Affirmation 2001 Gaining Momentum

Stated Clerk Looks Toward a Possible GA Commission

(May 13, 2001) -- Affirmation 2001 is gaining momentum according Rev. David Bos and Bear Ride, co-chairs of the effort to welcome all people of faith into the Presbyterian Church (USA), a welcome which would include the right to hold church office. The two-page affirmation and "call to action" were released two weeks ago. Signatures are now coming in at the rate of 50 per day, according to Ride. Individuals in about 74 presbyteries are now represented, she said. "So far, we've only publicized the effort through progressive-group web sites," Ride said.

David Bos also said there's been talk of a General Assembly commission, which might look into the differences in the denomination, especially those about ordination of gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender people as church officers. The reference came during the past month at a "Wednesday Dinner" in the church he and his wife Johanna attend, Central Presbyterian Church, Louisville KY. According to Bos, GA stated clerk Clifton Kirkpatrick, the guest speaker, mentioned such a commission as a way to search for avenues to overcome the division in the church, which is so debilitating.

"Of course", Bos said, "in the wake of the 'Auburn Affirmation' in 1924, the General Assembly appointed a commission." In its final report delivered in 1927, the commission agreed with the main points of the "affirmationists." The commission limited the General Assembly to reviewing individual cases, and not in unilaterally setting standards.

"The 'confessing church movement' is 'exhibit A' of what we're talking about," Bear Ride said in a recent interview with TAMFS.org. In the effort which Ride said was organized by the Presbyterian Layman, the confessing church people "want us to subscribe to certain essentials. They made them up. This is similar to the events which led to the original Auburn Affirmation."

Rev. David Bos was the first to suggest in a September 2000 sermon the idea of "another Affirmation . . . to reclaim our church from those who would hold it captive to a certain ecclesiastical and political agenda." In a separate interview with TAMFS.org, Bos said that the Affirmation 2001 committee's goals include:

• Thousands of individual signatures
• Dozens of session concurrences
• Support from at least a presbytery or synod or two

Bos said he's particularly interested in seeing how many church officers (ministers and elders) sign because "that is where the call 'to resist' in the document would have the greatest impact."

Another goal is that we want enough attention paid to Affirmation 2001 and the Auburn Affirmation of 1924 that any body, such as a General Assembly commission, would almost have to take these documents into consideration.

Bos credited TAMFS Minister-Director Rev. Janie Spahr as a key influence in his thinking about the role of gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender people in the church.  "My whole inspiration for getting informed and getting transformed in terms of my ideas and attitudes toward the GLBT community have been so shaped by Janie. She was also the one that, right after my sermon, was on the road all over the country distributing my sermon and distributing the call."

Affirmation 2001 asks Presbyterians to:

• Be faithful to our church's constitutional call of openness to all church members who earnestly profess their faith in Jesus Christ
• Reaffirm and protect freedom of conscience, liberty of expression and the freedom to disagree within our broad Reformed principles, and
• Resist any action taken by governing bodies that fails to welcome all persons who profess their faith in Jesus Christ as full and equal members of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.).

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