Related articles and links |  1 of 3

The General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) doesn't start for another two days, but the fireworks have already begun. Attending commissioners will be debating the ordination of nonchaste homosexuals, late-term abortion, and compliance with the church's constitution. Activists on both sides are acting quickly to be the talk of the convention.

Stephen Van Kuiken, pastor of Cincinnati's Mount Auburn Presbyterian Church, performed another same-sex marriage ceremony Saturday. It's hardly a surprise; he's been promising to do it for a while. Nevertheless, it is his first time to perform such a ceremony since his presbytery's judicial commission slapped him on the wrist last month with a "rebuke" for an earlier gay marriage and told him not to do it again.

"I was kind of amused by the decision because I told them ahead of time [I wouldn't stop]," Van Kuiken tells The Cincinnati Enquirer. "It's like they wanted to warn me one more time. So I told them [Tuesday] that we did it again. I'm not hiding it."

But charges against Van Kuiken for this latest wedding can't be brought until all the appeals over the earlier disciplinary decision have been exhausted.

Another PCUSA "celebrity"—this one on the right—has moved from church charges to civil cases. Paul Rolf Jensen, has filed more than 20 ecclesiastical cases against pastors who violate the church's requirement that church officers "live either in fidelity within the covenant of marriage between a man and a woman, or chastity in singleness." He was also behind the effort earlier this year to charge PCUSA Moderator Fahed Abu-Akel with violating church law for not calling a special assembly over ordinations of unchaste homosexuals. In March, the denomination's highest court ruled that Abu-Akel "acted improperly" but wasn't required to call the assembly.

Now Jensen, an attorney, has filed a civil lawsuit against Abu-Akel, saying the denominational leader slandered him during that debate.

"I believe in the Constitution of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)," Abu-Akel responded. "I believe we should settle our issues within the judicial processes of our denomination. Mr. Jensen has chosen not to use the church system to decide this matter. Therefore, I am filing papers today requesting an inquiry for vindication with Greater Atlanta Presbytery. I will submit to the presbytery's judgment about my remarks."

Other conservative groups in the PCUSA lamented the lawsuit. "We cannot commend this resort to civil court as an appropriate Christian course of action, for precisely the reasons the Apostle Paul details [in 1 Cor 6:5–7]," Presbyterians for Renewal said in a statement. "Although we believe our brother the Moderator erred in his attempted persuasion of the petitioning commissioners, we do not consider this a grievous illegality, nor one entered into with ill or conspiratorial intent."

Despite the civil claim, Jensen isn't giving up on church courts. Just this week, he filed heresy charges against W. Robert Martin III, who reportedly does not believe in Christ's bodily resurrection or ascension. Martin, now pastor of Warren Wilson Presbyterian Church in Swannanoa, North Carolina, has been called to be the pastor of First Presbyterian Church of Palo Alto, California.

CT Associate Editor Douglas L. LeBlanc will reporting from at the General Assembly—it looks like we won't have to worry about it being a boring meeting.

next page... |  1 of 3

share this page

May (Web-only) 2003, Vol. 47