Rev. Janet Edwards officiated at a lesbian wedding in order to provoke a trial. At the trial she hired busses to bring in supporters, got other famous provokers to come, and sent out invitations.
This week, the Permanent Judicial Commission of Pittsburgh Presbytery ruled that the charges had been filed four days too late, so the case could not be heard.
I don't know who screwed up. Jim Mead, the presbytery executive, laments the mess. He is right that the PJC acted properly, given the case that had been handed to them. And he praises the "hard work and best intentions of the fine people on the Investigative Committee." Without evidence that the investigating committee deliberately sabotaged the case, we ought to assume that it was an honest mistake on their part.
Still, this is not the first time that the church has been cheated of a clear decision on whether its official standards on homosexual practice are real or not. A few years ago there was the notorious case of the gay elder in First Presbyterian Church, Stamford Connecticut. It took so long to reach a decision that the elder's term ran out, and the case was declared moot.
The left and the right of the church are mobilized all the time, and often suspicious of the church's order. The loyalist center, on the other hand, is slow to mobilize and is trusting of the denomination's basic institutions. There is one good way, though, to rouse the ire of the loyalist center: to manipulate the church's rules and procedures in an indecent and disorderly way to sneak in one outcome or another.
Let us hope that the remaining high-profile cases are handled scrupulously.
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6 comments:
Your analysis is spot on.
By the way, your book Leading from the Center was referred to several times by speakers at the Moderators Conference I attended this weekend!
Alan,
Janet Edwards deliberately provoked a trial because she knew that conducting a same-sex marriage ceremony is not allowed by the PCUSA. If she disagrees with that provision, then she should work to overturn it. If I disagree with the 70 mph speed limit and decide to drive 85 instead I can get a ticket. Telling the officer I don't agree with the law isn't going to cut it.
"I fail to see what was either not decent or not in good order about the decision. It seems like it was handled very scrupulously."
Yes, that is what I said:
"He is right that the PJC acted properly, given the case that had been handed to them."
This is from Dennis Roddy's column about the Edwards case in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette:
Janet Edwards has long advocated for the rights of gays, lesbians, bisexuals and transgendered persons ... and, after some skirmishes within the Pittsburgh Presbytery, which oversees the church, a sort of truce evolved.
"I knew I was breaking that truce," she said. It is something of her style. "I stay quiet for a while and then I do something, then I stay quiet for a while and then I do something."
I guess God knows the truth of the motives behind the whole scenario, so let's leave it up to Him to judge. People get away with things on earth all the time, but eventually vanity and eternity will catch up with them.
In an ultimate sense, we have to leave all the important judgments up to God. In this life, in this church, a trial should result in a judgment.
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