To Memorialize Synod to Rescind 2004 Resolution 3-08A

Rationale: When the Synod adopted 2004 Res. 3-08A, it changed its position with respect to the service of women in congregational offices. Previously (see, for example, 1969 Res. 2-17), the Synod had employed two criteria to determine whether women could serve in various lay congregational offices such as elder or president of a congregation. But under 2004 Res. 3-08A the Synod now officially uses only one of these two. That criterion is: By serving in a given office, does a woman do things that only pastors should be doing? The Synod no longer asks the second question it previously asked on the basis of Scripture: Might a woman be violating the order of creation by serving in certain congregational offices where she is not carrying out “distinctive” functions of the pastoral office?

In 2004 Res. 3-08A the Synod affirmed conclusions from a 1994 report of the Commission on Theology and Church Relations (CTCR), which none of the theological professors then serving on the commission voted to adopt. Five of them put their objections in writing via a dissenting opinion. (For these two documents, see 1995 Convention Workbook, 310-313.) This dissenting opinion called attention to the way in which the commission’s 1994 report sketched the history of the matter in such a way as to omit references to the order of creation made by the Synod in 1969 Res. 2-17.

In 1995 Res. 3-06A, the Synod directed the CTCR to continue studying the issues in its 1994 report and the dissenting opinion, and to do so “in consultation with the faculties of the seminaries.” The CTCR’s 1998, 2001, and 2004 convention reports mentioned the commission’s work on “women in the church” issues, but in none of them did it provide an accounting of any communication that it either sought from the seminary faculties or received from them concerning women in congregational offices. Yet, in 2004 the Synod adopted Res. 3-08A.

Resolved, that the South Dakota District memorializes the Synod (a.) to rescind 2004 Res. 3-08A and anything based upon it, such as policies or administrative procedures; (b.) to reaffirm that congregations should respect God’s order of creation by restricting to males congregational offices other than the divinely-instituted pastoral office; (c.) to reaffirm — at least for the present — its previous position that congregations may allow women to hold all congregational offices except those of chairman, vice-chairman, elder, and any other board or policy-making committee whose chairmanship the congregation might wish to restrict to men (see 1995 Res. 3-06A); (d.) to assign the faculties of its two seminaries to give input to the CTCR on these matters in “open letters,” which are to be made available to the entire Synod at the time they are delivered to the CTCR; and (e.) to assign the CTCR critically to review all the recommendations in its 1994 report and their basis in its 1985 Women in the Church document in light not only of the seminary input mentioned above and input from other members of the Synod but also in light of the scholarly studies concerning relevant biblical passages (many aided by ancient literature databases) that have appeared since 1985.