PRESBYTERIAN (TWIN CITIES) RESOLUTION OF WITNESS TO THE GOSPEL
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Presbyterians in the Presbytery of the Twin Cities Area (Minneapolis/St. Paul)
held a meeting on 1997-JAN-11 to discuss Amendment B. They issued the following document
titled "Resolution of Witness to the Gospel in Response to Amendment B."
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We, the people of the Presbytery of the Twin Cities Area, are a people of the Gospel,
saved by grace. We affirm that in Christ we are "a new creation, a new beginning for
human life in the world:
- Sin is forgiven.
- Reconciliation is accomplished.
- The dividing walls of hostility are torn down." (G-3.0200b)
We find the provisions of Amendment B to be in severe conflict with this understanding
of the Gospel and with the Reformed tradition expressed in the Book of Confessions.
Amendment B represents a major shift in how we are to determine a candidate's
"fitness to serve" as deacon, elder, or minister of Word and Sacrament.
Amendment B moves us from the faith-based criteria of the Reformed tradition to
behavior-based criteria that place us in judgment of one another. New dividing walls of
hostility are built and reconciliation is abandoned.
The finality of Amendment B's passage has alienated and caused intense pain to many
members who have answered Christ's call to serve as well as to persons who are seeking and
need our ministry. We believe Christ stands beside those whose calling will be unjustly
denied by Amendment B. We believe the call to the church is to honor its many and diverse
voices in our common life as Christ's disciples, and to protect all its member voices as
if it were protecting its future.1
We continue to love the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) and do not renounce the authority
of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). However, we find Amendment B violates our
understanding of the Gospel and the historic Reformed theology of the Presbyterian Church
(U.S.A.) and our consciences.
Therefore, the Presbytery of the Twin Cities Area reaffirms its Scriptural and
confessional heritage as an inclusive, welcoming, affirming, liberating, repenting, and
reconciling community, being transformed by the power of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
Furthermore, we reaffirm the presbyteries' and sessions' historic right both to determine
suitability for ordination and to ordain.
We, the Presbytery of the Twin Cities Area, covenant together to elect, ordain, and
install as deacons, elders, and ministers of Word and Sacrament "persons of strong
faith, dedicated discipleship, and love of Jesus Christ" whose manner of life is
"a demonstration of the Christian gospel in the church and in the world"
(G-6.0106), without regard to sexual orientation and without regard to the provisions of
Amendment B, and in faithfulness to the Book of Order mandate that "The Presbyterian
Church (U.S.A.) shall give full expression to the rich diversity within its membership and
shall provide means which will assure a greater inclusiveness leading to wholeness in its
emerging life." (G-4.0403)
Reference
- See M.L. Wolfe, "Parliamentary Procedures in the Presbyterian Church
(U.S.A.)," Louisville, KY: Office of the Stated Clerk, Presbyterian Church
(U.S.A.), 1988.
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