Presbytery court declares Confessing Churches illegal
The Layman Online; Tuesday, February 26, 2002
By John H. Adams
ATLANTA, Ga. -- The National Celebration of Confessing Churches learned Feb. 26 that its movement has been declared illegal by a presbytery court.
The Permanent Judicial Commission of the Presbytery of Central Florida ordered the session of First Presbyterian Church in Sebastian, Fla., to rescind the entirety of its Confessing Church resolution because it is "in conflict with the Book of Order. G-18.0201 and G-14.0207b."
In essence, the presbytery court said sessions are not allowed to establish ordination standards for church officers that are not explicitly stated in the ordination vows published in the Book of Order -- even though the standards cited in the Sebastian resolution are grounded in Scripture and the denomination's Book of Confessions.
Historically, Scripture and The Book of Confessions have had, respectively, a one-two authority ranking in the Presbyterian Church. But the complainant in the Sebastian case, elder Norman F. Blessing, said during his testimony that The Book of Confessions is subordinate to the Book of Order, a conclusion that the presbytery court appeared to have reached as well.
Hundreds of sessions of the more than 1,220 Confessing Church sessions within the Presbyterian Church (USA) have adopted nearly identical resolutions confessing that Christ alone is Savior and Lord, that Scripture is the infallible rule of faith and life and that God's holiness standards still allow sex only within the context of marriage.
The unanimous decision of the presbytery court was not unexpected, said Christy Wilson III, the attorney for the Sebastian session and an elder at First Presbyterian Church in Orlando.
"I think it was expected just by the demeanor and outlook of members of the PJC" when they reviewed the case during a hearing in October 2001, he said.
"I would say we are going to seek review by the synod and the General Assembly ecclesiastical courts," Wilson said.
The Rev. Eleanor Lea, pastor of the congregation, said she received a copy of the court's order Feb. 25 and e-mailed it to members of the session, including Ken Burgess, who was attending the Celebration in Atlanta. She said the session will meet soon to review the order and that she did not expect the elders to back down.
"They haven't balked at all," Lea said.
After the October hearing, the presbytery court issued a letter "requesting" the Sebastian session to recant part of its resolution and rescind another part. The final order was to recant the entire resolution.
"Further, this order shall be published in the next issue of the [Sebastian] newsletter, The Presbyterian Post," the order said. "The statement that ordination and/or installation as church officers requires affirmative answers to only the nine questions set forth in G-14.0207, along with the questions, shall be printed in the same newsletter."
It also enjoined the session from "requiring any person to affirm said 'confession' as a prerequisite for their ordination and/or installation as officers, and that no one will be required to affirm said 'confession' as a prerequisite to employment in any ministry position."
The Sebastian resolution urges sessions and presbyteries "to affirm these confessions and to declare that they will not ordain, install or employ in any ministry position any person who will not confirm them."
Wilson said the case has far-reaching implications. After the overwhelming defeat of Amendment 01-A, which would have repealed the constitutional "fidelity/chastity" ordination clause, "now we see a shift by the ecclesiastical courts to do by the courts, what liberals cannot do by majority votes, to strike the Confessing Church Movement."
