LOUISVILLE — A special committee considering what the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) should say about marriage and civil unions has begun its work, with its members sharing some hopes and dreams for the church, and explaining why they agreed to take on this controversial subject.

The 13 members of the General Assembly Special Committee to Study Issues of Civil Unions and Christian Marriage were officially commissioned into service on March 17, during a worship service led by Linda Valentine, executive director of the General Assembly Council, and Gradye Parsons, the PC(USA)’s stated clerk.

In June 2008, the General Assembly created the committee, saying it should represent diverse views, and giving it the responsibility to study:

· The history of the laws governing marriage and civil union;

· The theology and practice of marriage in the Reformed tradition and more broadly in Christianity;

· The relationship between civil unions and Christian marriage;

· The effects of current laws on same-gender partners and their children;

· And the place of covenanted same-gender partnerships in the Christian community.

The committee has a tight timeline. It is to present a draft report, including any policy recommendations, to the PC(USA) by September 2009, with a time of discussion from then until December 2009. The committee would then make any revisions, with a final report due in early February, 2010.

From the outset, the committee’s discussion hinted at the range of difficult issues before them. For example, what about heterosexual couples who live together outside of marriage, such as senior citizens who can’t afford to marry? Should the committee talk about marriage, or “Christian marriage?” What should the church be willing to say to the culture? What about the conflicts that pastors may feel between what the church requires and the laws of the states in which they live?

Committee chair Jim Szeyller of North Carolina warned the committee that “we’re not going to solve this issue” for such a deeply-divided church. Think more, he said, on providing resources about legal, historical, and theological issues related to civil unions and marriage and being “framers of the conversation” for the PC(USA).

And “we have to put something together that will be used” — that is not so dense or detailed it just gets stuck on a shelf, Szeyller said.

In the opening session, committee members joked a little about their reasons for accepting the invitation from Bruce Reyes-Chow, moderator of the 218th General Assembly, to serve on the committee.

Szeyller, pastor of Carmel Church in Charlotte, N.C., said his first response on getting Reyes-Chow’s e-mail was to shout “Oh, no!” so loudly that a colleague thought he was having a stroke.

As Tony De La Rosa, an elder and lawyer from Los Angeles, put it: “This is only slightly more comfortable than the belly of a big fish.”

But this group pushed aside what was for some of them a first instinct to refuse, – often out of a sense that God sends people to unexpected places, and that the PC(USA) needs to find a way to talk about the complicated, contentious issues.

Derrick Weston is the mission advancement director for the Pittsburgh Project, a community development organization. “I’m here because of Bruce,” who’s a mentor and friend, Weston said. “I value the direction in which he’s trying to take the denomination and take the church,” and because he wants to play a part in changing the tone of disagreements in the PC(USA).

“I am here seeking a more excellent way,” said Clay Allard, senior pastor of Oak Cliff Church in Dallas. “I am hopeful, I am praying there is a way where we can learn to talk to each other across places where we do not talk to each other. That’s why I said yes.”

Some gave theological reasons.

“I’m here because I believe in a providential God,” said Bill Teng, pastor of Heritage Church in Alexandria, Va. “I did not seek this. I did not ask for this.”

And Lisa Cooper Van Riper, an elder from First Church in Greenville, S.C., said that “I work on the deep theological theory of opened doors and closed doors” — that when an opportunity comes out of nowhere, “we have to give it a second look.”

Some committee members hope that whatever the group can do might be an example to the church of how things could be.

“Really hearing each other is difficult,” said Tracie Mayes Stewart, a minister from Statesville, N.C. “I’m hopeful we’ll get beyond superficial dialogue.”

There also were glimpses in the opening session of frustrations both in how the PC(USA) relates to the world, and with its own internal struggles.

“How can we be a witness in this world,” when “culture is definitely taking the lead?” Teng asked. “We are definitely in post-Christendom.” Living in Washington, D.C., “I can see how irrelevant we’re becoming” to many.

Margaret Aymer Oget, an assistant professor of New Testament at the Interdenominational Theological Center in Atlanta, said she teaches mostly black students, but worships in a church that’s majority white. “In the black community, church is not irrelevant,” Oget said. But there is a sense that, among populations being dragged down by AIDS and poverty, “the church is only just getting around to saying something.”

Her students voice “frustration at the unwillingness of the church to help the people,” Oget said. “That the church sees the people hurting, and is more concerned about its own protection and its own survival and the way it looks than it is about people who are being hurt on the ground.” This time around, Oget said she hopes “we don’t wake up and find that we should have done something 25 years ago.”
Still, despite their honest trepidation, some on the committee found reason for hope, even for excitement. In listing their spiritual gifts during a Bible study from Ephesians, they included optimism.

“I have no doubt that what we’re going to do will be a blessing for the denomination,” Szeyller said.

“If the Spirit can move in the General Assembly hall, the Spirit can move here,” said Emily Miller, a student at Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary.

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