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In a denomination where 75% of PC(USA) congregations are classified as small and 41% of new worshiping communities represent people of color, the need to address flexibility in pastoral leadership has become increasingly urgent.
In the business it took up on Wednesday, the Ordination Committee touched upon multiple, intersecting aspects of the changing church landscape.
Emotions ran high as committee members first considered an overture from Palo Duro Presbytery, ORD-07, seeking to amend the Book of Order on the use of commissioned pastors (CP).
The Rev. Dr. Scott Campbell, overture advocate and Palo Duro’s executive presbyter, opened his remarks by speaking to his ministry context — a 72-county region of northwest Texas including the south plains, rolling plains and panhandle — and the role of CPs within it.
“CPs are saving our bacon from the fire.” — Scott Campbell
“I am one who has the commissioned pastor tattooed on his heart,” Campbell said. “CPs are saving our bacon from the fire. CPs are saving the PC(USA) in small towns and rural areas where no one else dares apply … This [overture] would offer a little respect, dignity and professionalism to their call.”
ORD-07 seeks to change the nature of CPs from their current, specific “commission” to a generalized one that would allow them to perform certain functions after their commission ends.
In recommending disapproval of the overture, Ruling Elder Ralphetta Aker McClary, vice moderator of the Advisory Committee on the Constitution (ACC), said that “dislodging the commission from addressing a specific need would…create a new office of ministry, which would not only create confusion, but would also cause problems with jurisdiction and oversight.”
Sean Chow, executive director of the Presbytery of San Diego and a teaching elder member of the Task Force to Explore the Theology and Practice of Ordination — which was approved by the 225th General Assembly (2022) and, in ORD-08, is requesting an extension of its work until the 227th General Assembly (2026) — also spoke to the overture.
“This is a big issue,” Chow said. “We need to do more than put a Band-Aid on this, which is why I ask that this be added to the charter of the task force.” The committee, in its first day of business on Tuesday, had already referred another overture, ORD-06, to the task force.
“We need to do more than put a Band-Aid on this, which is why I ask that this be added to the charter of the [Task Force to Explore the Theology and Practice of Ordination].” — Sean Chow
Speaking in favor to approve rather to refer the motion, Ruling Elder Judy Sage of Tres Rios Presbytery, which borders Palo Duro, said that her church has been without a pastor for four years without even a possibility of a CP.
“We need this overture to pass to survive,” Sage said. “If we wait and refer it to the committee [on ordination standards], my church and many others won’t be here. It’s vital. It’s the seed of a start and we need it now, not later.”
“We need this overture to pass to survive…” — Judy Sage
After several hours of spirited discussion, the motion to approve ORD-07 as submitted failed by a vote of 19-27. A subsequent motion to refer the overture to the Task Force to Explore the Theology and Practice of Ordination was brought by MAD Dori Hjalmarson of Santa Fe Presbytery.
The motion to refer was ultimately approved by a unanimous vote of 45-0.
As its second item of business, the committee considered an overture, ORD-04, from Flint River Presbytery, requesting a change in wording to the list of ordination vows in W-4.0404h to add the gift of “wisdom.” If approved by the Assembly, the vow would read, “Will you pray for and seek to serve the people with [wisdom,] energy, intelligence, imagination, and love?”
“As I prayerfully studied Wisdom Literature, I realized that seeking to serve the people with intelligence alone was insufficient,” said Joseph Taber, an overture advocate from the Presbytery of the James. “The people need leaders who can serve them with wisdom.”
Speaking again on behalf of the ACC, McClary recommended disapproval, citing other sections in which the Book of Order speaks to the gift of wisdom. She also cautioned against adding items to lists, because “lists authorize only those items listed, even if the Assembly deems it appropriate.”
As additional background, the Rev. Dr. David Gambrell, associate for Worship in the Office of Theology and Worship of the Presbyterian Mission Agency, offered that an ordination question about serving the people of God with “energy, intelligence, imagination, and love” appeared for the first time in The Worshipbook, a 1970 service book and hymnal prepared by the Joint Committee on Worship for the Cumberland Presbyterian Church, the Presbyterian Church in the United States, and the United Presbyterian Church in the United States of America.
“Because the language also appears five times in the Book of Common Worship (2018),” he noted for information, “a change to the language in the Book of Order would create a discrepancy [there].”
In a more lighthearted moment, Teaching Elder Louden Young of the Presbytery of East Tennessee wanted to know who would pay for all of the shirts that he has that are branded with the original wording.
In making the motion to disapprove ORD-04, Young revealed that he knows Taber and that although he was “moved by the overture’s desire to be tied into the biblical foundations of our denomination,” he saw it more as a matter of semantics. The motion to disapprove passed by a vote of 32-12.
The motion to disapprove (ORD-04, requesting a change in wording to the list of ordination vows in W-4.0404h to add the gift of “wisdom”) passed by a vote of 32-12.
Finding that speakers on ORD-08, On Extension of the Task Force to Explore the Theology and Practice of Ordination, would be available on Thursday, the committee revised its schedule accordingly.
The Task Force was charged by the 225th GA (2022) to “explore the theology and practice of ordination, including commissioned ruling elders, as well as membership, church structure, accountability, and chartering, and recommend any needed changes to the 226th General Assembly (2024).”
Chow, a member of the Task Force to Explore the Theology and Practice of Ordination, again addressed the committee, this time presenting a comprehensive PowerPoint outlining the issues that the task force has identified and that serve to direct its work.
In moving approval of the task force’s four-part recommendation, as amended, Teaching Elder Tammy Stampfli of Olympia Presbytery said, “I’m so impressed by the work that the task force has already done, I would move that they continue their work as they have requested.”
