April 17, 2007
A Tale of Two Motions
Although it may now be forgotten in the mist of time, two motions related to the church's stand on homosexuality, were passed at the 2004 Eastern Synod Convention. Both motions were in the form of petitions to the National Church Council (NCC).
The first such motion, petitioned the National Church Council to "study" the possibility of a congregational local option for same-sex blessings and bring a recommendation to the 2005 National Convention. The second motion (ES-04-33) passed at the 2004 Eastern Synod Convention (see top of page 6 of the preceding link) petitioned the National Church Council to "study" the ordination of "openly lesbian and gay persons" and bring a recommendation to the 2007 National Convention.
The National Church Council moved very quickly on the first petition from the 2004 Eastern Synod Convention. The minutes from the September 2004 NCC meeting recorded that the NCC passed a motion (CC-04-68): That NCC adopt the recommendations in "A Proposed Strategy for NCC to respond to the Eastern Synod's request for a study of the matter of same-sex blessings". It appears that such a "strategy" had been submitted by the Eastern Synod. To facilitate its 'study' the NCC, presumably as part of the Eastern Synod strategy, commissioned a set of essays on the matter, which, by its own admission, were declared to be one-sided essays. At their March 2005 meeting, very shortly after the last of the essays had been posted at the ELCIC web site, the NCC had concluded its 'study' and submitted a resolution to the 2005 National Convention calling for a congregational local option for same-sex blessings. Undeterred by the defeat of this motion at the 2005 National Convention, the NCC is bringing forward a permutation of this motion to the 2007 National Convention, whereby synods will have the 'local option' to make decisions on matters such as same-sex blessings.
So what happened to the second Eastern Synod petition, the one which asked the National Church Council to "study" the ordination of non-celibate homosexuals and bring a recommendation to the 2007 National Convention?
The minutes from the September 2004 NCC meeting record that the NCC passed a motion (CC-04-80), "to receive the motion ES-04-33 re: ordination to the ministry of openly lesbian and gay persons…and defer discussion of this matter until the meeting in March 2005".
There is reference to ES-04-33 on the top of page 7 of the March 2005 meeting minutes indicating that the NCC decided (CC-05-24) to "defer" discussion on this matter until the September 2005 meeting.
The September 2005 NCC meeting minutes contain no record of a discussion having taken place in regards to ES-04-33. In fact, there is no mention of ES-04-33 at all in the minutes.
In the March 2006 NCC meeting minutes, under Other Business near the bottom of page 9, one finds the following reference to the Eastern Synod motion ES-04-33: "Update NCC on motion ES-04-33 which has not been dealt with. Bishop Schultz stated that the motion rests with the Bishop's office and the Bishop's office will bring a recommendation to NCC regarding the Eastern Synod motion."
Although one presumes that the Bishop's office would be bringing such a recommendation to the NCC's next (that is, September 2006) meeting, there is no reference to ES-04-33 in the NCC minutes from that meeting. One would have expected that item to occur under "Outstanding NCC Actions" on page 3 of the minutes.
The minutes for the January 2007 NCC meeting record that the NCC passed a motion (CC-07-05), "that action on ES-04-33 (dealing with ordination of gays and lesbians) be postponed to the Fall 2007 meeting of NCC". In other words, although the NCC at their September 2004 had received the Eastern Synod motion asking the NCC "to initiate a study" on this matter and "to bring appropriate recommendations to the 2007 ELCIC National Convention", no such "appropriate recommendations" will be forthcoming to the 2007 Convention.
While the NCC moved promptly in addressing the first (same-sex blessings) motion from the 2004 Eastern Synod Convention, the paper trail (above) of decisions made at subsequent NCC meetings in relation to the second motion (ES-04-33) over the last two and a half years reveals an ongoing case of defer, defer, defer....
Why such apparent reluctance on the part of NCC to deal with the second motion?
Ron Voss
Cochrane, Alberta
