congregations, ministers, seminaries, or programs? Read the complaint against the action of the Presbytery of Santa Barbara to form a "union presbytery" with ECO: A Covenant Order of Evangelical Presbyterians.

Read More
Two Ordinations: Reflections from Nancy Enderle

Two Ordinations: Reflections from Nancy Enderle

The Rev. Nancy Hutchison Enderle served the Covenant Network of Presbyterians as Interim Executive Director in 2011-12. As she prepared to conclude her service, Nancy shared her reflections at the Commissioners Convocation Dinner the night before the 220th General Assembly (2012) convened in Pittsburgh:I’d like to start these comments with the tale of two ordinations....

Read More