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An Overture to the 220th General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)

On Issuing an Authoritative Interpretation of W-4.9000

The Presbytery of New York City concurs with the Presbytery of East Iowa as it

overtures the 220th General Assembly (2012) of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)

to provide the following authoritative interpretation of W-4.9000:

Teaching Elders and Commissioned Ruling Elders authorized to conduct services of Christian

marriage may exercise pastoral discretion when asked to officiate at such a ceremony for two

people who have obtained a civil marriage license, and sessions may permit the use of church

property for such services. Teaching elders and commissioned ruling elders may refuse to

conduct such services, and sessions may refuse to permit the use of church property for such

purposes.

Rationale

Since the earliest stories in Scripture, marriage has played an ever-changing role in the life of

Gods people. Throughout the pages of the Bible, there are varieties of marital relationships

and functions. The Bible has no single point-of-view on marriage, and the complexity of what

we find in Scripture is particularly challenging from a 21st century perspective from multiple

wives and concubines (1 Kings 11:3), to property-based exchanges (Deuteronomy 22), to

coerced or forced marriages (Genesis 29, 2 Samuel 11). In the New Testament marriage is

often discouraged (Matthew 19:10, 1 Corinthians 7). It can be argued that only one marriage

in Scripture is truly pure and holy the marriage between Christ and the Church and it is a

marriage that defies all our definitions (Revelation 21, also Isaiah 62:5).

Scripture is not of one mind on marriage; nor are we in the PC(USA). The conversation on

marriage has been particularly lively in recent years. Prayerful people of good faith have

expressed strong opinions on either side of marriage equality debate, especially as it relates

to marriages involving adults of the same gender.

As noted by the Advisory Committee on the Constitution in 2008, The social witness policies

of the Presbyterian Church (USA) have consistently advocated for the end to discrimination in

the civil arena on the basis of sexual orientation. (Minutes, 2008, Part I, p. 253) Now, as

indeed many civil laws have been changing, Teaching Elders, Commissioned Ruling Elders,

and Sessions in several states have been left in a quandary: how are we to bear witness to

Christs love with couples who come seeking marriage while adhering to the Constitution in

which we took our ordination vows. The church has defined marriage, first, as a gift God

has given to all humankind (W-4.9001) and at the same time said, Marriage is a civil

contract between a woman and a man. (W-4.9001). In itself this is contradictory. Add to this

that in at least five states and the District of Columbia, this civil definition is no longer true.

This AI would take one level of confusion out of the quandary placed before us.

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If adopted, this Authoritative Interpretation would not end the conversation in the Church.

Rather, this AI would provide the needed space for pastoral discretion in those places where

civil laws differ from ecclesiastical guidelines.