Saturday, July 29, 2006  - Orange County Register

Presbytery still holds authority to ordain

                           By Rev. Steven Toshio Yamaguchi, executive presbyter of the Los Ranchos Presbytery.

 Last month our Presbyterian Church (USA) General Assembly meeting attracted some sensational media attention. Another large local newspaper erroneously reported: "Following the Episcopalian lead, the Presbyterians also voted to give local congregations the freedom to ordain openly cohabiting gay and lesbian ministers…"

While this is false, I'm guessing that the writer's error was not intentional, but reflects a misunderstanding of Presbyterian polity.

Every Christian denomination shares our common commitment to Jesus Christ as Lord, but from there each is distinguished by two factors: beliefs and form of government (polity).

In the Presbyterian Church, authority is vested in representative governing bodies elected for a limited term. Presbyterian authority is not hierarchical. The General Assembly, our national and "highest" governing body, cannot ordain a minister. Neither can a congregation. Only a "presbytery" has the responsibility to ordain (and install and dismiss) a minister.

Our General Assembly does set the constitutional standards, such as the ordination requirement that a minister or elder must "live either in fidelity within the covenant of marriage between a man and a woman, or chastity in singleness."

Last month's General Assembly voted overwhelmingly (405-92-4) to maintain that standard, but the responsibility to implement it belongs to the presbytery, which must exercise its own discernment.

At our local presbytery, Los Ranchos – which includes 59 churches in Orange and southern Los Angeles counties – we have consistently upheld the constitutional standard.

So what is a presbytery? It is the regional governing body composed of an equal number of elected lay elders and all clergypersons from every congregation in its area. This body is responsible for things like ordaining clergy and establishing new congregations. It's the way that in community we seek to discern the will of Christ according to the Word of God and the call of God's Holy Spirit.

The presbytery's authority is clear because we assume that God speaks through the body of the church. It is how we hear the voice of God.

For there to be a true calling there must be the candidate's own inner sense that God has called that candidate to the ministry, but that call must also be confirmed through the presbytery.