The Layman Online reported that the 218th General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (USA) on June 28, 2008 approved an overture that will send the fidelity-chastity ordination standard to the denomination’s presbyteries for another round  [Editors note: the original URL (link) referenced in this article is no longer valid, so the link has been removed.] of debates and votes.
By a margin of 380-325-3 the assembly approved Overture 05-09 from Boston Presbytery that asks presbyteries to “Strike the current text of G-6.0106b and insert new text to read as follows [Text to be deleted is shown with a strike-through; text to be added or inserted is shown as italic.]

“b. Those who are called to office in the church are to lead a life in obedience to Scripture and in conformity to the historic confessional standards of the church. Among these standards is the requirement to live either in fidelity within the covenant of marriage between a man and a woman (W-4.9001), or chastity in singleness. Persons refusing to repent of any self acknowledged practice which the confessions call sin shall not be ordained and/or installed as deacons elders, or ministers of the Word and Sacrament. Those who are called to ordained service in the church, by their assent to the constitutional questions for ordination and installation (W-4.4003), pledge themselves to live lives obedient to Jesus Christ the Head of the Church, striving to follow where he leads through the witness of the Scriptures, and to understand the Scriptures through the instruction of the Confessions. In so doing, they declare their fidelity to the standards of the Church. Each governing body charged with examination for ordination and/or installation (G-14.0240 and G-14.0450) establishes the candidate’s sincere efforts to adhere to these standards.”

The rationale in part states: “In order to be able to rely on Jesus Christ as its Head and as its chief guide in all of life, the church must shed any subordinate source of authority that would bind its ability to follow where he leads. The overture therefore also calls for the rescission of past interpretive statements that have had the effect of limiting Christ’s freedom to use his servants as he would choose.”

The assembly’s action also amended G-14.024, and included an authoritative interpretation:

“Interpretive statements concerning ordained service of homosexual church members by the 190th General Assembly (1978) of the United Presbyterian Church in the United States of America, and the 119th General Assembly (1979) of the Presbyterian Church in the United States and all subsequent affirmations thereof, have no further force or effect.”

Outgoing Stated Clerk Clifton Kirkpatrick and Assembly Committee on Church Orders and Ministries moderator Rev. Dan Holloway both emphasized in a news conference directly following the floor vote that “the (PCUSA) Constitution has not changed” and to move forward with discussions that are “gracious and kind and welcoming.”

The Presbyterian Renewal Network had a different take on the matter. It released a statement that said in part, “The General Assembly today, by majority vote, has conveyed to our congregations and to the world that it rejects the Bible’s teaching and our Reformed confessions’ affirmation that homosexual behavior does not comport with Christian faith.”

The statement continued, “They threaten to cut us off from God’s ancient law, given for our good, by which God prohibited adultery and all other sexual relations outside the marriage of man and woman. They threaten to cut us off from the apostolic Church, which laid only a few behavioral requirements on the new Gentile believers-among them that they ‘abstain from sexual immorality.’ These actions threaten to cut us off from the PCUSA’s birthright in the Reformation, with its insistence that all matters of faith and practice be decided on the basis of ‘Scripture alone.’ They threaten to cut us off from the vast majority of the global Church today, which holds firmly to the orthodox faith that this Assembly so lightly casts aside. These actions threaten to cut us off from our own denomination’s members and congregations, which also by large majorities affirm the biblical teachings on these matters.”

The assembly also adopted an authoritative interpretation proposed by John Knox Presbytery on G-6.0108 to ensure proper application of ordination standards by a vote of 375-325. It reads:

“The 218th General Assembly (2008) affirms the authoritative interpretation of G-6.0108 approved by the 217th General Assembly (2006). Further, the 218th General Assembly (2008), pursuant to G-13.0112, interprets the requirements of G-6.0108 to apply equally to all ordination standards of the Presbyterian Church (USA). Section G-6.0108 requires examining bodies to give prayerful and careful consideration, on an individual, case-by-case basis, to any departure from an ordination standard in matters of belief or practice that a candidate may declare during examination. However, the examining body is not required to accept a departure from standards, and cannot excuse a candidate’s inability to perform the constitutional functions unique to his or her office (such as administration of the sacraments).”