Presbyterian News Service reports on the latest changes; ACSWP staff and chair express support.

We've been asked for opinions and comments on "The Passion of the Christ," so we've assembled link to a variety of resources that you may find helpful in responding to questions, or in thinking about the film itself if you go to see it.

We'd like to hear from you - either your own comments on the film, or others you've found helpful.
Just send a note to be shared here!

Overture from Western Reserve calls for new authoritative interpretation 

Overture 04-18,  On issuing an Authoritative Interpretation Clarifying Standards for Ordination," was first passed by the Presbytery of Western Reserve, and has received concurrences from the presbyteries of Milwaukee, New York City, Long Island, Albany, and Santa Fe.

Our visitor asks: In our church's search for unity through dialogue, "where can we look for examples of courage and honesty?"

The Rev. Noelle Damico, Coordinator of the Taco Bell Boycott for the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), notifies us that the farmworkers from Immokalee, Florida, will be holding a Truth tour from February 25 through March 5th. In Louisville on February 27 the workers and supporters will march from the PC(USA) headquarters to Yum! Brands (Taco Bell's parent company). And beginning March 2 workers will march from East LA down to Taco Bell's headquarters in Irvine, CA arriving on March 5.

On Ash Wednesday, Feb. 25, Mel Gibson's controversial new film, The Passion of the Christ, opens in theaters to fears by some that it could impair Jewish Christian relations or lead to a rise in anti-Semitism.

Recent presbytery actions on overtures to be proposed to the 216th General Assembly include:

The Presbytery of Hudson River approved an overture dealing with the examination of candidates for ordination, appropriate subjects for examination, and respect for Christian conscience.

They also concurred with the Presbytery of the Twin Cities in their overture to the 216th General Assembly (2004), to delete G-6.0106b from the Book of Order.

Also, the Presbytery of Southern New England on Feb. 7 voted to concur with overtures 04-01 from Western New York and 04-04 from Baltimore.

Vanderbilt conference offers a critical examination of "reparative therapy"

Gene TeSelle, Witherspoon Issues Analyst, reports on a conference held at Vanderbilt University on February 7, 2004, in which a variety of scholars took a serious and critical look at the claims of "reparative" or "restorative" therapies to change the orientations of people who are gay or lesbian. 

Homilies to Live By

Random bits of wisdom for life, such as ...

Gene TeSelle, as Issues Analyst of the Witherspoon Society, offers a broader perspective on the presbytery action to withdraw the validation of the ministry of Parker Williamson  

For other points of view:  The Layman Online offers a number of letters, mostly from avid supporters of the Layman's views.

We have already reported on the sentencing of the Rev. Don Beisswenger for the same act of conscience, and have posted his statement to the sentencing judge, G. Mallon Faircloth.

Kelly weaves together her peacemaking experiences in Nicaragua and Haiti and Iraq, saying to the judge:

Judge Faircloth, we have experienced and seen the deadly effect of US military policy on mothers and children, on families. We have held the children and tried to comfort them under bombs.

It is because of these experiences that we feel so strongly. And this is why I'm willing to go into the US prison system and experience again, as we have before, the suffering of all of these women who are being separated from their families in the American prisons.

George Hunsinger, the McCord Professor of Systematic Theology at Princeton Seminary, has summed up many of the current developments in the American occupation of Iraq that make the war increasingly difficult to defend. These include the tension between Shi'ite demands for a popular election and U.S. desire to maintain control, plus the concern of other ethnic groups to keep their voices in the emerging political system; increasing U.S. reliance on the new secret police force that is being planned by the CIA; the clear inability of occupation forces to establish some degree of security in the country ... and much more.

Following the action of the Presbytery of Western North Carolina to withdraw the validation of the ministry of the Rev. Parker Williamson with the Presbyterian Lay Committee, we have received a number of comments, which we will share here as soon as their authors have given full permission.

You may want to look at our report on the Presbytery action.

You may also want to look at reports from

Presbyterian News Service -- "Presbytery embraces Williamson, invalidates Lay Committee ministry"

Presbyterian Outlook -- "Contentious meeting of presbytery does not validate Williamson's ministry"

The Rev. Steve Van Kuiken will go to trial this week (Feb. 5 and 6) before the Permanent Judicial Commission of the Synod of the Covenant in Maumee, OH, just south of Toledo. Van Kuiken has brought an action against the Presbytery of Cincinnati seeking to retain his ordination following the presbytery’s action last June.

by Doug King, Witherspoon Society editor and WebWeaver

[1-31-04, with minor corrections and additions on 2-1-04]

NOTE:  When this report is retired from this "headline" page, it will still be available on another page.

Early reports from today's l-o-n-g meeting of the Presbytery of Western North Carolina tell us that the recommendation of the presbytery's Committee on Ministry was basically accepted, with one important amendment. The committee had recommended that the ministry of the Rev. Parker Williamson as chief executive officer of the Presbyterian Lay Committee and editor in chief of its publications no longer be considered a validated ministry, and that he therefore be placed on suspended status as a member of the presbytery. After an hour or more of procedural skirmishes, followed by lunch, the Committee on Ministry presented its motion.

An amendment was then offered by the Rev. Pete Peery, pastor at First Presbyterian Church in Asheville. It would have affirmed the COM recommendation that Williamson's ministry not be validated, while softening the action by continuing him on the roll of presbytery as a member at large. Williamson and his defenders argued against the amendment, apparently wanting a clear action by the presbytery to reject him and his ministry. According to the Layman Online, Mr. Williamson himself denounced the amendment as an "oily compromise."

The presbytery approved the amendment, which was seen by some as separating the ministry of the Presbyterian Lay Committee from consideration of Mr. Williamson personally, and focusing on the ministry of the Presbyterian Lay Committee as being considered invalid.

With the amendment on the floor, the Committee on Ministry then gave a twenty-minute presentation of the reasons for its recommendation; the Lay Committee was then given twenty minutes to make its case against the recommended action, with two of the Lay Committee's leading attorneys arguing that the issue should be dealt with in the church's judicial system, and not by the Presbytery.

Some members of the Committee on Ministry spoke as evangelicals who share many of the views of the Lay Committee, but who said they cannot accept the ways that group is pursuing them. One speaker said that if someone wants to work for change within the Presbyterian Church, they must work within the rules of the system; if they choose to work outside those rules, they are apparently choosing to work outside the church itself.

One speaker noted that the Lay Committee had declared that the 2001 General Assembly was "apostate," and more recently has charged through its "Declaration Conscience" that no part of the denomination's budget is worthy of support. He then asked why, if this group thinks the denomination is so completely on the wrong track, they still want to be a part of it.

One participant observed that the COM succeeded in focusing the debate on the legitimacy of the Lay Committee's work, rather than letting it shift to a debate on the personal ministry of Parker Williamson - which is the way he and his defenders have been trying to "spin" it.

Following the presentations and a long debate, the amendment was passed "pretty convincingly," thus becoming the main motion.

Williamson's supporters offered a substitute motion which would have rejected the COM recommendation completely. That motion failed.

After further debate, a secret ballot was taken. The result was 150 votes for the COM motion as amended, to 106 against.

After the result was announced, Mr. Williamson went to the podium and proclaimed his intention to file a complaint about "irregularities" in the process. Saying that one third of those present must support his complaint, he invited his supporters forward. About a third of the group went forward. As one person put it, they "marched up and then left."

It was noted that the Committee on Ministry, in its presentation and in the debates, made clear that "per capita" (and Williamson's urging churches not to support it) was not the only issue. The style of his work through the Layman was clearly a part of the problem as well.

One observer expressed his sense that Mr. Williamson and the Lay Committee came to the meeting expecting to lose, and determined to make the process into a matter of martyrdom. It appeared that the general tone of the debate, and the amendment to keep Williamson on the roll of presbytery, might help to soften that appeal to sympathy for a "martyr."

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Leslie Scanlon of Outlook has a brief report from the scene.