Tag Archives: Presbyterian

More Light Presbyterians Conference

Our best wishes and prayers go to the More Light Presbyterians meeting in Nashville this weekend, the LGBT advocacy group within the Presbyterian Church, USA (PCUSA). Here is updated information as the conference approaches (hat tip to Pastor John Shuck at Shuck and Jive blog):

The National Welcoming and Affirming Conference – God’s Whole Family! – is almost here. A true family reunion set for Labor Day week-end in Nashville, TN! We’ve got an amazing line-up of programs and speakers, as you can see from the Conference Overview below. All we need now is YOU!
Registration is simple! Just go to www.MLP.org/mlp2009reg. You can’t beat the price – $50 for students and $75 for everyone else. Even cheaper if you bring a group – 5 for the price of 4! A few scholarships are available, if needed.
Bruce Reyes-Chow, Moderator of the 218th General Assembly, will be with us Friday and Saturday. When was the last time you had that kind of access to a moderator of the PC(USA)? In addition to Bruce, we’ve got:
–Rev. Debra Peevey, inspirational leader in the 08-B Campaign
–Rev Janet Edwards and Rev Ray Bagnuolo, preachers
–The World Premier of God’s New Family, MLP’s newest DVD
–Conference music leader, Patrick Evans
–Nashville in Harmony (the Gay Chorus!)

Workshops include:

–Creating and Empowering More Light Chapters
— Dreamwork: A Way to Listen for God
— Heidelberg Catechism: What is it? Why it’s important; Who needs to Help? YOU!
–Legal and Spiritual Support for LGBT Families
–Marriage Equality: Church and State
–More Light Churches: First Steps – Next Steps
–Pastor as Activist
–Social Justice is Evangelism
–Being Transgender in the Church and the World
–Writing Overtures for Justice: 2010

The More Light Website also points to a couple other excellent articles. From the Boston Globe op-ed page comes a Sept 1 editorial by Professors Wendy Cadge and Laura Olson that discussed the recent ELCA decision to affirm gay clergy:

American religious organizations have rarely been leaders in national movements for gay rights. With few exceptions, they have been opposed or uninvolved. Yet some are slowly changing their views as they grapple with questions about homosexuality in light of public debates about same-sex marriage and increased visibility of gay men and lesbians in American life. Mainline Protestant denominations in particular are slowly, but deliberately, adopting more tolerant stances.

The piece notes the earlier UCC and Episcopal actions allowing gay clergy and speculates whether the Presbyterian and Methodist churches are also trending in that direction.

Finally, the More Light website notes a PCUSA judicial decision exonerating Presbyterian minister, Rev. Jean Southard, for officiating at a lesbian marriage ceremony in Massachusetts where gay marriage is legal.

"I had the privilege and joy of visiting Jean in Waltham and observing her faithful and loving pastoral leadership and service in person. Jean is one of the most loving and thoughtful pastors I have ever met. I give thanks to God today that the PJC dismissed the charges against Jean. Her stalwart commitments to peacemaking, justice and equality in addition to her pastoral heart characterize her life and ministry. Jean is a blessing to everyone fortunate enough to know her," said Michael J. Adee, Executive Director & Field Organizer, More Light Presbyterians.

More Light Presbyterians announces September event

More Light Logo More Light Presbyterians is an LGBT friendly organization. Beginning September 4th (Labor Day Weekend), their National Conference will begin in Nashville.

The National Welcoming and Affirming Conference – God’s Whole Family! – is almost ready to go. A true family reunion set for Labor Day week-end in Nashville, TN! We’ve got an amazing line-up of programs and speakers, as you can see from the Conference Overview below. All we need now is YOU!

A conference overview and registration process is available online.

The organization also coordinates Presbyterian congregations that choose to be welcoming to the LGBT community.

If you’ve looked through our directory of welcoming churches, you’ve noticed that we have different letters designating different types of churches. "H" means that the church has affirmed a pro-LGBT hospitality statement, "D" means that the church has passed a dissent statement against the PCUSA’s anti-LGBT policies, etc. The capital "M" is for More Light churches – churches whose sessions have formally voted to endorse the mission statement of MLP and declare themselves a More Light congregation.

The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), with denominational offices in Louisville, Kentucky, has approximately 2.3 million members, more than 10,000 congregations and 14,000 ordained and active ministers. Like other mainline Protestant denominations, the Presbyterians wrestle with issues of gay marriage and gay ordination. Present Presbyterian policy is conservative, but there is momentum toward change. Pastor John Shuck reports on his blog, quoting the More Light moderator, Michael Adee:

The trends are clear: the Presbyterian Church (USA) is remarkably close to removing the barriers so that Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender people can faithfully answer God’s call to serve. The witness of this ratification process across the country indicates without a doubt that a growing number of Presbyterians believe that LGBT persons and their families should have the same opportunities and responsibilities of full participation, membership and ordained service in our Church offered to their heterosexual sisters and brothers.

The next general assembly of Presbyterians USA will be in July, 2010 in Minneapolis. Since the ELCA is scheduled for historic votes on gay clergy and gay marriage in a couple of weeks in Minneapolis, the City of Lakes could conceivably be the venue for two church changing assemblies. At least we can hope and pray.

Schism is in our genes

Those of us in the Judao – Christian family tree have a long history of internecine struggle and splits. I suppose we could go back even earlier and talk about Isaac and Ishmael if we want to include the Muslims in this family history. The Pharisees disagreed with the Sadducees over Torah and the Temple, and the Essenes had enough of each and ran away to the desert. Paul split with Peter and started his own Gentile mission apart from the Jewish Jesus movement in Jerusalem. Later, the Christians and the rabbis disagreed over who could worship in the synagogues. First, the Coptics retreated to Egypt; then, the Greeks packed up for Constantinople leaving the Catholics in Rome; and a millenium later, Luther spewed nourishment to new nestlings.

So why should I be surprised when several blogposts come through my RSS reader today about schismatics in today’s christendom?

Several hundred former Episcopalians, meeting in a school gym near the Dallas-Fort Worth airport, ratified a constitution Monday for the fledgling Anglican Church in North America as a direct challenge to the Episcopal Church USA and the Anglican Church of Canada.

So says the Washington Times online.

Frederick Clarkson in Talk to Action blog points out that noted evangelical Rick Warren spoke at this meeting, inciting the schismatic sentiment.

The Presbyterians apparently have the same schismatic genes. According to Pastor John Shuck on his Shuck and Jive blog:

When the two main branches of the Presbyterian Church finally decided the Civil War had ended in 1983, they reunited. Ten years prior to reunion, some congregations of the then “southern branch” broke away and formed their own denomination. The larger church had become too liberal for their tastes.

Each of these two latter day stories relate to LGBT issues, and whispers of schism within my own ELCA waft on the breeze emanating from the direction of the WordAlone Network if the ELCA does what the Network fears this summer and allows a local option for gay clergy and gay marriage. Fear of defections from the ELCA causes some to wring their hands and advocate for the status quo.

Schism is part of our history and undoubtedly part of our future. When defections occur, we should grieve the losses and then move on, but we should not retreat from principle. We should not fear history, nor should we ignore it, nor can we stop it.

Church of Scotland affirms gay clergyman (Updated)

scott-rennie The Church of Scotland is part of the Presbyterian tradition. A gay clergyman, Scott Rennie, was recently appointed to Queen’s Cross Church in Aberdeen, but the bigger news is that his appointment was affirmed this past week by the churchwide assembly. “In a ground-breaking move, the church’s ruling body voted by 326 to 267 in support of the Rev. Scott Rennie, the church said in a news release Sunday,” according to CNN.

Elisabeth Kaeton, in her blog, Telling Secrets, includes a copy of a different news release from Ekklesia with more details than the CNN report.

In his blog, Madpriest, (an Anglican priest in England) commends the Scots for putting principle ahead of concerns over possible schismatic fallout.

What really struck me about how the Scots handled this potentially damaging matter was this. Although the reactionaries, as reactionaries are wont, immediately played the schism card at the start of the troubles, the elders of the Church of Scotland pretty much ignored it. When they came to debate the matter they concentrated on theology and the constitution of their church not on pragmatic issues concerning the future of their church. They consistently refused to be blackmailed or intimidated.

As my own church (ELCA) prepares for contentious consideration of gay clergy issues this summer at their churchwide assembly, church unity is often raised as a reason against affirming gay clergy. The fractious experience of the Episcopal church is cited as an example. But, the polity over principle argument merely postpones and does not resolve the issue, and is inherently unfair. Neither Martin Luther nor Martin Luther King shied from the unsettling consequences of their actions, and kudos to the Scots for their courage.

In his latest post, Madpriest suggests a movement is afoot by some dissenting Church of Scotland congregations to withhold funds from the churchwide organization.

UPDATE:

Tennesee Presbyterian minister John Shuck suggests this morning that the celebrations over the Church of Scotland sitituation may have been premature. While the ordination of gay clergyman Scott Rennie stands as reported, other actions by the church body are less progressive:

Mother (Dearest) Church Reconsiders

John Knox struck up the alleluias too soon it appears. The Church of Scotland (behaving like all superstitious and fearful cults–like the PCUSA) gave into its homophobic element. I praised it yesterday for approving an openly gay man as minister. The backlash has begun.

Instead of outright rejecting a motion similar to the PCUSA’s G-6.0106b (effectively banning gays without mentioning them), the General Assembly decided to set up a commission. From the BBC:

At its General Assembly in Edinburgh, it was decided instead that a special commission should be set up to consider the matter and report in 2011.

There will be a two-year ban on the future ordination of gay ministers.

Church of Scotland has avoided a potentially damaging debate about whether gay people should be allowed to become Kirk ministers.

“Avoided a potentially damaging debate” says the news. Potentially damaging to whom? Those of us who have watched commission after commission in the 35 year struggle in the PCUSA know what these commissions end up doing.

The Church of Scotland will experience a shit storm of fear-mongering for two years. At the end of this time, the beleaguered commission will come up with some report. It makes no difference what the report will say. Fundamentalist forces will wrest control and tell the same lies and offer the same threats that have been made here for the past third of a century. Then they will come up with some horrific rule (just like G-6.0106b).

The Church of Scotland will be no further ahead then than they are now.

It was fun for a day.

Presbyteries keep ‘fidelity and chastity’ ordination standard

The website of the Presbyterian Church USA reports that there will be no change in the denomination’s policy regarding gay clergy. The official policy mandates “that church officers live in fidelity within the covenant of marriage between a man and a woman or chastity in singleness. An amendment to change this policy was defeated, but in a closer vote than in the recent past, and the trend may be the biggest news.

The next big battleground will be the ELCA convention in Mpls this summer.

Here is the Presbyterian news release in full.

LOUISVILLE ― Though the formal results await certification by the Office of the General Assembly, all unofficial tallies show that Amendment B — which would replace the current Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) constitutional requirement that church officers live in “fidelity within the covenant of marriage between a man and a woman or chastity in singleness” with a new section G-6.0106b of The Book of Order — has been defeated.

After voting on Saturday, April 25, the count is 69 presbyteries in favor with 88 opposed — one more than the majority of 87 out of 173 presbyteries required to decide the matter.

Last year’s 218th General Assembly proposed the amendment, which would replace the commonly-called “fidelity and chastity” clause with new language: “Those who are called to ordained service in the church, by their assent to the constitutional questions for ordination and installation (W-4.4003), pledge themselves to live lives obedient to Jesus Christ the Head of the Church, striving to follow where he leads through the witness of the Scriptures, and to understand the Scriptures through the instruction of the Confessions. In so doing, they declare their fidelity to the standards of the Church. Each governing body charged with examination for ordination and/or installation (G-14.0240 and G-14.0450) establishes the candidate’s sincere efforts to adhere to these standards.”

The “fidelity and chastity” provision was added to the Book of Order in voting following the 1996 General Assembly. Two subsequent proposals to delete it have failed in presbytery voting ― following the 1997 Assembly by a vote of 57-114 and following the 2001 Assembly by a vote of 46-127.

The vote is much closer this year.

Twenty-seven of the 127 presbyteries that voted “No” in 2001-2002 — plus Western New York Presbytery, which voted to take “no action” last time — have voted in favor of this year’s amendment.

Two presbyteries that voted “Yes” last time — San Francisco and Sierra Blanca — have switched to a “No” this year.

One presbytery — Midwest Hanmi — is under the jurisdiction of an administrative commission of the Synod of Lincoln Trails and is not expected to vote.

If the remaining 16 presbyteries vote the same way they did in 2001-2002, the final tally would be 74-98 (with Midwest Hanmi not voting). Presbyteries have until June 28 of this year to vote.

The unofficial tally to date:

For (69): Albany, Arkansas, Baltimore, Boston, Cascades, Cayuga-Syracuse, Charlotte, Chicago, Cimarron, de Cristo, Denver, Des Moines, East Tennessee, Eastern Oregon, Eastminster, Elizabeth, Genesee Valley, Geneva, Giddings-Lovejoy, Grace, Grand Canyon, Great Rivers, Greater Atlanta, Heartland, Hudson River, John Knox, Lake Huron, Lake Michigan, Long Island, Mackinac, Maumee Valley, Miami Valley, Mid-Kentucky, Milwaukee, Monmouth, National Capital, New Brunswick, New Castle, New Hope, New York City, Newark, Newton, Northern Kansas, Northern New England, Northern New York, Ohio Valley, Palisades, Philadelphia, Redwoods, Salem, San Jose, Santa Fe, Scioto Valley, Sheppards & Lapsley, Southeastern Illinois, Susquehanna Valley, Transylvania, Tres Rios, Twin Cities Area, Utica, Wabash Valley, West Jersey, West Virginia, Western New York, Western North Carolina, Western Reserve, Whitewater Valley, Winnebago, Yellowstone.

Against (88): Abingdon, Alaska, Atlantic Korean, Beaver-Butler, Blackhawk, Boise, Carlisle, Central Florida, Central Nebraska (tie), Central Washington, Charleston–Atlantic, Cherokee, Cincinnati (tie), Coastal Carolina, Donegal, Eastern Korean, Eastern Oklahoma, Eastern Virginia, Flint River, Florida, Foothills, Glacier, Hanmi, Holston, Homestead, Huntingdon, Indian Nations, Inland Northwest, James, John Calvin, Kendall, Lackawanna, Lake Erie, Los Ranchos, Mid-South, Mission (tie), Mississippi, Missouri Union, Muskingum Valley, Nevada, New Covenant, New Harmony, North Alabama, North Central Iowa, North Puget Sound, Northeast Georgia, Northern Plains, Northumberland, Olympia, Palo Duro, Peace River, Peaks, Pines, Pittsburgh, Plains and Peaks, Prospect Hill, Providence, Pueblo, Redstone, Riverside, Sacramento, San Diego, San Fernando, San Francisco, San Gabriel, San Joaquin, San Juan, Santa Barbara, Seattle, Shenandoah, Shenango, Sierra Blanca, South Alabama, South Dakota, South Louisiana, Southern Kansas, St. Andrew, St. Augustine, Stockton, Tampa Bay, Trinity, Tropical Florida, Upper Ohio Valley, Washington, Western Colorado, Western Kentucky, Wyoming, Yukon.

Not expected to vote (1): Midwest Hanmi

“No” last time, “Yes” this year (28): Arkansas, Charlotte, Cimarron, East Tennessee, Eastminster, Grace, Great Rivers, Greater Atlanta, Lake Huron, Mackinac, Maumee Valley, New Hope, Newark, Ohio Valley, Philadelphia, Salem, Scioto Valley, Sheppards & Lapsley, Southeastern Illinois, Transylvania, Tres Rios, Wabash Valley, West Jersey, West Virginia, Western New York (“no action” last time), Western North Carolina, Whitewater Valley, Yellowstone.

“Yes” last time, “No” this year (2): San Francisco, Sierra Blanca.