By a vote of 60 to five, with seven commissioners abstaining, the Overtures Committee of the 37th General Assembly denied Overture 13 from Grace Presbytery of Mississippi yesterday. The overture had sought to adopt a modified version of the Danvers Statement, issued by the Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood in 1988, as the official statement of gender issues of the Presbyterian Church in America.

According to the overture, “the 36th General Assembly gave the impression that the lower courts should discuss [the issue of women’s roles in the church] with a view that a resolution of the issue might be forthcoming. … There is a need to give direction to our local churches as well as respond to the Assembly's suggestion.”

The Danvers Statement is, according to the overture, “a biblically-based Statement on Gender Issues endorsed by Evangelicals and Reformed alike, which has been in circulation for more than 20 years.”

The Overtures Committee responded by saying, “[This] overture seeks to deal with matters of controversy with a lengthy statement whose complex propositions have not been examined in detail by the Church.”