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Stephen Van Kuiken is a Presbyterian minister again—albeit one without a church
A Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) court has reinstated Stephen Van Kuiken's ministerial credentials, saying the Cincinnati Presbytery was wrong to remove them after he conducted a same-sex wedding in direct violation of a presbytery order.

The synod court, which oversees PCUSA churches in Ohio and Michigan, voted unanimously for Van Kuiken in all four objections he made to his ousting. The main point of the court, however, was that the Cincinnati Presbytery violated church rules when it fired him while he still had an appeal pending in the church courts against the presbytery's order that he not perform same-sex weddings.

Too hard to follow? Here's the deal: The presbytery "rebuked" Van Kuiken for performing a same-sex wedding and told him not to perform any more. He appealed that decision, and went ahead with another gay wedding. So the presbytery formally renounced him. What the church court said yesterday, in essence, was that the presbytery should have allowed Van Kuiken to perform as many same-sex ceremonies as he wanted to while he continued to drag his initial case through the church court system.

While Van Kuiken rejected the presbytery's authority by flagrantly disregarding its orders, the court ruled that his very act of appealing the order was an acknowledgement of the prebytery's jurisdiction.

It's all very technical, and you can read a PDF of the decision at Presbyweb (which requires registration). You'll need to have the Book of Order on hand to decipher it, however.

One wonders if this will encourage presbyteries to take more decisive action against ministers like Van Kuiken. Would the Cincinnati Presbytery be in this mess if they had stripped him of his credentials after the first gay marriage ceremony, rather than give him what appeared to be a "slap on the wrist" and a "second chance"? (Weblog is not terribly familiar with PCUSA polity, so that's not a rhetorical question.)

Oh, and since any time Weblog mentions such troubles in the PCUSA there is a deluge of letters of a certain sort, let's just get it over with now: The Presbyterian Church USA is not the same thing as the Presbyterian Church of America. (Many PCA folks, for example, will insist on Van Kuiken being called a "PCUSA minister" rather than a "Presbyterian minister.")

Parker Williamson's ministry "not valid"
In related PCUSA news, one of the lead conservatives in the denomination, Parker Williamson, lost his battle to have his ministry as chief executive officer of the Presbyterian Lay Committee and editor-in-chief of the Layman officially validated by the Western North Carolina Presbytery. For more, see The Layman, Presbyterian Outlook, and Presbyterian News Service. However, the presbytery did grant Williamson member-at-large status, which he decried as "an oily compromise."

American Airlines pilot:

• Church leaders to caution American Airlines on pilot discipline | Statement of National Clergy Council President (Press release)
  
  
• Pilots learn to speak with care, but still be themselves | Since Sept. 11, 2001, and the airline financial slump that followed, some pilots have been a bit more talkative to try to reassure passengers and thank them for their business. But they are also aware that saying much more can quickly put them on thin ice (Atlanta Journal-Constitution)
  
  
• This is your proselytizer speaking | Passengers already frustrated by removing their shoes and discarding their nail-clippers are not likely to take kindly to a pilot who turns preacher (Editorial, The New York Times)
  
  

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February (Web-only) 2004, Vol. 48