Aug. 10, 2009 issue
Proposal precedents
By Harold Bauman Goshen, Ind.In calling us to a more pastoral approach to gay covenanted monogamous couples, Richard Kauffman’s proposal is building on precedents of past approaches to divorce and remarriage.
In the 1961 Mennonite General Conference sessions, the General Problems Committee noted that some conferences received divorced and remarried persons while others did not. It brought a recommendation that conferences help congregations strengthen teaching on marriage and to help pastors in premarital and marital counseling. It stated that conferences with congregations accepting divorced and remarried persons should give guidelines to help such congregations. The recommendation was tabled; in the 1963 sessions the committee let the question rest. Change has happened by default since, as many congregations accept divorced and remarried persons, even from their own membership.
A further illustration is from the Indiana-Michigan Mennonite Conference. In 1980 the Committee on Women in Ministry brought a recommendation that congregations wanting to have women in pastoral leadership could do so in consultation with conference leadership. The recommendation was tabled; in the next annual session the recommendation was approved.
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