 The
UCC’s Calvin Synod says it might consider leaving the
denomination if a proposed resolution affirming
same-gender marriage equality is passed by the church’s
General Synod during its biennial meeting in Atlanta
July 1-5.
The Calvin Synod, a Hungarian church-based Conference
and the only one of the UCC’s 39 Conferences not defined
by geography, said in a resolution passed at its annual
meeting in Somerset, Pa., last week that the proposed
marriage equality resolution is the “latest
manifestation of heresy” and at odds with “the holy
scriptures” and “the age old pages of church history.”
If passed, the Calvin Synod - which will send three
voting delegates to Synod - may consider withdrawal
from the UCC, according to its resolution.
About 1,000 elected delegates from each of the church’s
conferences and its four national Covenanted Ministries
will debate three different marriage-related proposals
in Atlanta. The marriage equality resolution, submitted
by the Southern California-Nevada Conference, asks the
General Synod to affirm full civil and religious
equality for same-gender couples. A second counter
resolution, offered by eight geographically-diverse
congregations, asks the Synod to define “traditional”
marriage as being “between one man and one woman.” A
third proposal, submitted by the Central Atlantic
Conference, calls for a church-wide time of prayer,
conversation and study of the issue.
The marriage equality proposal describes the Gospel as a
place where a definition of marriage and family
relationships based on affirmation of the full humanity
of each partner is found. It declares that the state
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.
However the resolution passed by the Calvin Synod,
comprised of 29 churches and more than 2,500
congregants, claims the Bible records “the constant
opposition of God-fearing people to all sexual relations
outside the bonds of marriage” and calls unions between
homosexual persons to be “unholy abominations, unfit for
the sight of the Lord and the righteous.”
It denies that same-gender marriage meets the definition
of marriage, declares that such “heresy is intolerable”
to its members and ministers and calls on the UCC to
“disavow this heresy.”
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