THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1997, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, January 26, 1997 TAG: 9701260051
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B2 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY DIANE TENNANT, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: PORTSMOUTH LENGTH: 59 lines
By a margin of only eight votes, Presbyterians in Eastern Virginia voted to deny ordination to homosexuals, and to require fidelity in marriage and chastity in singleness among its clergy.
The issue has caused great internal debate since it was proposed last summer as an amendment to the Presbyterian Book of Order, part of the denomination's constitution.
In a vote Saturday during a meeting of the Presbytery of Eastern Virginia, commissioners voted 84-76 to pass the ``fidelity and chastity'' amendment. Two people abstained.
The presbytery is a governing group of clergy and other church elders representing 66 churches and nearly 20,000 members in Eastern Virginia, the organization's clerk said.
The voting has also been close elsewhere, as the nation's 171 presbyteries debate the issue. As of Wednesday, 10 presbyteries had voted against the amendment, and nine supported it.
``This was a response of faith and deep understanding, but different understanding,'' said the Rev. Dr. Patricia Karns, who heads the Eastern Virginia presbytery.
The amendment does not specifically name homosexuals, but it calls on clergy to conform with historic confessional standards of the church.
``Persons refusing to repent of any self-acknowledged practice which the confessions call sin shall not be ordained and/or installed as deacons, elders or ministers of the Word and Sacrament,'' it read.
The issue of homosexuality has been debated for years in the Presbyterian Church.
A special committee appointed to study human sexuality recommended that homosexuals be accepted for ordination, but the report was rejected by the national governing body, the General Assembly, in 1991.
Equal numbers of speakers at Saturday's meeting spoke for and against the amendment for about 30 minutes.
Much of the debate centered on whether clergy should obey the Scriptures of the Bible or Jesus Christ.
The amendment called for obedience to Scripture, but the Scriptures can be interpreted differently.
``In my vows of ordination, I never promised to be obedient to the Scriptures, but to. . . Jesus Christ,'' said Becky Kiser-Lowrance of Virginia Beach.
Another minister, who did not identify herself, said a strict interpretation of Scripture would also prohibit women from becoming clergy, and she cited First Corinthians 14:34 - ``As in all the churches of the saints, women should be silent in the churches.''
``I am not worthy of this office,'' the speaker continued.
``I am a sinner. You and I are sinners. God has called sinners and only sinners into ordained service. I'm not prepared to say I know which sinners God should or should not call.''
The fidelity and chastity amendment was proposed from the floor of the General Assembly last summer and sent to the individual presbyteries, which will decide whether the proposal becomes part of the constitution. Final results will not be known before spring at the earliest.