June 17, 2003
by John Filiatreau

CINCINNATI - The Rev. Steven Van Kuiken, the Cincinnati minister who defied a church court's order to stop performing "marriages" of same-sex couples, was expelled from the ministry and from membership in the Presbyterian Church (USA) Monday night.

By a vote of 119-45, the elders and ministers of Cincinnati Presbytery agreed with the presbytery's Committee on Ministry (COM) that Van Kuiken had "renounced jurisdiction" of the denomination by refusing to be bound by its orders. They therefore removed him as pastor of Mount Auburn Presbyterian Church in Cincinnati and directed the stated clerk to strike his name from the presbytery's roll.

About 400 visitors joined voting members of the presbytery for the meeting at Lakeside Presbyterian Church in Fort Mitchell, KY. Before it began, about 50 people demonstrated quietly outside the church in support of Van Kuiken - under the watchful eyes of a squad of local policemen on hand to keep order.

The Book or Order (G-6.0502) provides that: "When a church officer, after consultation and notice, persists in a work disapproved by the governing body having jurisdiction, the governing body may presume that the officer has renounced the jurisdiction of this church."

Van Kuiken immediately filed a protest of the presbytery's action. The decision also can be appealed to the Synod of the Covenant.

The vote does not foreclose Van Kuiken's pending appeal of an April finding by the presbytery's Permanent Judicial Commission (PJC) that he was guilty of having "married" homosexual couples.

In its decision, the PJC also ordered Van Kuiken to refrain from performing such ceremonies in the future. He responded by vowing to defy the order and saying on his church's Web site, "I will not change from my position."

Then, on May 17, he performed what he billed as "A Service of Christian Marriage" uniting two lesbians.

Van Kuiken said during the meeting that he and his supporters at Mount Auburn have "always" seen same-sex-union ceremonies and marriage as "essentially the same," terming both "unions of matrimony." He said he believes such rites bless, among other things, "sexual intimacy" between the persons being joined, whether heterosexual or homosexual.

Van Kuiken said it would be dishonest to suppose "a theological and liturgical distinction" that does not exist. "The liturgy is identical," he pointed out.

If he stopped performing such "marriage" ceremonies to avoid personal risk and to keep peace in the denomination, Van Kuiken said, "I would find it difficult to face myself in the mirror in the morning. ... In my heart it would be contrary to the spirit of Christ."

He pointed out that Presbyterian tradition holds that it is sometimes appropriate, even imperative, to challenge church law. "As good as the rules are, they are not perfect," he said.

In a later vote, the presbytery gave a church administrative commission extended powers at Mount Auburn to provide pastoral care to the congregation while its leadership is in transition.

Participants in the meeting were asked to refrain from inflammatory language and instructed not to applaud or otherwise react to speakers' comments. The atmosphere was serious and tense, but prayerful, polite and orderly.

Van Kuiken said during the meeting that the decision the presbytery was being asked to make was actually "whether I have acted in obedience to Jesus Christ," because "the ultimate jurisdiction is Christ, and Christ alone."

He said the action against him was "based on the false premise that homosexuality is sinful," and came about mainly because he and his supporters "have been open and honest about what we have done."

Van Kuiken said he is "actually quite old-fashioned" regarding marriage, in that he requires extensive premarital counseling, discourages "casual cohabitation" and blesses only "faithful, committed relationships."

He said his convictions and actions are based on "our growing understanding that love between a man and a man, or between a woman and a woman, is just as real, just as true, just as good, as love between a man and a woman."

A "statement on inclusive marriage" approved by Mount Auburn's session in 2001 was distributed at the meeting. It cites the constitutional provision (W-4.9) that "marriage is a gift God has given to all human kind for the well-being of the entire human family," and adds: "We hold that 'all human kind' includes gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered people."

The statement holds that all the "good things" made possible by Christian marriage "can be and are achieved by same-sex couples as well as heterosexual couples."

About 20 members of the Mount Auburn congregation appeared at the meeting to deliver brief speeches in Van Kuiken's defense.

In a typical encomium, member Sharon McLeod said Van Kuiken is a "nurturing, loving and spiritual man" and "wonderful preacher and teacher" who leads "a worship community that lives what it believes." "It would be unjust to remove this pastor from his pulpit," she said.

Elder Douglas Duckett, Van Kuiken's counsel and an elder at Knox Presbyterian Church in Cincinnati, said Van Kuiken was being presecuted because "his maddening devotion to conscience troubles higher-ups in our church."

He said the COM was asking presbytery members to dispense with "trials and appeals and all that bother" and vote to "hang Steve Van Kuiken tonight."

"This persecution," he said, "puts us on the road to schism."

Duckett said Van Kuiken's is a case of "classic civil disobedience." Comparing the Cincinnati pastor to Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and Mohandas Gandhi, he said: "He is acting on his conscience as God gives him to see it."

Elder Bill Lindsay, of Community of Faith Presbyterian Church, in Covington, KY, urged his colleagues to postpone action until Van Kuiken's appeal of the PJC decision has been resolved.

The Rev. Cinda Gorman, the pastor of Westwood First Presbyterian Church, said the PC(USA) properly sets boundaries for its officers, and Van Kuiken "marched right over" such a boundary on May 17."

"He chose not to wait until his appeal was heard," she said.

The motion to postpone failed, 65-100.

Some speakers argued that presbytery action would be "precipitous," but others noted that it has been struggling with this issue since 1991. The Rev. Jeff Hosmer, of Northminster Presbyterian Church in Cincinnati, said Mount Auburn has had ample time to deal with the issue, pointing out that "no other congregation has occupied more of this presbytery's energy and time" in the past decade than Mount Auburn.

A motion to simply dissolve the relationship between Mount Auburn and Van Kuiken, who then would remain a presbytery member and a minister at large, also was defeated, 50-107.

The Rev. Bruce Archibald, the COM chair, who also is pastor of Glendale Presbyterian Church in Cincinnati, said Van Kuiken "is, in my mind, an honest and good man," but one who has made a "caring, loving, pastoral decision" to defy the PJC.

"You are not stripping him of his ordination," he said before the crucial vote. "That is his decision."

Another speaker had said that what Van Kuiken indulged in was "not civil disobedience, but ecclesial disobedience."

The Rev. Melissa Sevier, who moderated the meeting, offered a prayer after the vote, asking God "to bless, we pray, our brother Steve, as he moves now into a new phase of his walk with You." More Light Presbyterians, a group that works for the full inclusion of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered people in the life of the PC(USA), issued a statement Tuesday saying that it is "shocked and dismayed by the apparent precedent set by this decision, which effectively declares the semantic distinction between same-sex unions and marriages to be an essential tenet of the Reformed faith."

The statement goes on to say: "This ... suggests that any minister who deviates from any jot or title in the Form of Government, or Directory of Worship, or any PJC decision, is at the same risk as Van Kuiken."

Another group that advocates for gay and lesbian Presbyterians, That All May Freely Serve, said in a statement that it is "greatly saddened" by Van Kuiken's removal from the ministry, adding: "We continue to stand with those who for reasons of conscience take actions that uncover the unjust policies of our denomination."

Presbyterian News Service