Rusty Benson
AFA Journal associate editor
August 2008 – Several major Protestant denominations gathered for national meetings in recent weeks. A number of noteworthy resolutions that impact both ecclesiastical and social issues resulted.
The Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) annual meeting was held in Indianapolis June 10 and 11. The SBC is the nation’s largest Protestant denomination with over 16 million members and 42,000 churches.
Some 7,000 convention representatives, called “messengers,” approved a resolution supporting a ballot initiative in California that would define marriage as between a man and a woman. If the initiative succeeds in November, it would overturn the recent California Supreme Court ruling that legalized same-sex marriage in that state.
However, the messengers voted down an amendment calling for Christians in California to remove their children from public schools. The defeated amendment was similar to a resolution that was voted down in committee.
Dr. Johnny Hunt, pastor of First Baptist Church of Woodstock, Georgia, was elected SBC president on the first ballot. Hunt is known for his focus on evangelism and missions.
Nine hundred and ninety-two delegates from around the world and representing over 12 million United Methodists met in Ft. Worth, Texas, April 23-May 2. They acted on over 1,500 pieces of legislation and approved a $642 million budget.
The issue of the legitimacy of homosexuality continued to divide the denomination. On April 30, delegates rejected an amendment by a vote of 445 to 418 that would have changed the church’s stated position that “homosexuality is incompatible with Biblical teaching.” The vote affirms the denomination’s definition of marriage as the union of one man and one woman. However, a demonstration on the assembly floor protesting the vote was allowed.
Two days later outside the convention center two lesbians who are UMC members in Chicago, held a “wedding” ceremony across the street from the convention center. A UMC pastor from the New England Annual Conference participated, potentially violating the Book of Discipline’s prohibition against UMC clergy conducting ceremonies that celebrate homosexual unions.
As the result of several actions approved at its 218th General Assembly, The Presbyterian Church (USA) has moved closer to approving the ordination of homosexuals to church leadership.
Commissioners meeting in San Jose, California, in late June approved an overture that strikes down the requirements for fidelity in marriage between a man and a woman and chastity in singleness for a candidate to be approved for ordination to church office. The action must be ratified by a majority of the 173 regional presbyteries before it can become a part of the church’s constitution. Similar actions in the past have failed to be ratified.
Although The PCUSA is the nation’s largest Presbyterian denomination, it lost 57,572 members in 2007, the worst decline in decades, according to official statistics released at the assembly.
Rev. Bruce Reyes-Chow, 39, of San Francisco was elected moderator of General Assembly. Chow, pastor of Mission Bay Community Church, has written that he believes “homosexuality is not sinful by nature and should not be an excluding factor for ordination or marriage.”
Bishops of The Episcopal Church (USA) will participate in the upcoming Lambeth Conference July 16-August 3 at the University of Kent in England. The gathering is held every 10 years.
However, many in the Anglican Communion – the third largest Christian community in the world – opted not to attend Lambeth, but instead, traveled to Jerusalem for the Global Anglican Future Conference (GAFCON) held June 22-29.
GAFCON was founded by Anglican archbishops from countries in Africa, South America and Australia. The one-time event has largely attracted conservative Anglican clergy and non-ordained church leaders who oppose the Episcopal Church (USA) because in 2004 the church ordained Gene Robinson as bishop of the Diocese of New Hampshire. Robinson is a practicing homosexual. 
