February 24, 2003
Presbyterians called to first special session
___LOUISVILLE, Ky. (RNS)-- The Presbyterian Church (USA) will convene an unprecedented special assembly to deal with churches and pastors who openly defy a church ban against actively gay clergy.
___The special meeting--the first in the church's 214-year history--will recall delegates from last summer's annual general assembly. Church leaders say the meeting will cost $500,000 at a time when they need to cut $5 million from the budget.
___Officials at the church's headquarters had tried to discourage the special assembly. They said it was too expensive and impractical since the church is scheduled to open its regular annual meeting in Denver May 24.
___ The special session will come at a time when Presbyterians seem reluctant to spend money on meetings--last summer's assembly voted to change the annual meetings to every other year starting in 2006.
___Alex Metherell, a church elder from California and delegate to last summer's assembly, gathered 57 signatures on a petition from fellow delegates to force the meeting. He presented them to the church's moderator, Fahed Abu-Akel, Jan. 14.
___"It is with a heavy heart that I received the petition today asking me to call a special general assembly," Abu-Akel said in a written statement. He then directed church staff to begin the process of recalling delegates.
___Abu-Akel said the church needs 120 days to prepare for such a meeting, while Metherell said it can be done in 60 days. The scaled-back assembly will probably take place over three or four days, perhaps in Louisville.
___Metherell said the church can no longer endure open defiance of its constitution. Language added in 1997 calls for church officers to live in "fidelity in marriage ... and chastity in singleness." Two subsequent efforts to repeal the language failed.
___A handful of churches have said they will not abide by the rules because they violate their consciences. Metherell told the Presbyterian Outlook, an independent publication, that with further defiance, "the denomination will simply disintegrate."
___Specifically, Metherell wants the church to review two court cases involving defiant churches.
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