Sorting Ourselves Out - More Flexible Presbyteries

By this point, it should be obvious that it is not possible for Presbyterians who have different views on the ordination of Self-Acknowledged Practitioners of Homosexual Acts (SAPHAs) to remain in full ecclesiastical communion. And yet it cannot be denied that people who hold mutually exclusive positions on this question do remain within every presbytery of the PCUSA.

One solution to this problem has been presented to the 219th General Assembly by Beaver-Butler Presbytery. Overture 45 can be found here:

http://www.pc-biz.org/Explorer.aspx?id=2339

The main point of this overture is to allow congregations to sort themselves out into presbyteries in which they can “express shared, deeply held convictions.” The intention is admirable, and would be most helpful for a few congregations that find themselves at odds with the clear majority of their presbytery. According to this overture, such minority congregations could decide to join another, more theologically compatible presbytery, even if that presbytery were not geographically contiguous, as long as that other presbytery were “within one day’s reasonable travel.”

This is, of course, not as radical a change as it sounds. The PCUSA already has several non-geographic presbyteries, membership in which is defined along linguistic or cultural lines. Beaver-Butler’s idea would simply extend this idea to include theological affinity along with racial-ethnic affinity.

The idea also takes into account the relational revolution we are all experiencing with the advent of the internet. With conference calls and social-networking sites so inexpensive and available, it simply makes no sense to insist that geography be the exclusive determinant of political unity.

Unfortunately, however, the Beaver-Butler proposal cannot be seen as the final solution to the PCUSA’s problems, for it would leave G-9.0103 in the Book of Order: “The governing bodies are separate and independent, but have such mutual relations that the act of one of them is the act of the whole church performed by it through the appropriate governing body.” As long as SAPHA-ordaining presbyteries remain within the PCUSA, even those presbyteries which self-consciously and publicly reject the ordination of SAPHAs would be implicated in their actions. Sorting congregations into more homogeneous presbyteries could thus only be seen as an intermediate step towards a more radical separation.