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Resolutions Spark Debate During Closing Session
By Bob Smietana
ROSEMONT, IL (June 28, 2003) - Two proposed resolutions - one addressing local
church dissent on the matter of allowing women to serve in all area of
ministry and one addressing human sexuality - sparked animated debated
during the closing business session of the 118th Annual Meeting of the
Evangelical Covenant Church.
The session began with a report on the Covenant's work in international
relief and development through Covenant World Relief (CWR) from director
Jim Sundholm. Sundholm reported that CWR received approximately $1.1
million in donations from 438 churches and individuals in 2002.
Some of those funds have been used for emergency relief in the
Philippines, Ecuador, Congo, Bangladesh, South Sudan, Ethiopia (and in
early 2003, Colombia), with $18,000 being designated for work in Iraq.
CWR also supports medical work in Congo, Ethiopia, Tajikistan and Kenya;
economic programs in Thailand, Laos, Colombia, and Central African
Republic; and AIDS/HIV ministry in Malawi, Mozambique, Haiti and
Thailand. About 70 percent of relief grants were done in partnership
with Covenant World Mission projects.
Sundholm noted that after a fire left 3,500 people displaced in
Medellin, Colombia, CWR funds were used to renovate three Colombian
Covenant churches - adding showers and kitchens so those churches could
be used to feed and house people. And in South Sudan, after the Sudanese
government announced that all the countries' schools would become
Islamic schools, South Sudanese Covenanters started an alternative
school of their own, which serves 2,500 students.
When the government threatened to close the Covenant school because
students didn't have uniforms, CWR sent foot-powered sewing machines and
cloth to Sudan to provide uniforms for the students.
After approving a five-year extension for the Covenant World Relief
Commission, delegates took up two resolutions from the Christian Action
Commission The first, entitled "Our Relationship to the Poor," urged
local churches to become involved in ministry to the poor in their local
communities and provided resources for Covenanters looking to become
more involved in serving their neighbors in poor communities. That
resolution was overwhelming approved by delegates. A second proposed
resolution on bioethics was accepted by delegates for discussion at the
2004 annual meeting.
But it was the final two resolutions - one from a church and one from
the floor - that met with animated and sometimes emotional responses
from delegates. The first, entitled "Resolution on Covenant Freedom &
Women in Ministry," came from Graham (Washington) Evangelical Church.
Graham pastor Alan Eagle introduced the resolution, which stated that
"conformity to a particular view of women in ministry" not be used as
"grounds for exclusion of any church, new or existing, from association
with the Evangelical Covenant Church or exclusion of any qualified
applicant for ministerial license, ordination, or commissioning."
Eagle said that his church brought the resolution because they "want to
see the Covenant continue to be a fellowship that welcomes people with
opposing views." While his congregation supports the right of local
churches to call women as pastor under an egalitarian model, Eagle said
a number of Covenant congregations hold an equally valid complementarian
view in which "some restriction to ministries of authority in the church
are based on gender."
In recent years, the Covenant church has become "egalitarian in its
common agenda," he said. "We are close to making this vision (of women
in ministry) a litmus test." That, Eagle argued, was a violation of the
Covenant's ideal of freedom on Christ.
Brad Boydston, president of the Covenant ministerium, spoke in
opposition to the amendment, saying that the Covenant's constitution
requires that pastors and congregations support the denomination's
policies. And ordaining women without restriction "is a policy of the
Evangelical Covenant Church," he said, also noting that "the ministerium
voted overwhelmingly to oppose this resolution."
David Kersten, executive minister of the Department of the Ordered
Ministry, also opposed the resolution, saying that the Covenant has a
"broad and deep biblical theology" for ordaining women. "We are equal in
creation - we are equal in the fall," he said. "We are equal in
redemption - both men and women are fully saved - and we are equal in
the kingdom."
Delegate Marilyn Moore of Lexington, Massachusetts, also opposed the
resolution. One of the things she said she appreciates most about the
Covenant church is "its validation of women in ministry." To move away
from that would take away freedom "from all the women in this meeting,"
she said.
Covenant President Glenn Palmberg spoke in opposition to the resolution,
"but not in opposition to the Graham church," and its pastor, whom he
came to know while serving as superintendent of the North Pacific
Conference. "This is not a litmus test," Palmberg said. "No issue of
doctrine is a litmus test." He added that some of the people ordained
during the Annual Meeting held differing views on women ministry, yet
they were still ordained.
But at least one delegate "respectfully disagreed with President
Palmberg," saying he is troubled by a growing "political correctness
culture" in the Covenant, "where only one view is accepted" on women in
ministry. "I have been on the (Great Lakes) conference board of
ministry," he said. "I think we really did see this as a litmus test - I
think there may be too much pressure on this issue."
After reaching the 30-minute limit of debate outlined in the standing
rules of the Annual Meeting, the proposed resolution was defeated.
Delegate Jeremy Males of the Evangelical Covenant Church of Evanston
(Illinois) then rose with a floor resolution on "Sexual Morality." Males
said he is concerned that the Covenant Church does not have a binding
policy on sexual morality and specifically homosexuality. He proposed
that three documents-a 1996 Annual Meeting resolution on human
sexuality, North Park Theological Seminary Professor Linda Belleville's
paper entitled "A Biblical Perspective on Sexuality," and a "Questions
and Answers" paper on sexuality be adopted as the official policies of
the Covenant church.
"Some day (the issue of homosexuality) is going to come our way, whether
we like it or not," he said, "and to (adopt a policy) later would make
it more difficult." After some discussion, Males then proposed that his
resolution be referred for discussion to the Board of the Ordered
Ministry, which would then report back to the 2004 Annual Meeting.
Donn Engebretson, executive vice president of the Covenant and former
executive director of the Ordered Ministry, spoke against the motion to
refer, noting that Board of the Ordered Ministry had already completed a
two-year study of the issue. That study concluded that the Covenant
already has clear Biblical teaching in place on this issue in the 1996
resolution, the Rules of the Ordered Ministry, the application for
licensing and the ethical guidelines for Covenant pastors. (The 1996
Resolution on Human Sexuality, the Rules of the Ordered Ministry and the
ethical guidelines for Covenant ministers are all available at
www.covchurch.org).
Delegate Don Ostrom spoke in favor of the motion to refer. "I think we
have been dancing around this issue and have been unwilling to talk
about it," he said. After further discussion, delegates approved the
motion to refer.
In other business:
- Delegates approved a constitutional amendment on the makeup of the
Board of the Ordered Ministry, which had been referred to the board
during the morning session. The amendment added two lay people as
members of theBoard of the Ordered Ministry.
- Delegates recognized the efforts of Annual Meeting officers Kristine
Strand (moderator), John Martz (vice moderator), Mary Jane
Graham(secretary) and Daniel Ferguson (vice secretary), along with
parliamentarian Duane Aschenbrenner.
- Annual Meeting coordinator Eric Palmquist announced that the 119th
Annual Meeting will be held June 20-22, 2004, at the Hyatt Regency in
Minneapolis, Minnesota. He encouraged delegates to make plans to attend
the 2004 meeting, noting "it is an honor to come together in community
as an act of faith to discern the will of God for the church."
The Annual Meeting closed with Mary Miller, vice president for
administration, reading the names of Covenant pastors, missionaries and
pastors' spouses who died during the previous year and offering a quiet
thankfulness for their lives of service. "Peace to their memory," said
Miller, "and joy to their eternal life."
Copyright © 2008 The Evangelical Covenant Church. |
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