Another gay-friendly proposal that would have redefined marriage in the constitution as “two people” rather than “a man and a woman” was not voted on. A report for study was instead sent to churches and presbyteries.
Four voting commissioners from the Presbytery of the Miami Valley attended the eight-day conference along with five non-voting observers, according to Dennis Piermont, executive presbyter. The Miami Valley region covers 62 churches in 12 counties and includes 13,000 members.
Nationally, according to the church’s website, there are more than 2 million church members in 10,000 congregations.
The Rev. Richard Culp, pastor of First Presbyterian Church in Troy, was a voting member of the convention and said he did not sense any hostility when it came to controversial issues.
“We’re very prayerful as we go through the process, and you know on any issue that there will be people who will disagree,” Culp said. “We ask the Holy Spirit to guide us when it comes to any decision we make.”
Culp said he voted in favor of the recommendation on ordination.
“It doesn’t address sexuality in any way, it focuses on God’s calling to ministry,” he explains. “I’m comfortable with the idea that we look at a person and try to see if God has indeed called them.”
The Rev. Barbara Battin, a Presbyterian minister who serves as Interfaith Campus Minister at Sinclair Community College, says she won’t hazard a guess as to what the outcome of the upcoming vote at the presbytery level will be. She says it could go either way.
“I’ve been following the issue of ordination for gay, lesbian, bi-sexual and trans-gender individuals for longer than the time I’ve been ordained — which is 32 years,” says Battin, who said she is glad the issue has gotten this far.
“This is a good indication there are people thinking about this in a positive way, but it’s not a guarantee it will go into the Book of Order,” she added.
She says the conversation first began in 1978 with a young man who had completed his education and had been approved for ordination. “There’s one more thing you need to know,” he said, adding that he was gay.
Before the regional vote on the gay officer issue is taken, an educational period will be conducted throughout the country involving workshops, debates and conversations.
Currently, Piermont said, “there’s nothing that prevents us from ordaining people who are gay.”
While that’s the case, said the Rev. George McConnel of Dayton’s Westminster Presbyterian Church, the current reading of the constitution states that the standards for ordination require that officers “live either in fidelity within the covenant of marriage between a man and a woman or chastity in singleness.”
Peter Larson, a minister at Lebanon Presbyterian Church, believes that too often the current debate has been framed in such a way that “either you accept homosexuality or you are an unloving, homophobic and hateful person. In our church, all people are loved and welcomed.
“However, the question is whether we will be faithful to the Bible or drift with the tide of culture. The fact that we don’t think homosexuality is appropriate for leaders in the church does not mean that we are hateful or fearful.”
Battin says her church is just one of many religions and Christian denominations struggling with the issue of ordination standards.
“This is a significant conversation causing pretty deep divisions in mainline church denominations,” she says. “The conversation is not new, but at the same time people are listening in new ways. So there is always the open possibility of something new happening.”
Mike Castle, pastor of Crosscreek Church in Centerville, finds it “disappointing that the system is structured so that we have to vote on other people’s rights.” In his own United Church of Christ free tradition, he says, churches and clergy can make their own decisions in such matters.
Castle, who has been in a committed gay relationship for the past 15 years and has performed more than 100 same-sex marriages, says marriage has always been a changing institution.
While he’s glad that the Presbyterians continue to debate the issue, he says it will be a “good surprise” if it passes.
“My guess is that it will fail again because the Presbyterian church tends to bend conservative.”
Concludes Culp: “As a church, we’re trying to be relevant to the issues of the day and at the same time true to God’s word.”
Contact this reporter at (937) 225-2440 or mmoss@DaytonDailyNews.com.
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