LOUISVILLE, May 5, 2004 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A Presbyterian church commission has ruled that “marrying” homosexuals is okay, despite an earlier lower court’s decision to the contrary. The decision, released Friday, overturned an earlier lower church court conviction of pastor Stephen A. Van Kuiken, for performing same-sex “marriages” at his Presbyterian Church (USA) parish in Cincinnati.
The Permanent Judicial Commission (PJC) of the Synod of the Covenant said that the Presbytery of Cincinnati was wrong to convict and formally rebuke the pastor for performing the ceremonies at his church, Mount Auburn Presbyterian. In response to the ruling, Van Kuiken issued a press release, stating: “A new era has dawned in the Presbyterian Church, a day for which we have waited and hoped. We are making room at the table of Christ both for our gay brothers and lesbian sisters, as well as for those with progressive Christian convictions. This is truly good news for the church.” The commission vote was split 6-4; the majority wrote: “At issue is the existing tension in the Book of Order between the spirit and letter of the law. The spirit of a wide gracious welcome of all people, encouraged by the Book of Order, is in tension with the specified limitations on gay, lesbian, bisexual and trans-gendered Presbyterians, preventing their full and complete participation in the life of the church. This tension reflects the church’s current place in history and its ongoing struggle with the issues of human sexuality.” The four dissenters, in their opinion, derided the judgment in Van Kuiken’s favor, calling the decision “an improper and unjustified attempt to rewrite the clear and unambiguous meaning of…the Book of Order,” adding, “It is not the role of an appellate court such as this PJC to ‘fill in the blanks’ in the Book of Order. One does not properly go to the Book of Order looking for what it does not say, and then assume that silence is permission to do what one wants.” Read the Presbyterian News Service account: https://www.pcusa.org/pcnews/2004/04207.htm
Read related LifeSiteNews.com coverage, “No Homosexual Pastors says Methodist Church,” at: https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2004/may/04050311.html