The
Session of First Presbyterian Church of Aurora, along
with the endorsing congregations listed below, overtures
the Blackhawk Presbytery at its November, 2007 meeting,
that the following policy be adopted:
The Blackhawk Presbytery in its
discernment of the essentials of reformed polity and for
the sake of preserving the peace, unity and purity of
the church does adopt the principle that compliance with
the standards for ordination adopted and held
authoritative in the Book of Order shall remain
essentials of reformed polity and any departure from
said standards for ordination set forth in the Book of
Order will disqualify a candidate for ordination or
installation by the Blackhawk Presbytery.
Those provisions of the Book of
Order deemed to be standards and therefore essentials of
polity include those statements using “shall,” “is/are
to be,” “required,” “requirement,” or equivalent
expressions.
Rationale
1. The Presbyterian
Church (U.S.A.) is a covenant community (The Book of
Confessions, 5.124-.141). Section G-6.0108 maintains
that, for the sake of the integrity of our common life
as a covenant community, it is of great consequence that
our leaders adhere to the essentials of the Reformed
faith and polity. The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) has
long sought to maintain a healthy balance between
requiring adherence to essentials of faith and polity,
while permitting our officers liberty of conscience
regarding nonessential matters.
2. The preface to
the Book of Order states the following:
In this Book of
Order
(1) SHALL and IS TO
BE/ARE TO BE signify practice that is mandated.
(2) SHOULD
signifies practice that is strongly recommended.
(3) IS APPROPRIATE
signifies practice that is commended as suitable.
(4) MAY signifies
practice that is permitted but not required.
3. The General
Assembly, through its Permanent Judicial Commission in
the Londonderry decision (Minutes, 2001,
Part I, p. 577, paragraph 12.1028), has determined that
every part of the Constitution must be read with
force, since the church is a covenantal community (The
Book of Confessions, 5.124-.141). In other words, no
ordaining body is permitted to selectively disregard or
demote a mandate of the Book of Order, for this
would break the bonds of covenantal community. This is
foundational to the peace, unity, and purity of the
church.
Adopted upon motion duly made,
seconded and approved by the Session of First
Presbyterian Church of Aurora, Illinois, this 13th day
of June, 2007.
Endorsing Congregations
First DuPage Presbyterian Church
of Bolingbrook
First Presbyterian Church of
Belvidere
First Presbyterian Church of
Rochelle
Sandwich Federated Presbyterian Church
A substitute
motion was proposed and rejected before the vote was
called. This substitute motion, presented by members
of the Covenant Network Board, was presented as an
attempt to "simplify" the Aurora overture but in fact
contained ambiguous language. It read as follows:
Substitute Motion
We, the members of
Blackhawk Presbytery, do affirm our commitment to the
Presbyterian Church (USA) and agree to abide within
the constitutional boundaries set forth for us in our
Constitution, the entire Book of Order and Book of
Confessions. We direct the churches within the
Presbytery to thoroughly and prayerfully study these
documents along with Holy Scripture and, with the help
of God in Jesus Christ, faithfully apply it within the
specific context of their setting.
Blackhawk is the 56th Presbytery to have voted on the
affirmation of Biblical ordination standards. To
date, 35 Presbyteries have voted to affirm
constitutional standards, Blackhawk is the 10th to
have voted against affirming standards and 13 have
referred the matter to committee for additional study
and a future vote.
