For Third Time, Denomination Considering Lifting Ban on Ordination of Gays, Lesbians
By Jim Brown and Jody Brown
May 29, 2003
(AgapePress) - The executive editor of an influential Presbyterian magazine is expressing strong disappointment that a radical feminist pastor now holds the highest elected position in the Presbyterian Church (USA).
Winning 53% of the vote on the second ballot, Susan Andrews of Maryland was recently elected as moderator of the PC(USA)'s 215th General Assembly, taking place in Denver. Andrews, who pastors Bradley Hills Presbyterian Church in Bethesda, is the first female to hold such a position.
She is also on record as saying it is her "fondest dream" that her denomination remove its ban on ordaining practicing homosexuals. And according to her church's website, members of Bradley Hills see her selection as "a visible way for the congregation to share [its] creative and inclusive vision of the contemporary church."
Conservative pastor Parker T. Williamson is editor-in-chief of the Presbyterian Layman. He calls Andrews' selection an "unfortunate" vote by the General Assembly.
"Susan Andrews stands for everything that has caused the decline of this once great denomination," Williamson says. "She is part of an organization called the Covenant Network of Presbyterians that has been lobbying for the full inclusion of gays, lesbians, bisexuals, and transgendered persons into the leadership of the church."
A recent vocal critic of the war in Iraq, Andrews is a graduate of Wellesley College and Harvard University's Divinity School.
According to Williamson, the 54-year-old minister's daughter is not a proponent of biblical Christianity."I guess it is best exemplified by the fact that the church she serves jointly built their sanctuary with a Jewish congregation because she really doesn't see much difference between the two faiths," he says. "It's kind of a syncretistic ideology that she represents."
Williamson says although PC(USA) moderators do not typically wield a great deal of power, Andrews will have a bully pulpit for the next year and be able to appoint committee heads for the next General Assembly.
Meantime, leaders of the denomination will consider a third effort to repeal the mainline denomination's ban on homosexual clergy. A committee meeting at the General Assembly has voted to send the recommendation to the full assembly.
The committee defeated a measure which would have left the decision up to individual churches and regional presbyteries. Those presbyteries have twice rejected the idea by large margins. Opponents of the measure say another attempt to approve homosexual clergy will further polarize the already divided denomination.
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