08867
November 20, 2008

John Knox Presbytery votes to enroll openly gay man as candidate

Scott Anderson, who set aside ordination in 1990, re-enters process

by Duane S. Sweep
Synod of Lakes and Prairies communications director
and Jerry L. Van Marter
Presbyterian News Service

DUBUQUE, IA — The John Knox Presbytery voted here Nov. 18 to enroll Scott Anderson, a partnered gay man, as a candidate for the ministry of the Word and Sacrament in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A).

This action of the presbytery advances Anderson to the last stage of the ordination process in preparation for a final decision on his entry into the ministry.

If he completes the process, it will be the second time Anderson has been ordained as a minister in the PC(USA). A graduate of Princeton Theological Seminary, Anderson was ordained by Sacramento Presbytery in 1983. He served as pastor of Bethany Presbyterian Church in Sacramento until 1990 when two church members publically announced that he was gay.

Anderson set aside his ordination and worked for 12 years for the California Council of Churches before moving to Madison, WI, where he is executive director for the Wisconsin Council of Churches.

Anderson presented an “affirmation of conscience” to John Knox Presbytery containing biblical and theological arguments for his belief that ordination should be open to gay people in faithful, lifelong partnerships.

Anderson’s statement formally declared his disagreement with section G-60106b of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)’s Book of Order that limits ordination to those who “live either in fidelity within the covenant of marriage between a man and a woman or chastity in singleness.”

The presbytery acted in accordance with the General Assembly’s 2006 authoritative interpretation of The Book of Order section G-60108, reaffirmed in 2008, that allows candidates to raise principled objections and reaffirms the presbytery’s responsibility to determine fitness of candidates on an individual basis.

That authoritative interpretation was recommended to the Assembly by its Theological Task Force on Peace, Unity and Purity of the Church, of which Anderson was a member.

In a 71-23 vote the presbytery determined that Anderson’s disagreement with ordination standards regarding sexual practice did not constitute a departure from essentials of the church’s faith and practice. By a vote of 64-14 the presbytery moved Anderson into the candidacy phase of ordination.

Anderson is one of the first in the denomination to become a candidate for ordination after declaring a conscientious objection — or “scruple” — to the denomination’s ordination standards involving sexual practice.

The candidacy phase that Anderson now enters must last at least one year, after which Anderson will be examined a final time before being voted ready or not ready for ordination.

Anderson currently serves as the executive director of the Wisconsin Council of Churches, and is a member of the Covenant Presbyterian Church in Madison, WI.

Before the presbytery vote, he had received the endorsement of his church’s session and the presbytery’s Committee on Preparation for Ministry overseeing his ordination process. 

John Knox Presbytery is a regional governing body of PC(USA) that includes 61 congregations and more than 110 ministers in northeast Iowa, southeast Minnesota, and southwest and south central Wisconsin.

The Rev. Ken Meunier, transition associate executive presbyter for The John Knox Presbytery, contributed to this story.