Carmen Fowler LaBerge, president of the Presbyterian Lay Committee and executive editor of its publications, has decided she no longer, in good conscience, can serve as a minister in the PCUSA

The adoption of the new Form of Government and the elimination of all explicit standards of sexual behavior for church leaders require that each ordained officer in the Presbyterian Church (USA) reconsider their vows.

As ordinations and installations are acts of one church council on behalf of the whole church, a person ordained by any presbytery is recognized as ordained by all others. Further, reading G-2.0102, when any congregation ordains a ruling elder, that person becomes as equally eligible to serve at all levels of Presbyterian governance as every ordained teaching elder. They have equal standing not only at presbytery meetings, but throughout our church governance structure. The result is that the local option of ordination standards exercised by one session extends effectively to all others through those whom it chooses to ordain.

When I was ordained, in 1993, I gave an affirmative and unqualified answer to the vows taken by all church officers in the PCUSA. Over the years, each time I have been installed to a position of ministry, I have seriously reconsidered and then joyfully re-affirmed those vows. Until today.

As a result of the adoption of the new Form of Government and the passage of Amendment 10A, I find myself confronting a profound crisis of conscience, which has prayerfully led to the following conclusions:

It is now clear to me that although we are using the same words, we do not share an understanding of those words. Further, although we may be ordained in the same institutional church, the PCUSA, we do not actually share nor are we actively leading others into the “one faith” espoused in the Scriptures (Ephesians 4:3-6). The result is that although we claim unity, we have none. And because we do share the unity of the Spirit, we are not experiencing the bond of peace.

It is now clear to me that when I vow to submit to Jesus as Lord and to the Bible as God’s Word, I am not saying the same thing that others are saying. I agree with the confessions that the Bible is the infallible rule for faith and life and I disagree that it is but one reference point among many to a knowledge of the will of God.

This statement first appeared on The Layman website and is used with permission.
It is now clear to me that when I vow to receive, adopt, rely on and teach the essential tenets of the Reformed faith as expressed in the confessions of our church, I do not have the same essentials in mind that others receive, adopt, rely on and teach.

It is now clear to me that when I vow to fulfill my office in obedience to Jesus Christ, under the authority of Scripture, and to be continually guided by our confessions, I am working with a different concept of obedience, submission, authority and guidance than the dominant progressive culture.

It is now clear to me that when I vow to seek to follow the Lord Jesus Christ in my own life, I am committing to a manner of life in conformity with God’s demands for holiness, continually being transformed by one degree of glory to another by the active presence of the Holy Spirit within me. And it is clear that manner of life departs at significant points from the culturally accommodating manners of life our denomination is now seeking to promote.

It is now clear to me that when I vow to further the peace, unity and purity of Christ’s Church, I find the definition and fulfillment of those realities in the Church universal and within our denomination as a derivative part thereof. Where the denomination severs herself from Christ, she sacrifices her unity to the whole Church, her purity as a part of Christ’s unblemished Bride and has no hope of experiencing authentic peace.

When I vow to be governed by our church’s polity I must now submit to the new Form of Government. This is not a polity in which I was examined nor with which I have lived. It is not yet clear to me what the polity of our church actually is under the nFOG and I therefore cannot in good conscience vow to be governed by it.

As to the question of working with colleagues in ministry subject to the ordering of God’s Word and Spirit, conscience requires that I raise a specific scruple. My conscience being bound by the revealed Word of God in the Bible, I cannot affirm the ordination nor installation of any officer who refuses to subordinate their own proclivities and desires to the demonstrated will and desire of God for His people to be holy.

Yes, we are all sinners and we all fall short of the glory of God. However, we are not unregenerate. By faith, the very righteousness of Jesus the Christ, through His sacrificial atoning death upon the cross and His glorious bodily resurrection, is imputed to us. We stand before God as sinners, confessing our desperate need and confessing our faith in an all sufficient Savior. Salvation by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone. We die to self and we live for Christ, in Christ and unto Christ, now and forevermore.

I will not participate actively nor passively as any presbytery or congregation within the PCUSA ordains or installs anyone who persists in behavior defined by the Bible as sin. As one who knows God’s righteous decrees I cannot approve of those who do not practice them and thereby place myself under the same condemnation (Romans 1).

Recognizing that this stand puts me at variance with the PCUSA, I know not what else to do but to set aside my ordination until my denomination repents of its corporate sin and returns to a shared standard of ordination aligned with the Scriptures. When the PCUSA changes its position on this matter, I look forward to the reinstatement of my ordination.

Until then, I will joyfully serve as your sister in Christ in the PCUSA without the benefit of institutional ordination credentials and without the burden of a denomination’s corporate guilt. I hereby humbly set aside my ordination as a matter of conscience before the Lord.

This article first appeared at The Layman website and is used with permission.

[Editor’s note: the original URL (link) referenced in this article is no longer valid, so the link has been removed.]