Tag Archives: Presbyterian

PCUSA 219th General Assembly Opens Today

Yesterday, I visited the exhibit hall at the Mpls Convention Center where 2100 Presbyterians (PCUSA) will gather this week for their 219th General Assembly. The local newspaper offered an excellent preview. According to the lead in the Minneapolis Star Tribune article:

Motions about same-sex marriage, gay clergy and a controversial stand on the Middle East will give convention delegates lots to talk about in Minneapolis.

Even though the official opening of the assembly was still 24 hours away, the exhibitors were all in place and early registrants wandered about. In a prominent location in the exhibit hall, four or five adjacent booths comprise the LGBT corner. Many early shoppers stopped by the LGBT corner and gladly accepted a rainbow colored prayer shawl.

Eleven months ago, this same venue hosted the ELCA Church Wide Assembly, and I was there as a Goodsoil volunteer. Goodsoil was an umbrella organization of several LGBT groups, and I wonder why the several Presbyterian LGBT organizations don’t combine their efforts and resources in a similar fashion.

I visited with the volunteers in the More Light Presbyterians booth and also briefly with the folks at Covenant Network. The following is taken from an essay appearing on the Covenant Network blog:

Gay and lesbian people may be denied the formal recognition of marriage in many places, but we are married nonetheless. Our relationships emerge out of the countless little, implicit promises that we make to each other, day after day, until one day we wake up and realize that in fact we are married. It’s not as much fun as parties, perhaps, but certainly as real and often more enduring. Anyone who doesn’t know that by now simply hasn’t been paying attention.

My favorite definition of the love that I share with my partner of twelve years now comes from a Broadway show, courtesy of Barbara Streisand – clichéd, I know, but true nonetheless: “His is the only music that makes me dance.” Or we can look to the assessment offered by David Nimmons, a gay activist in New York: “We are gardeners of each other’s hearts.” And if that doesn’t do it for us dour Presbyterians, perhaps we resonate to the views of Law & Order’s Jack McCoy: “Let ’em marry. Why shouldn’t they be as miserable as the rest of us?”

We know that there is a hard practical reality, and a deep theological truth, in McCoy’s remark. Living in committed, lifelong relationship is in fact a means of sanctification – the daily discipline of learning, in ways large and small, to find the understanding, patience, compassion, and support that can help another person to flourish. It is a life of generosity and self-denial that enables each of us to grow more fully into the people God intends us to be. When we deny marriage to any group, we deny them a powerful means of discipleship.

PCUSA 219th General Assembly to open this weekend

Later this morning, I’ll drive 50 miles up the freeway to check out the Minneapolis Convention Center where the various entities that will comprise the 219th General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church USA (PCUSA) will be setting up. As I write this, the live feed from the PCUSA convention website says the convention will open in 1 day, 4 hours, 37 minutes, and 45 seconds.

First, I’ll check in with the Cokesbury bookstore, which will carry my historical fiction book about the Apostle Paul, and finalize the arrangements for my personal appearance in the bookstore on Monday afternoon to autograph copies of A Wretched Man.

Next, I’ll visit the various LGBT advocacy groups including Soulforce and More Light Presbyterians (MLP). I have signed up to do some volunteer work during the week. Soulforce is multi-denominational while MLP is obviously specific to the Presbyterian church.

The Soulforce blog suggests:

Our best information tells us to expect the votes on our issues on Thursday July 8, Friday July 9, & Saturday July 10. On these days, we will assemble in mass prayer, not blocking and not provoking, but in a highly visible process that encourages the members of the PC(USA) GA to do what needs to be done. Whatever action the GA takes, we plan a powerful conclusion to the assembly that we pray can be a celebration of justice and love. If there is no cause to celebrate, we will be there in the words and spirit of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, to demonstrate: “…to those who have mistreated us so long that we are tired — tired of being segregated and humiliated; tired of being kicked about by the brutal feet of oppression…We have no alternative but to protest.”

Meanwhile, a post from the MLP blog sets the stage for the Minneapolis event:

As the denomination gathers in Minneapolis, Minnesota, many are aware that in the same hall, one year earlier, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in American voted to allow ministers in partnered same-sex couples to be listed on the official roster and to serve the church. All requirements to limit participation were dropped and Lutherans are living into the new policies by receiving clergy back into the church.

Lisa Larges, head of That All May Freely Serve, said, “Faith traditions are moving toward a new understanding of God’s diverse creation. The time for policies based on our love of God and call to serve has come. Churches are learning to affirm gifts for ministry rather than reject ministers because of whom they chose as a life partner.”

The PCUSA currently allows gay and lesbian people to serve in official capacities if they maintain “chastity.” An amendment to lift the requirement for “fidelity within the covenant of marriage between a man and a woman, or chastity in singleness” was passed at the 2008 General Assembly, but after the long process of voting by regionally based presbyteries, the constitutional amendment did not garner the required number of presbytery votes.

What was impressive was that presbyteries in relatively conservative areas like Alabama, Texas, North Carolina, Arkansas, Kentucky, southern Illinois, rural Michigan, Tennessee, Pennsylvania, and Montana voted to support equal acceptance of all those who feel called to serve the church, including those in same-sex committed relationships.

Will this be the summer for the Presbyterians to step forward into full inclusion for their gay and lesbian brothers and sisters? Stay tuned.

Author appearances and advocacy

Regular followers of this blog know that I haven’t posted much lately, and that’s because I have been on the road promoting my novel, A Wretched Man. Most recently, I spent four days with the Wisconsin Annual Conference of the United Methodists (UMC) in La Crosse. I managed to sell a goodly number of books and network with numerous congregations and organizations that may use my book for an adult forum or book club discussion. The study guide that I prepared as a pdf document proved to be quite popular.

The trip to La Crosse had an unintended benefit: my exhibitor’s booth was placed next to Kairos CoMotion, an LGBT advocacy group within the Wisconsin UMC, and I had plenty of time to visit with Jim and Steve, a gay couple who have been together for many years and who were married in Toronto four years ago. Steve has long been an LGBT leader and spokesman within the Wisconsin UMC following his rejection for admission to a UMC seminary because he was gay. At the conclusion of the convention, I accompanied Jim and Steve to a meeting and communion service for the Kairos CoMotion supporters. I hope to post more about this group and the status of LGBT issues within the Wisconsin UMC later.

Switching from past book-related appearances to future ones, I note that in yesterday’s Minneapolis Star Tribune newspaper, I was lumped together with a couple of heavy hitters of progressive Catholicism under the header “Controversial Roman Catholic speakers are coming to Twin Cities.”

First on the scene is author Obie Holmen, who will be reading from his new book, “A Wretched Man,” Thursday at the House of the Beloved Disciple, 4001 38th Av. S., Minneapolis. The reading will be preceded by a 7 p.m. “mass of celebration for our LGBT brothers and sisters.”

I must smile at the article headline since I am not Roman Catholic nor do I think my support for the majority position of the ELCA on this blog qualifies me as “controversial”. But any press is good press, as they say, and to be linked with luminaries of Roman Catholic progressive thought such as British theologian James Alison and feminist theologian Rosemary Radford Ruether is flattering.

Early in July, the Presbyterian Church USA (PCUSA) will hold its national, General Assembly in Minneapolis. Cokesbury functions as the official booksellers for the Presbyterians, and their bookstore will offer my book for sale during the weeklong Presbyterian assembly that promises up to 8,000 attendees. On Monday, July 5th, at 2:30 pm, I will be present in the Cokesbury bookstore at the assembly to autograph copies of the novel.

Finally, Lutherans Concerned North America (the ELCA gay advocacy group) will hold its biennial convention in Minneapolis beginning July 7th. The theme of the gathering will be Let Justice Roll Down Like Waters. On Saturday morning, July 10th at 8:30 am, I will present a workshop entitled “Paul the Apostle–History’s Greatest Homophobe?” The LCNA convention will close with a celebration dinner back at the Minneapolis Convention Center (after the PCUSA clears out) to remember and relive the historic vote in that venue last August.

On the evening of Saturday, July 10, we are having a night on the town! We will head over to downtown Minneapolis to revisit the historic place where the ELCA voted for full-participation of people of all sexual orientations and gender identities. It’s appropriate to revisit the site. Many people said that celebration felt “stuck in their throats”. We hope that we will be able to clear our throats and cheer with joy. It will be an evening of reconciliation, celebration, and defining our path moving forward.

Busy. Busy. Busy. But also extremely rewarding. Hope to see you along the way.

Looking forward to Presbyterian General Assembly (GA219)

The 219th General Assembly of the PCUSA (Presbyterian) will convene in Minneapolis on July 3rd. This past Sunday, many Presbyterian congregations anticipated GA219 by celebrating “More Light Sunday” in reference to the Presbyterian LGBT advocacy group known as More Light Presbyterians (MLP). Pastor John Shuck, a Presbyterian pastor and provocateur to more conservative Presbyterians, noted the occasion in his Shuck and Jive blog. Here are the ten MLP affirmations.

1. We celebrate the unity we create in the midst of our diversity.
2. We affirm the inherent beauty, worth, and dignity of every GLBT and straight person.
3. There are many paths to the sacred. The spiritual paths of GLBT persons are among
them.
4. The choice is not whether to be GLBT or straight but whether or not to live an
authentic life.
5. Coming out is a courageous and spiritual act.
6. Sexual expression is one of the many sacred ways that GLBT and straight adults can express the depth of love in their relationships.
7. We support each person’s journey of integrating spirituality and sexuality which
leads to wholeness.
8. Marriage is a sacred union for people who are committed to each other without regard to gender. Love makes a family.
9. Spiritual leaders must take responsibility to lead, protect, and affirm GLBT people:
children, adults, and their families.
10. No one is free when others are oppressed.

The issue of gay and lesbian clergy will certainly arise again at GA219 as it has in previous years and as in other mainline denominations. Coincidentally, the venue of GA219 is precisely the same Minneapolis convention center that was the site of last year’s momentous decisions by the ELCA regarding gay clergy and LGBT relationships. The precise provision at issue for the Presbyterians is known as G-6.0106b, which restricts LGBT persons from serving as clergy. Yet, Pastor Ray Bagnuolo of Jan Hus Presbyterian Church and Neighborhood House in New York City suggests that removal of the onerous G-6.0106b would be a mere formality, a de jure recognition of the de facto status quo. In the following article, he spoke of ministering to a homeless man:

It didn’t matter that as the pastor of the church I am gay. In fact, being gay in the PC(USA) no longer matters any more than being straight does. People will argue about that, but we, as a church, have already deleted G-6.0106b. It’s gone in our hearts and in practice. True, some still find comfort in the same kind of teachings that once held women and people of color to be second-class in God’s eyes. However, the reality is that we already work together and serve God as a community of great diversity that includes gender identity fully.

I honestly do wish to continue to dialogue with those who disagree, because I believe they are being faithful in their own ways and we need to pray and talk together. However, those who are unable or unwilling to accept the truth that this artificial division between us is no longer valid cannot be allowed to prevent others who believe differently from full inclusion in this church. The lives of faithful people cannot be divided along gender identity any more than they can along the lines of the sexes or color.

In a short time, we will all gather in Minneapolis for our General Assembly. We will worship together, work together, share meals, cabs, and conversations. We will pray and seek God’s will. And, the “we” will include many of us who identify themselves as gay, whether spoken aloud or not. We will agree and disagree. Sooner or later, it will be apparent that, in fact, G-6.0106b has been deleted in the way God has moved this church and its people. Sooner or later, the constitution will catch up. In the meantime, none of us can be held hostage by what we know in our hearts to be wrong.
Like the gentleman who found us on that cold night, there are too many people “seeking God” for us to deny any qualified candidate from ordination based on G-6.0106b.

Scott Anderson is clearly qualified to be ordained. To hold G-6.0106b against him or anyone else is to hold this church hostage to an aberration in our constitution. We no longer allow the few who still hold onto prejudices against women and people of color to hold us hostage to their beliefs, nor should we allow those who have yet to embrace the gay community to marginalize or exclude us.

It is no longer about G-6.0106b.

Now it’s the Presbyterians’ turn

The Presbyterian Church (USA) (PCUSA) is commonly labeled “mainline Protestant”. According to Wikipedia, the attribution “mainline Protestant” suggests the following:

Mainline or mainline Protestant (also sometimes called mainstream) denominations are those that comprised the vast majority of American Christianity from the colonial era until the early 1900s. Most were brought to America by their respective historic immigrant groups. Today, most are rooted in the Northeastern and Midwestern United States.

As a group they have maintained theologies that stress social justice concerns together with personal salvation and evangelism.They have been credited with leading the fight for social causes such as racial justice and civil rights, equality for women, rights for the disabled and other key issues. Many of the issues that such groups have advocated for have been embraced by American law and society, but at the same time mainline denominations have been somewhat marginalized. In addition, mainline churches and laity founded most of the leading educational institutes in the US.

In typical usage, the term mainline is contrasted with evangelical. Mainline churches tend to be more liberal in terms of theology and political issues. This places them to the ideological left of the evangelical and fundamentalist churches.

With approximately 2.4 million members, the PCUSA is the third largest of the mainline Protestant denominations behind the United Methodists (UMC–8 million) and the ELCA (4.4 million) and just ahead of the Episcopal Church (2.1 million). Many of these denominations hold formal agreements with each other that mutually recognize clergy and sacramental practice. For instance, the ELCA has full communion agreements with six other denominations, including the UMC, PCUSA and Episcopal Churches.

After wrestling with women’s ordination a generation or two ago, that issue is now settled and females comprise a significant percentage of the clergy within these mainline Protestant denominations. Presently, LGBT issues roil these denominations. The United Church of Christ (UCC) has the longest record of allowing gay clergy, and LGBT issues seem less contentious for that 1.1 million member denomination. The Episcopal Church now has two LGBT bishops and adopted policies a year ago that succinctly offer “all the sacraments for all the baptized”. But, the Episcopalians’ relationship with the worldwide Anglican communion has been strained and a conservative, dissident group of American Episcopalians has splintered away. Also last summer, the ELCA changed its policy and now recognizes and affirms committed gay relationships and allows partnered gay clergy, but not without defecting individual and congregational membership.

All of this is background to the PCUSA weeklong 219th Annual Assembly that convenes in Minneapolis on July 3rd. Coincidentally, the venue is the same Convention Center that was the location of last year’s momentous ELCA church wide assembly (CWA09). I was present last summer as a volunteer for Goodsoil, a coalition of LGBT advocacy groups, and regular followers of this blog know that I have posted extensively about that experience. The parallel LGBT advocacy organization within the PCUSA is “More Light Presbyterians (MLP)”, and they will advocate for repeal of provision G-6.0106b within the PCUSA Book of Order.

Those who are called to office in the church are to lead a life in obedience to Scripture and in conformity to the historic confessional standards of the church. Among these standards is the requirement to live either in fidelity within the covenant of marriage between a man and a woman (W-4.9001), or chastity in singleness. Persons refusing to repent of any self-acknowledged practice which the confessions call sin shall not be ordained and/or installed as deacons, elders or ministers of the Word and Sacrament.

At the 2006 assembly, the delegates voted by a 57% majority that this provision was “non-essential” but without repealing it, which would have required ratification by the various presbyteries (regional bodies) of the PCUSA. Detractors decried this “end run” around the PCUSA constitution. Indeed, at the next assembly in 2008, the provision was amended by the delegates, but the amendment was subsequently derailed by the Presbyteries that failed to ratify the assembly action.

In addition to regular business of the assembly, including the election of a new moderator, the issue will certainly arise next month in Minneapolis. I intend to blog extensively on this issue in the coming weeks so stay tuned. As a non-Presbyterian, I also confess to partial knowledge of the details, and I welcome any Presbyterian comment or correction.

Gay and female clergy civil disobedience

Dr Martin Luther King Jr. championed civil disobedience as a pushback or resistance to existing law with the goal of ultimately changing the law; of course, that is precisely what happened. Rosa Park’s refusal to sit in the back of the bus and lunch counter sit ins are prototypical examples of civil disobedience. Of course, King had learned from Mohatma Gandhi who used civil disobedience, first in South Africa and later in India, to exact reforms and ultimately Indian independence from colonialist England.

In the Episcopal Church, the election of V. Eugene Robinson as New Hampshire bishop in 2003 was also a form of civil disobedience. Despite denominational rules to the contrary, Robinson was elected as bishop as an openly gay man in a committed relationship. Six years later, the Episcopalians revised their rules to include “all the baptized in all the sacraments”. The fait accompli of Rev Robinson forced the Episcopalians to confront the issue of gay clergy and to ultimately change church policy de jure to accord with the de facto status of Bishop Robinson.

The extraordinary ordinations of gay clergy in the ELCA in the early ‘90’s, accelerating in the new millennium, similarly helped to push the issue of gay clergy to the forefront of the ELCA consciousness, culminating in the momentous actions of the ELCA churchwide assembly of 2009 (CWA09) in which ministry policies were formally changed to allow persons in same gender, livelong, monogamous relationships to become rostered clergy. Those who pushed back, who exerted pressure through civil disobedience, are now being welcomed back into the ELCA (see prior posts here and here).

The most recent example is Pastor Anita Hill of St Paul Reformation church. After I sent Pastor Hill a congratulatory email, she replied, “I’ll be glad when the process is complete for all of us in ELM [Extraordinary Lutheran Ministries]”, and her email contained a quotation from Alice Walker: “The most common way people give up their power is by thinking they don’t have any.”

The Presbyterian Church (USA) is now witnessing the same process of civil disobedience. The John Knox Presbytery covers SW Wisconsin, NE Iowa, and SE Minnesota. As an ELCA person, I think of a Presbytery as being similar to an ELCA regional synod (or diocese in the Roman Catholic and Episcopal traditions). A lengthy article published Feb 22 by the Presbyterian News Service provided background and context to the news that the John Knox Presbytery had voted to reinstate Scott Anderson, a gay man in a twenty year committed relationship, to the rolls of Presbyterian ordained clergy despite ministry policies to the contrary.

The ordination standards of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) [require] that those being ordained practice “fidelity within the covenant of marriage between a man and a woman or chastity in singleness.”

The Anderson case is based on an apparent loophole in the polity of the PCUSA based on a “scruple” which is an “objection of conscience”. That is, Anderson claimed an objection of conscience to the fidelity-and-chastity rule, and his Presbytery, by a vote of 81-25 agreed. But, that is certainly not the end of the story as opponents will likely appeal this decision to the judiciary of the PCUSA, which must decide whether the policy of “scruple” may be used to circumvent the fidelity-and-chastity ordination rule. If the PCUSA judicial system upholds the ordination of Anderson, it will have established a precedent, a fait accompli, that the PCUSA General Assembly must confront.

The PCUSA is scheduled to convene its 219th annual General Assembly on July 3 in Minneapolis (perhaps ironically, in the same venue as the ELCA assembly which voted to allow gay clergy last year). Certainly, ministry policies will be front and center of the assembly business. If the PCUSA judiciary affirms the Anderson ordination based on the policy of “scruple”, it would appear that the burden of persuasion will have shifted from gay clergy advocates to their opponents; that is, it will be the burden of the opponents of gay clergy to persuade the assembly to change the policy and not vice versa.

In a similar context, there is a “Womanpriest” civil disobedience effort underway within the Catholic Church in the US (see prior posting). The official Roman Catholic policy prohibiting female ordination is set in stone, and there are no exceptions based on “scruple”. Yet, a group of women, and their male supporters, are proceeding to ordain females nevertheless, at the risk of excommunication.

Womanpriest Bishop Andrea Johnson spoke the following as quoted by a Nashville blogger in advance of Johnson’s appearance at Vanderbilt:

“We feel that canon law, which does not represent the people at all — only a few guys in Rome — is unjust,” Johnson [said]. “We’re breaking canon 1024. Like Rosa Parks, we’re saying, ‘No, we are not going to sit on the back of the bus.’ “

Lutherans in ecumenical news

Episcopal Life online reports that the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Denmark has joined the Porvoo Communion.

This is the name given to a report issued at the conclusion of theological conversations by official representatives of four Anglican Churches and eight Nordic and Baltic Churches in 1989-1992. The Porvoo Common Statement included the text of the Porvoo Declaration, which the participants commended for acceptance to their Churches.

They were the Churches of England and Ireland, the Church in Wales and the Episcopal Church of Scotland, together with the Churches of Denmark, Norway and Sweden, and the Evangelical-Lutheran Churches of Estonia, Finland, Iceland, Latvia and Lithuania. Acceptance by the signatory churches means that for the first time the Anglican Churches in Britain and Ireland have now moved into visible communion with other national Churches in Europe.

Map of Porvoo participants Previously, the Denmark church had merely been an observer and not a signatory due to differences over the ordination of female bishops. (The Danish Lutherans favored female bishops). According to the Danes, Anglican bishops have “changed their positions considerably” on such issues, and there are no longer any doctrinal obstacles to membership.

Meanwhile, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada (ELCIC) announces that their “Eastern Synod will host the North American region’s preparatory meeting for the July 2010 Eleventh Assembly of the Lutheran World Federation (LWF).”

The Lutheran World Federation (LWF) is a global communion of Christian churches in the Lutheran tradition. Founded in 1947 in Lund, Sweden, the LWF now has 140 member churches in 79 countries all over the world representing over 68.9 million Christians.

The Canadian report indicates that there are three North American Lutheran denominations that belong to the Lutheran World Federation: the ELCIC, the ELCA, and the Estonian Evangelical Lutheran Church Abroad. The Lutheran Church Missouri Synod (LCMS) and the Wisconsin Synod (WELS), the second and third largest Lutheran denominations in the US after the ELCA, do not belong to LWF. The LWF has been front and center of Haiti disaster relief. ELCA president Mark Hanson currently holds the presidency of the LWF, which has its international headquarters in Geneva.

Today, the ELCA and the Moravian Church will celebrate ten years of full communion partnership at Augsburg Lutheran Church, Winston-Salem, N.C.

Leaders and members of the denominations will be attending the worship service. The Rev. Mark S. Hanson, ELCA presiding bishop, will preside and the Rt. Rev. Dr. D. Wayne Burkette, president, Provincial Elders’ Conference, Moravian Church North America, Southern Province, will be preaching.

The Moravian Church is one of six full communion partners of the ELCA (United Methodist, Episcopal, Presbyterian, UCC, and Reformed Church of America).

The ELCA takes seriously its call to act ecumenically for the sake of the world and not for itself alone. Unity does not mean that two churches merge; rather, in reaching consensus churches also respect difference. In this way, full communion is when two churches develop a relationship based on a common confessing of the Christian faith and a mutual recognition of baptism and sharing of the Lord’s Supper. These denominations likewise jointly worship, may exchange clergy, and also share a commitment to evangelism, witness and service in the world.

The Moravian church has its origins in 15th century Bohemia and Moravia (now part of the Czech Republic). They trace their heritage to reformer Jan Hus, who predated Luther and who was burned at the stake for his heresy. Hus and his followers planted the seeds of reformation which came to fruition under Luther, Calvin, and others a century later. The Moravians arrived in the US in 1741. Their website offers much more of their proud history.

Pre-holiday bits and pieces: #ELCA, #Lutheran, #Catholic, #Presbyterian

As we head into the extended Thanksgiving weekend, here are a few bits of miscellany.

Under the category, “Much ado about nothing”, The ELCA NE Iowa synod council made news this week by passing two resolutions contrary in spirit to the actions of the 2009 Churchwide Assembly, as if to say “don’t force gay clergy on us.” Pastor Joelle from the synod suggests in her blog that the congregations of her synod need not worry:

I don’t see a bunch of leaders in same sex relationships chomping on the bit to come here. I don’t see a lot of pastors, period, chomping at the bit to come here.

It is a bit of a head-shaker why congregations would fear that a gay cleric would willingly go to an inhospitable environment. Ministry is difficult enough as it is. I think it speaks to irrational paranoia and conspiracy theory.

Blogger Susan Hogan at Pretty Good Lutherans has a post with a lively discussion about this news from Iowa.

Under the category, “The squeaky wheel gets the grease”, Minnesota Public Radio is soliciting information about the ELCA / Lutheran Core issues through an online survey. They are apparently hoping to present a major story. As a survey participant, I received a preliminary report, to wit (emphasis added):

Over the past four days, more than 1,200 Lutherans (150+ of whom are pastors or retired pastors) from all over the U.S. and beyond have written us about why you will or will not remain in the ELCA, and how a church split would affect you, your congregations, and your communities.

We’re overwhelmed at the response. Clearly (though not surprisingly), this is an issue that matters deeply to you. Thank you for being willing to talk with us about it.
We’re now reading through responses and planning reporting around what we’re reading (and may contact you again in the upcoming weeks and months to ask you for further insight).

Of the people who wrote to us, most said they haven’t considered leaving the church over the ELCA’s stance allowing people in committed same-gender relationships to be pastors. In fact, many were concerned that we are giving too much attention to those who want to leave, rather than focusing on the story that most individuals and churches plan to stay with the ELCA. Some wrote to say that this change will bring them back to the church, or keep them from leaving.

People who have considered leaving or have already left the ELCA said they can’t be part of a church that disobeys God.

Many, many people would be deeply saddened should the church split. Some said losing congregations would impair the ELCA’s ability to do missions work overseas (though one person stated he now can evangelize gay friends here in the U.S. without feeling like a hypocrite).

Under the category, “Women who seek to be equal to men lack ambition”, comes word that a monk has been suspended for ordaining women. What, you thought I was talking about Catholicism? Turns out that Buddhism suffers from the same streams of misogyny as Christendom. Regarding the Vatican’s ballyhooed survey of American nuns, considered by many as an attempt at repression, a post in National Catholic Reporter tells us that the women religious are resisting:

The vast majority of U.S. women religious are not complying with a Vatican request to answer questions in a document of inquiry that is part of a three-year study of the congregations. Leaders of congregations, instead, are leaving questions unanswered or sending in letters or copies of their communities’ constitutions.

“There’s been almost universal resistance,” said one women religious familiar with the responses compiled by the congregation leaders. “We are saying ‘enough!’ In my 40 years in religious life I have never seen such unanimity.”

It turns out that the present controversy in the ELCA is the fruit of ordaining women a generation or two ago … at least that is what some within the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod (LCMS) or Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod (WELS) believe. In comments following a Lutheran Core blog post, CORE spokesperson Steven King acknowledged that the “justice” and “equal rights” analogies to women’s ordination can be problematic for LGBT ordination issues. But, he assures the anti-women’s-ordination commenter that “there are many Christians who base their understanding of the ordination of women on theological and biblical grounds.” He failed to mention that Biblical passages condemning women leadership are clearer than any supposed anti-gay passages. Hmmm. CORE appears to be Biblical literalists regarding LGBT issues but contextualists regarding women’s ordination. At least the LCMS and WELS are consistent.

Finally, I close with a wedding announcement. The Rev Laurie McNeill of Central Presbyterian Church of Newark has been ordained since 1989 and a former moderator of the PCAUSA Presbytery of Newark. At the conclusion of the Nov 14th Presbytery business meeting, Rev McNeill announced she had been married to Lisa Gollihue on Cape Cod on October 17th. The Presbytery unanimously voted to support her marriage despite official Presbyterian church policy against gay marriage or gay clergy. Stay tuned.

Shuck and Jive blog, The Presbyterian Outlook, and Religion Dispatches blog have excellent posts about the newlyweds.

Daring to Believe, Inspired to Act for Presbyterian General Assembly 2010

Michael Adee, the executive director of More Light Presbyterians (MLP), offers his report on the recent “God’s Whole Family” gathering in Nashville on the MLP website.

Presbyterians from 24 states and the District of Columbia came together for worship, inspiration, spiritual growth and Christian community. From California and Oregon, Arizona to Connecticut, New York to Florida, Presbyterians came together to celebrate God’s love for all of God’s children and creation, no exceptions. Guided by the conference Biblical text of 1 John 3:1, “How great is the love God has lavished on us that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are,” conference participants reflected upon the Gospel of Jesus Christ that embraces, not excludes.

It seems the conference kindled enthusiasm for the Presbyterians (U.S.A.) General Assembly scheduled for the summer of 2010 in Minneapolis. LGBT issues will be front and center on the agenda. The MLP website also speaks of specific plans for GA 2010 that came out of the MLP board meeting that immediately followed the “God’s Whole Family” conference.

The key matters for discernment, discussion and decision included preparations and overture development for the 219th General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (USA) July 3 – 10, 2010 in Minneapolis, MN. Being inspired by the extraordinary collaboration during the Amendment 08-B Campaign, we are grateful to continue working with Covenant Network, Presbyterian Promise, Presbyterian Welcome, TAMFS and Witherspoon Society-Voices of Sophia.

MLP continues its absolute and passionate commitment to the achievement of spiritual equality, ordination equality and marriage equality for LGBT people and their families in the life, ministry and witness of the Presbyterian Church (USA).

Presbyterian Pastor Janet Edwards offers her perspective on the recent MLP events in her blog, A Time to Embrace. She speaks of the “radical hospitality” of the Biblical message:

Radical hospitality is a consistent theme in Scripture from Abraham and Sarah feeding the three strangers, to the destruction of Sodom for not receiving those same strangers with hospitality, to Jesus’ repeated use of the wedding feast as an image for the Kingdom of God.

And as practiced by the congregation that hosted the MLP conference, 2nd Presbyterian of Nashville:

Second Presbyterian not only showed that hospitality to us, but clearly lives the Gospel message of radical hospitality every day. That they are well practiced at such radical hospitality was obvious in how effortlessly they served as our host, with questions quickly answered, spaces for good conversation and for quiet prayer, and volunteers always at hand to help us get what we needed. The building, too, reflected the spirit of the people, as it should in the Church; it was user-friendly, handicapped-accessible, bright and open.

Most of all, the Sunday worship service at Second was truly inspiring in its combination of stateliness and warmth. The congregation and the participants in the conference passed the peace with palpable joy to one another. By opening its doors to the GLBT faithful as a More Light church, Second Presbyterian has clearly learned to embody the welcoming spirit of the Gospel, serving as an example to us all of how to be the Church, the people of God in Christ.

May we all follow the example of Second Pres in meeting the stirring challenge to incarnate the Gospel message whenever we greet another, wherever – and whomever – that may be.

Yet another perspective of the MLP conference comes from the Witherspoon Society, an allied association of progressive Presbyterians:

Several times it was noted how constructive the diversity of organizations has been, reaching people through different networks and highlighting the many reasons people have for supporting the removal of obstacles to ordination. The conference was designed to be participatory, and there were various workshops around the theme of “God’s Whole Family.” It is difficult, then, to convey the richness of what the participants brought, experienced, and took away with them.

Will Minneapolis be the scene of the next breakthrough for gay marriage and gay clergy in 2010 as it was in 2009 with the ELCA convention? Will the Presbyterians be the next mainline Protestant denomination to recognize and support same-gender relationships, joining the United Church of Christ (UCC), Episcopal Church, and the ELCA? Stay tuned.

Hat tip to Pastor John Shuck for collecting these links.

More Light Presbyterians “Celebrating God’s Whole Family” followup

More Light Presbyterians, an LGBT friendly advocacy group, had its “Celebrating God’s Whole Family” get together last weekend in Nashville. Activist blogger, Pastor John Shuck, was there as a workshop presenter. Check his Shuck and Jive blog post for his report.

This photo of a discussion circle, and many other photos from the event, may be viewed here.

Next summer, the Presbyterian Church, USA (PCUSA) will meet for its national convention in Minneapolis. LGBT issues will be on the agenda. Could Minneapolis be the scene of another breakthrough as with the ELCA convention of 2009?

God willing.