Dear Editor:

I hope the Permanent Judicial Commssion of the Presbytery of Central Florida will be releasing a more complete ruling spelling out the logic in their decision ordering the First Presbyterian Church of Sebastian Session to rescind their confession. The letter to the session states that the only questions which are appropriate in examining an elder for ordination are the constitutional questions in G-14.0207. Such a decision, if allowed to stand, would vastly change the process for ordaining and examining elders and ministers. Examination committees no longer need to schedule hour-long meetings with candidates and transfers.Questions from the floor of Presbytery would similarly be limited to G-14-0207. Such a ruling, if allowed to stand on appeal, would rob the examinations process of any meaningful content or process of dialogue and undermine the historic right of sessions and presbyteries to determine their own standards (regarding what are essential tenets of the Reformed faith) for ordaining officers.

As regular readers of Presbyweb know, the concept of "essential tenets" is a long and complicated case which I do not have time to rehearse in detail. Suffice it to say that the history of the Presbyterian Church allows each local ordaining body to establish how firmly they wish to hold to a subscriptionist model of confessionalism. Efforts between 1905 and 1925 to nationalize a list of essential tenets were struck down by the Special Commission of 1925, which affirmed that the lists of essential tenets adopted by various previous assemblies did not follow proper procedure. The General Assembly has declined numerous times since then (including several attempts in recent years) to enumerate any lists of essential tenets, proclaiming that local governing bodies bore the responsibility for determining in context the proper limits of essential tenets. Now, the PJC of Central Florida Presbytery has essentially forbidden the local session from explicitly establishing essential tenets or evaluating candidates comprehensively. Where in this schema are "essential tenets" determined, evaluated, and applied?

Although our Confessional identity as a church is surely weak and tottering, I have believed that the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) has maintained some sense of confessional identity and integrity. If the ruling in the Sebastian case stands, I will not be able to assert even that limited claim.