Calvin Synod Herald, 2006 (107. évfolyam, 1-12. szám)

2006-01-01 / 1-2. szám

CALVIN SYNOD HERALD

5

Bishop Chides UCC CALVIN SYNOD: “NO!”

BUT UCC APPROVES SAME-SEX MARRIAGE

Prologue by Rev. Albert W. Kovács

Calvin Synod’s bishop, the Rt. Rev. Koloman K. Ludwig, has sent a letter to all churches of the United Church of Christ, inviting them to join with the Hungarian churches in loud opposition to the same-sex marriage supported by the UCC’s last General Synod. Contacting congregations outside a local synod is an unusual and bold action. It accompanied a letter from the bishop, directly to the President of the United Church of Christ, critical of his role. He called the deed “dangerously divisive.”

Our members need to know about the strained relationship between the Synod, and what caused more than 20 churches to withdraw from the UCC already since the UCC passed the samesex resolution. They need to become more informed, since the same questions are being raised among us.

With the bishop’s permission, we are reprinting his letters to the Congregations of the UCC and to the UCC President, John Thomas.

Letter to the Congregations of the United Church of Christ

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ:

At the recent United Church of Christ General Synod 25, approximately 80% of the Delegates representing the 39 Conferences of the UCC voted to pass a resolution which includes the following two paragraphs:

“THEREFORE LET IT BE RESOLVED, that the Twenty-fifth General Synod of the United Church of Christ affirms equal marriage rights for couples regardless of gender and declares that the government should not interfere with couples regardless of gender who choose to marry and share fully and equally in the rights, responsibilities and commitment of legally recognized marriage; and...

LET IT BE FURTHER RESOLVED, that the Twenty-fifth General Synod calls upon congregations, after prayerfully biblical, theological, and historical study, to consider adopting Wedding Policies that do not discriminate against couples based on gender.”

This resolution has caused a great deal of difficulty for our Church and its members, and is a dangerously divisive issue. There are two very serious problems with the resolution.

First, it does not reflect the thinking or theological convictions of the members of the local congregations of the United Church of Christ. In spite of the vote of the Delegates, local congregations were not asked their opinion on such a weighty issue. Was your congregation asked for its input on this issue by those delegates from your Conference?

Second, this is a serious theological issue in the universal Christian Church - it is not an issue of “policy” or “procedure.” The definition of “marriage” in Christianity and in the Biblical context has a specific meaning; it is a relationship between a man and a woman. There is no deviation from this understanding in the bible.

With this resolution the Delegates to GS25 have denied an understanding of marriage that is over 3,000 years old - dating back to the roots of our Christian faith, the Old Testament understanding of this covenant.

The rationale for this decision is that “God is still speaking,” saying something different than He had throughout Christianity, or perhaps telling us that his word has been misunderstood by all our predecessors. Our current UCC leadership has decided in the past 30 years that they understand the meaning of God’s Scriptures

better than Jesus himself,

better than all the authors in the New Testament,

better than the Early Christian Fathers,

better than the leadership of the Catholic Church for 2,000

years,

better than the Orthodox Church for 1,200 years, better than the Reformers and all our Reformed and Protestant ancestors the past 500 years, better than their own parents.

Our current UCC leadership has decided that all who came before them were WRONG.

The main reason given for the necessity of the “resolution” is summed up in this paragraph, contained in the “Background” section of the introduction to the resolution:

“Civil/legal marriage carries with it significant access to institutional support, rights and benefits. There are more than 1,400 such rights and benefits in the federal statutes alone. Efforts to ban civil marriage to couples based on gender denies them and their children access to these rights and benefits, and thus, undermines the civil liberties of these couples, putting them and their children at risk.”

Recognizing that there are “same-sex” couples in our society in long-term, committed relationships, a substitute motion was introduced which would not have used the word “marriage,” but terminology which would have extended legal protection to same-sex couples. This motion was soundly defeated. With this motion, while same-sex couples would have gained the support of the Church for their civil rights, they would not have gained the “sacrament of marriage,” the second portion of the resolution which is quoted above. So the issue seems not to be about “civil rights”; it is about “same-sex marriage” in the church. And on this issue the Bible, church history, and worldwide Christianity are in consensus: “Marriage is between a man and a woman.” From our Christian perspective, we need to realize that God gave us laws for our own good - and in addition to purposely breaking His law (devastating in itself), we do damage to the Christian understanding of what God gives us - in the family - and destroy something which is the very basis of God’s understanding of how we should relate to each other.

In response to the negative reception of this resolution by lo