Date: Sun, 2 Aug 98 19:44:50 EDT From: James Anderson Subject: Sept-Oct 98 MORE LIGHT UPDATE (161 K) * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * MORE LIGHT UPDATE *We limit not the truth of God To our poor reach of mind, By notions of our day and sect, Crude, partial and confined. No, let a new and better hope Within our hearts be stirred: for God hath yet more light and truth To break forth from the Word. -- Pastor John Robinson, sending the Pilgrims to the New World, 1620; paraphrased by the hymnwriter George Rawson, 1807-1889. For all ministers, elders, deacons, members and friends of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) September-October 1998 Volume 19, Number 1 Presbyterians for Lesbian & Gay Concerns James D. Anderson, Communications Secretary P.O. Box 38 New Brunswick, NJ 08903-0038 732-249-1016, 732-932-7501 (Rutgers University) FAX 732-932-6916 (Rutgers University) Internet: jda@mariner.rutgers.edu (or jda@scils.rutgers.edu) PLGC-List: plgc-list@andrew.cmu.edu (to join, send request to: plgc-list-request@andrew.cmu.edu) PLGC home page: http://www.andrew.cmu.edu/~riley/PLGC.html Masthead, with Publication Information at end of file. Note: * is used to indicate italicized or boldface text. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * CONTENTS CHANGES OUR COVER PHOTOS EVENTS For HIV/AIDS Awareness Sunday -- ALL THE WAY THROUGH EVENING Cultivating 'The Inner Voice of Love': Using the Writings of Henri Nouwen. Out of Gratitude: Henri Nouwen's Life and Writings on Thanksgiving Resting and Reveling in God: The Spirit of Play REQUESTS Highest Church Court Changing Families ON THE FRONT LINES That All May Freely Serve, Baltimore Presbyterian Welcome: Inclusive Churches Working Together Hanover Outright A More Light Statement of Faith More Light Presbyterians in Texas: FEATURE STORIES Celebrating our Companions on the Journey In Memory of the Rev. Dr. Merrill Proudfoot, By Martha Juillerat Merrill's Life Celebrating our Brother Carl-Louis Bisson, by Edward Moran "R.I.P. Queen Mum," by Alice Barnes, Carl's sister The Inclusive Church Award, Remarks by Chris Glaser Chris Glaser's Bio, Prepared for the Inclusive Church Award HIGHLIGHTS FROM THE MORE LIGHT CHURCHES CONFERENCE Celebrating Virginia West Davidson, By the Rev. Dr. Janie Adams Spahr The Wildly, Wonderful, Extravagant, Inclusive Love of God, By the Rev. Howard Warren MOVING ON Deciding to Seek Release from Ordianed Ministry, Mary L. Foulke Also from the Presbytery of Boston: Fidelity and Integrity, by the Rev. Rick Spalding Youth Suicide The Stoles Go to Canada, by Martha Juillerat, Director, AS OTHERS SEE US MLCN Votes to Merge with PLGC, Reach Out to Moderate Grass Roots, by Alexa Smith Our New Presbyterian Catechisms: Conspiracy or Opportunity? An analysis by Tom Hanks A GENERAL ASSEMBLY POEM: Ohm Sweet Ohm, By Jud Van Gorder OFFICERS AND CONTACTS (at end of file) PRESBYTERIAN ALLY ORGANIZATIONS (at end of file) MASTHEAD (publication information) * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * CHANGES Please delete Merrill Proudfoot from your list of PLGC coordinators. Merrill died on July 1, 1998. We celebrate him and his many gifts in this *Update*. Marco Grimaldo's email address is: mgrimaldo@juno.com. Marco is a PLGC coordinator for the Synod of Mid-Atlantic. For the same synod, change coordinator Brent Bissette's address and phone number to: 11 Colton Ct., Durham, NC 27713-8885, 919- 544-9932. And for the Synod of Lincoln Trail, change Mark Palermo's address and phone number to: 6101 N. Sheridan Rd. East, #31-A, Chicago IL 60660-6819, 773-338-0452; Dean Hay's email address has changed to: alfalfa@globaleyes.net. OUR COVER Our cover symbolizes the enormous circle of More Light companions who have accompanied us on our journey, and continue to do so. We celebrate them in this issue. In Harold Snedeker's cover photo, we see Virginia West Davidson and Janie Adams Spahr, but they are clasping the hands of a host of witnesses who have gone before and are with us still. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * PHOTOS Hey folks, if you like the photos we've been putting in the *Update*, then we need your photos! Please send us all your PLGC-related pictures. We can use colored pictures just fine. Don't be bashful -- send them in! The photos in this issue were provided by John Lembo, Victoria Moss, W.A., Jack Hartwein- Sanchez, Harold Snedeker, Rob Cummings, and Bill Moss. We regret that these wonderful pictures are NOT in the electronic version! * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * EVENTS For HIV/AIDS Awareness Sunday -- ALL THE WAY THROUGH EVENING Sunday, October 11, 1998 Songs from the AIDS QUILT SONGBOOK: A liturgical event including scripture, poetry, story and songs by Ned Rorem, Lee Hoiby, Chris DeBlasio, John Musto, Ricky Ian Gordon, and William Bolcom. Featuring Patrick Evans, baritone, and Valerie Trujillo, pianist. First Presbyterian Church, New Haven, CT, Bill Goettler and Maria LaSala, Co-pastors. Call 203-562-5664 for information. All the Way Through Evening tells the stories of the NAMES Project AIDS Memorial Quilt and William Parker's AIDS Quilt Songbook, calling the church to action on behalf of those living with HIV and AIDS. All the Way Through Evening expands the art song recital into a liturgical event, drawing on the lament, the power of naming, the psalms, and the poetry of Walt Whitman, the gay American poet who wrote of the savagery of war, and visited and comforted the sick and dying soldiers. This moving concert reminds us of our call to be modern-day Walt Whitmans, and of the transforming power of the Gospel. To find out how you can bring this dynamic ministry to your congregation, please contact Patrick Evans at 302-831-8133, 302- 658-5115 fax, or pevans@udel.edu Patrick Evans is Assistant Professor of Music at the University of Delaware, and Minister of Music at the Hanover Street Presbyterian Church in Wilmington, DE. He has toured Japan with Leonard Bernstein's Pacific Music Festival, sung the role of Adam in Haydn's *Creation* under the baton of Robert Shaw, and recently created the role of the Father in Tina Davidson's opera *Billy and Zelda.* Also active as a stage director, choral conductor, and church musician, Evans holds the Doctor of Music Degree in vocal performance from the Florida State University, and is the Delaware Governor for the National Association of Teachers of Singing. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Ghost Ranch Conference Center *An open space for spirit, body and mind* HC 77 Box 11, Abiquiu, NM 87510 505-685-4333, fax 505-685-4519 "Cultivating 'The Inner Voice of Love': Using the Writings of Henri Nouwen." November 1-7, 1998. Led by Chris Glaser, M.Div., who studied with Nouwen at Yale Divinity School. They remained friends for the next 20 years. Many of us have lost our spiritual center. Some of us suffer a spiritual fatigue, a weariness of heart. Still others have experienced spiritual abuse, denied our belovedness to God by others. This interactive workshop/seminar will apply Henri Nouwen's writings as a balm to our lost, tired, or wounded souls. Nouwen, a priest and teacher of 40 years, authored 40 books on the spiritual life. Registration: $150, Room & Board: $325. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Kirkridge Retreat and Study Center 2495 Fox Gap Rd., Bangor, PA 18013-9359, 610-588-1793 fax 610-588-8510, www.kirkridge.org Welcoming pilgrims seeking solitude and community, rest and discernment, toward personal and social transformation, since 1942. The Rev. Cynthia Crowner (Presbyterian Church U.S.A.), Director. Out of Gratitude: Henri Nouwen's Life and Writings on Thanksgiving, led by Chris Glaser and Wendy Lywood, November 20- 22, 1998. Coming just prior to the observance of Thanksgiving, this retreat will connect our own stories with Henri's sense of life as an opportunity to say, "thank you." 7 p.m. Friday dinner through Sunday lunch. $250; $125 registration deposit. Resting and Reveling in God: The Spirit of Play, led by John McNeill and Chris Glaser, January 7-10, 1999. This annual event for gay and bisexual men of faith is in its 12th year and this year promises to be special as we explore the spirit of play. 6:30 p.m. Thursday dinner through Sunday lunch. $300; $150 registration deposit. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * REQUESTS Help the church move toward true inclusiveness. Submit nominations for church-wide bodies. Highest Church Court Nominations are needed for members of the General Assembly's Permanent Judicial Commission from the Synods of Mid-Atlantic, South Atlantic, Covenant, Puerto Rico, and Rocky Mountains. Persons wishing to be considered for nomination must complete an Endorsement for Nomination form. Endorsement forms are kept on file for three General Assemblies. To obtain a form or request additional information on the nomination process, contact Valerie Small at (502) 569-5406 or e-mail valeries@ctr.pcusa.org, or write to PCUSA, 100 Witherspoon Street, Room 4423, Louisville, KY 40202-1396. Changing Families The Advisory Committee on Social Witness Policy (ACSWP) will initiate a new Task Force on Changing Families. Authorized by the 209th General Assembly, the task force will include up to 12 persons. According to the Rev. Belinda M. Curry, ACSWP associate for policy development and interpretation, the task force will work with the understanding that "the church is called to bring all [people] to receive and uphold one another as persons **in all relationships of life** [!!!!]: in employment, housing, education, leisure, marriage, family, church and the exercise of political rights" (Confession of 1967, 9.44). "The task force will also pursue its work with the understanding that there is a variety of families, including nuclear families, blended families, families with adopted children, single parents, families reflecting different racial and cultural backgrounds, faith traditions, and so forth." Help make sure lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender families are included! To help make sure this happens, send nominations for task force membership and comments BY SEPTEMBER 1, 1998 to: Belinda M. Curry, Associate for Policy Development and Interpretation, 100 Witherspoon St., Room 3042, Louisville, KY 40202-1396, 502-569-5813, fax 502-569-8034, email: Belinda@ctr.pcusa.org, PresbyNet: Belinda Curry. [Yes I know folks will get this too late in the print *More Light Update*, but the electronic version goes out much faster and earlier! -- JDA] * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * ON THE FRONT LINES That All May Freely Serve, Baltimore We are churches and individuals in Baltimore who envision a just and inclusive church in which *all* may freely serve. Our mission is to develop a program of education, reconciliation, and advocacy that honors diversity and strives to gain full membership for all Presbyterians regardless of sexual orientation. In 1998/99, we plan to hire a minister of outreach and evangelism to work full time proclaiming our vision and working toward our goals in Baltimore. -- That All May Free Serve: Baltimore, 5828 York Rd., Baltimore, MD, 21212. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Presbyterian Welcome: Inclusive Churches Working Together A Letter to Congregations in the Synod of the Northeast May 20, 1998 Dear friends, We are writing to you as members of the Steering Committee of Presbyterian Welcome -- Inclusive Churches Working Together. We represent the sessions of nine New York City churches which have joined together to form a broad-based ministry committed to building a Presbyterian Church as inclusive as the grace of God. On March 25, 1998, the Presbytery of New York City voted by a two to one margin in favor of a courageous resolution -- a resolution giving us the support we need to continue ordaining elders and deacons without regard to marital status or sexual orientation: Be it resolved that the Presbytery of New York City recommits itself to support and work with those sessions who determine that they, in good conscience, must dissent from G-6.0106b. Our action comes as a tremendous relief to the lesbian, gay, and unmarried heterosexual members of our congregations, many of whom we have knowingly ordained as elders and deacons in the past and many of whom we intend to ordain over the next several years. We believe that the Synod of the Northeast needs to become a "G- 6.0106b-Free Zone," where all congregations can enjoy the historic privilege of ordaining faithful Christians in whom they discern God's call to ministry. Would the session of your church consider joining us as a partner in this mission to restore integrity to our denomination? We urge local sessions to offer an identical or similar overture in your Presbytery, in the hope of giving your regional congregations the same shelter and support that ours enjoy. Please contact us at our Presbyterian Welcome office for assistance in sponsoring such a motion in your local Presbytery. In Christ, The Steering Committee, 351 East 74th Street, NYC, 10021, 212-88-6743, The Rev. Cliff Frasier, Coordinator. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Hanover Outright An Open Letter to the Hanover Street Presbyterian Church Family from Patrick Evans "The Christian community can neither condone nor participate in the widespread contempt for homosexual persons that prevails in our general culture. Indeed, beyond this, it must do everything in its power to prevent society from continuing to hate, harass and oppress them" -- 190th General Assembly, UPCUSA (1978); 119th General Assembly, PCUS (1979). In November of last year, a teacher approached me with a concern about one of his students at one of our high schools -- a gay kid whose parents were extremely belligerent and unsupportive. "How can we get him connected to some support system to help him get through this tough time?" I had no answer. Around the same time, an extremely bright and talented student from another high school began taking private voice lessons with me. I had worked with him last summer, when he was one of my best and brightest students in the Governor's School for Excellence. In talking with him, it seemed clear he was not doing well in school, and was considering quitting. After some conversation, l found out that he had to have his locker moved three times last semester because of vandalism, and the anti-gay threats of violence he faced every day were wearing down his desire to achieve. He began skipping his honors classes and is on his way to becoming a brilliant drop out. Repeated pleas for action to his guidance counselor and security officer have not made him any safer. If anything, they have accelerated the harassment. He cannot find support at home. His father would react in much the same way his classmates do. A sixteen year old lesbian has been repeatedly thrown out of her father's house for her "unnatural lifestyle." Her story is much the same. She is fortunate enough, however, to have a friend whose family will take her in when hers casts her out -- a family outside her own. As many of you know, in November 1997, after much struggle and growth, I came out to my mother at the age of 31. I was a successful, respected, professional man who had been independent of his family for thirteen years. It was still one of the most painful, difficult, emotionally intense situations I have ever faced. It was an act of God's grace that was nurtured by you -- Hanover Church -- a community of faithful people who have provided me with a spiritual home. These dependent young people need and deserve such a home. On the Monday (December 1) after my coming out conversation, I was walking on the University of Delaware campus and ran into a sixteen-year-old young man I had met at a meeting of PFLAG -- Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays. He congratulated me on my courage for coming out to my mother. As I walked away, I marveled at the grace of this young man, for I remembered that his mother had brought him to the PFLAG meeting after she discovered that he was gay by reading his suicide note. She sought support for her child. His father offered the same revulsion as the parents and classmates of the young people I have mentioned above. I am moved by this young man's courage. People of God, there is a dire need in our community for a safe space for gay, lesbian and straight young people to come together and find support, encouragement, and fellowship as they struggle and grow during this time of discernment. We are well capable of providing just that. Therefore, the Faith in Action Committee and the Hanover Session have approved the formation of "Hanover Outright" -- an alliance of gay, lesbian and straight young people ages 14-22. We will meet two Saturday evenings a month for some sort of social activity -- making pizza, playing basketball, singing, etc. -- combined with a confidential supportive forum for discussion of real-life issues in a faith-filled context. Several Hanover members also feel very strongly the burden of this type of ministry and have pledged their support. Additionally, several University of Delaware students are committed to this work and will be able to provide a kind of peer perspective, as young adults. We bear no more liability for these young people in our space than we do for the Hanover Youth group, or any other group that uses our facilities. This kind of work is being done by churches and organizations in other parts of the country, and in other parts of the state. It is important work for the Church to take on. Our own denomination charges us to "indeed, ... do everything in our power to prevent society from continuing to hate, harass and oppress them." It is well within our power. We have the facilities. We have the location. We have the faithful people who feel called by the Holy Spirit to do this work. We have the financial wherewithal to support this work. The only thing to prevent this work from being done in our midst is our fear. According to I John, the Perfect Love which envelopes us casts out fear and triumphs over it. I have experienced this love in your midst, and I know you to be fearless people where the work of justice and peacemaking is concerned. I know that all of you will hold this new ministry in your prayers, and that many of you will want to contribute your time, talent, and creativity. Please let us know of your interest in this important work. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * [NOT INCLUDED IN THE PRINT VERSION!] A More Light Statement of Faith The members of Family of Christ Presbyterian Church, Greeley, Colorado, voted on April 6, 1997, to be a More Light Church. This means that we have adopted a policy of welcoming all people into the church as full participating members. This seems to us to be a reasonable thing to do, but a decent respect for the opinions of others requires that we should declare the reasons that have led us to take this step. All those who become members agree that they have accepted Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, trust in him and intend to be his disciples, obey his word and show his love, and to be faithful members of this congregation, giving of themselves and seeking the fellowship of the church (*The Worship Book*, p. 49). The church is called to a new openness to its own membership, by affirming itself as a community of diversity, becoming in fact as well as in faith a community of women and men of all ages, races, and conditions, and by providing for inclusiveness as a visible sign of the new humanity (*The Book of Order* 3.0401-b). The congregation shall welcome all persons who respond in trust and obedience to God's grace in Jesus Christ and desire to become part of the membership and ministry of his church. No persons shall be denied membership because of race, ethnic origin, worldly condition, or any other reason not related to profession of faith. Each member must seek the grace of openness in extending the fellowship of Christ to all persons. Failure to do so constitutes a rejection of Christ himself and causes a scandal to the gospel (*The Book of Order* 5.103). Jesus instructed us many times that we must love -- our enemies, our neighbors, ourselves. When a lawyer asked him what he must do to inherit eternal life, Jesus asked him what the law said. He answered, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself." Jesus told him he was right -- "Do this and you will live" (Luke 10:25ff). Our neighbors are not only persons who think, look, and act like us. "For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? ... If you greet only your brothers and sisters, what more are you doing than others?" "God makes the sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the righteous and on the unrighteous" -- and it is not our job to decide which is which (Matthew 5:43-48). We believe we are called to offer a similar spirit of generosity in making judgments about issues. We also think we dare not usurp God's prerogative to judge human beings because only God knows our minds and hearts. In this spirit, then, we members of the Family of Christ Presbyterian Church welcome all persons as full participating members, to the glory of God. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * More Light Presbyterians in Texas: Local Church Assists in Creating Chapter of Gay Presbyterian Group Bethany Presbyterian leaders see strong need for local chapter of Presbyterians for Lesbian & Gay Concern Those are the headlines in the May 1, 1998 issue of *Dallas Voice*. The story by Jennifer Earls, Staff Reporter, quotes Don Grainger, saying "What we want to do is use Bethany as the basis for this organization. It would be a Dallas-Fort Worth area organization because we know there are Presbyterians in almost every church in Dallas who are gay. ... Dallas has a very large concentration of Presbyterian churches and Dallas has one of the largest gay and lesbian populations in the country. So, we're assuming the two are related and we're trying to get the word out that this is available." Earls quotes Bethany pastor, the Rev. Todd Freeman, saying "At More Light congregations, someone's sexuality ... is not an issue." Bethany Presbyterian became a More Light congregation in the 1980s. Getting onto the merger bandwagon, the June 12, 1998 issue of *Dallas Voice* announced a meeting of persons interested in forming a local chapter of More Light Presbyterians. All More Light Presbyterians hope this new Texas initiative will bear lots of fruit! * * * Meanwhile, down in Houston, the Greater Houston PLGC chapter has launched a great new newsletter, called *The PLGC Press*. If you'd like to join the Houston chapter, or receive the newsletter, send a suggested donation of $12 (larger amounts appreciated) to treasurer Chuck Johnson (make check payable to him) at 1138 Jerome, Houston, TX 77009. Send articles, announcements, ideas for the newsletter to Gail Rickey, 13114 Holston Hills, Houston, TX 77069, fax 281-440-1902. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * FEATURE STORIES Celebrating our Companions on the Journey As We Say Good-Bye and Give Thanks for Their Gifts to Us In Memory of the Rev. Dr. Merrill Proudfoot December 16, 1923 - July 1, 1998 By Martha Juillerat "And of all that has been said, nothing remains unshaken but the saying, that to do injustice is more to be avoided than to suffer injustice and that the reality and not the appearance of virtue is to be followed above all things, as well in public as in private life ... and rhetoric and any other art should be used, and all actions should be done always, with a view to justice." -- Socrates, *Gorgias* 527 Merrill Proudfoot was an extraordinary person. A brilliant man and a gifted scholar, he earned Ph.D.s in philosophy and religion, as well as four masters degrees. (A biographical sketch follows these reflections.) Merrill labored for social and economic justice on two continents; he was a prolific writer and an accomplished teacher and mentor. Yet in all my life I never met a more humble man. He chose to live simply in a modest apartment, giving away much of his money over the years to students, social justice causes, and the church. As an activist on the front lines early in the civil rights movement, Merrill experienced a level of hatred and vengeance that few of us will ever know. As an advocate for conscientious objectors and prisoners on death row, he stood steadfastly beside those from whom others would turn away. And as an "out" gay minister and outspoken proponent of gay rights, he chose to give his life in service to a church that was never willing to embrace him fully. He endured both physical and spiritual beatings during the course of his work for justice. Yet he never once gave up hope for a day when all people in this world -- and in this church -- might know freedom and acceptance. For these reasons Merrill Proudfoot was, and always will be, one of my heroes. A memorial service was held for Merrill at Central Presbyterian Church in Kansas City on Sunday, July 19. The church was full. Friends and colleagues flew in from as far away as Southern California; one couple returned home from a trip in Europe for the service. Yet there were just a handful of pastors there from Heartland Presbytery, one of the largest presbyteries in the country. Only two or three were parish pastors. It was a reminder to us that a prophet's voice is seldom heard in his own country. One pastor, reflecting on this, wondered aloud, "Who will go to the mike now and speak?" Then, answering his own question, he said, "We'll have to be the ones." Kim Leech, Stated Clerk of Heartland Presbytery, quoted coach Vince Lombardi: "Fatigue makes cowards of all of us." When others would say that they were "tired of talking about sex," or alternately, that they were "growing weary of fighting an immovable church," Merrill never showed signs of fatigue. And, Kim added, "Merrill was never a coward. Never." Jim Reese, an African-American man who was Merrill's friend for 41 years and worked alongside him during the civil rights movement in Knoxville, TN, spoke of Merrill's unshakable persistence. He illustrated this by telling us of a time, during the lunch counter sit-ins in Knoxville, when a man came up to Merrill in a restaurant booth, grabbed him by the clothes, and tried to pull him out of the booth. Merrill hung on to the table with all his might, refusing to surrender to the man until the police finally came and pulled the man off Merrill. Perhaps the most poignant testimonies of Merrill's influence came in the form letters from two prisoners, one of whom has been on death row for eleven years at the military prison in Ft. Levenworth, KS. Both letters told of the self-worth and dignity that they had regained through their friendships with Merrill, and both men eloquently expressed their gratitude for God's grace and their confidence that Merrill was now with God, free from suffering. Speaking of Merrill's witness of love and faith, Sam Hamilton- Poore, former Pastor at Central Church, closed with this quote from Shakespeare's "Romeo and Juliet:" When he shall die Take him and cut him out in little stars, And he will make the face of heaven so fine That all the world will be in love with the night .... * * * Merrill's Life The following is taken from a biographical sketch of Merrill written for the memorial service by his nephew, Scott, and from the book "Called Out" (Chi Rho Press): Merrill earned a B.A. in English from Austin College in 1947. He received his M. Div. from Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary in 1950 and was ordained by the El Paso Presbytery that same year. At Yale University Merrill earned an M.A. in Religion in 1952 and a Ph.D. in Religion in 1956. His doctoral thesis was a lengthy examination of the Apostle Paul's insights on suffering and Christianity. This thesis was the basis for his book published in 1964, *Suffering: A Christian Understanding* (Westminster Press). At the University of Kansas Merrill received a Master of Philosophy in 1968 and a Ph.D. in Philosophy in 1961. His most recent degree was an M.A. in Counseling in 1981 from the University of Missouri, Kansas City. Merrill began his professional career as a minister at the 240- member Presbyterian Church in Navasota, Texas. After three years as pastor, Merrill's ministry turned to education. (It is significant that the Navasota church refused to acknowledge his leaving, since he was departing to teach at the predominantly black Knoxville College.) Merrill taught philosophy and religion at Knoxville College in Tennessee for 8 years, and spent 32 years at Park College, Parkville MO, teaching philosophy, religion and ethics. He retired as a Professor Emeritus from Park College in 1994. Merrill's life ministry was to uphold the dignity of, and show respect for, those groups of individuals who are marginalized by main-stream society. He did this through his work in the Presbyterian Church as an ordained minister and through his life as a teacher. His special ministries centered on the Civil Rights movement of the 1960's, the visitation and support of prisoners, and the acceptance of Gays and Lesbians in the church and community. During his tenure at Knoxville College, 1957-1965, Merrill became involved in the non-violent sit-ins which were being held to protest segregated facilities in the South. He was one of a few white men who participated in lunch counter sit-ins in Knoxville in the summer of 1960. His experiences and observations led to his 1962 book, *Diary of a Sit-In* (University of North Carolina Press). While at Knoxville he was a Visiting Scholar at Columbia University in New York in 1961-62, where he also acted as Minister of Education for the Church of the Master in Harlem. Merrill was visiting Lecturer in Philosophy at Rhodes University in the Republic of South Africa in 1972, and visited eleven countries in East and West Africa. He wrote numerous articles on race relations and South Africa, and was co-editor of *The Eye of the Needle* (Orbis, 1978), a critique of race and economics in South Africa with Richard Turner, a banned South African who was assassinated in January 1978. He served as a member of the National Advisory Council on Church and Society of the United Presbyterian Church and the Committee on Mission Responsibility from 1975-79. He was also one of the authors of the United Presbyterian Church's policy statement on Conscientious Objectors. Merrill also has been an active volunteer and advocate for Prisoner Visitation and Support. For 17 years he made monthly visits to the U.S. Disciplinary Barracks at Ft. Levenworth visiting over 200 prisoners in that time. His relationship with some prisoners lasted for many years. When Merrill could no longer visit the prison because of his cancer, he continued his ministry by the use of the telephone. Merrill's ministry with prisoners ignited his passion to work with the National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty and the Western Missouri Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty. With the final acceptance of his own sexuality in 1978, Merrill became involved in the call for justice and equality issues of Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgendered individuals. His life- long struggle and final acceptance of being gay at the age of 54 is documented in an autobiographical "coming-out" chapter published in *Called Out: The Voices and Gifts of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgendered Presbyterians* (Chi Rho Press, 1995). In the Kansas City community Merrill was a member of the Mayor's Commission on Lesbian-Gay Concerns in 1990 and was a member of the board of PASSAGES, a Kansas City group for lesbian/gay/bisexual youth. In 1996 the board of PASSAGES honored Merrill by naming an annual award for him. The Merrill Proudfoot Youth Achievement Award will be given annually to a youth member of PASSAGES who best exemplifies the ideals for Lesbian and Gay issues and concerns. Merrill continued to work within the Presbyterian Church to change the church's official position on the role of gays and lesbians in the church, organizing and participating in dialogues on sexuality and the church throughout the Central states. Merrill was active in Presbyterians for Lesbian & Gay Concerns (PLGC), which awarded him with the 1997 Inclusive Church Award (Merrill's acceptance speech was published in the September-October 1997 *More Light Update*). Merrill never gave up on his belief that the church's official position would someday change to include the ordination of gays and lesbians. He saw the parallel with the church's struggle to accept women in leadership roles. Because the church finally recognized the ordination of women, Merrill believed, after a similar struggle, that the church would eventually accept gays and lesbians in leadership roles. Merrill will be remembered for his gentle, yet unrelenting persistence for justice, honesty and equality. He modeled Christ-like qualities when he extended compassion and tenderness to all who were needy. He will be missed as a personal friend and an active community member. For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Celebrating our Brother Carl-Louis Bisson by Edward Moran All of us in *PLGC* join in celebrating the life and gifts of Carl Bisson (1937-1998), one of the most persistent and *insistent* voices on behalf of inclusiveness in Christ's Church over the years. Carl died on May 1. He was an elder at Rutgers Presbyterian Church in New York City, and had formerly served in that capacity at West-Park Presbyterian Church, inspired especially by the support and commitment of the late Bob and Evelyn Davidson. At West-Park, Carl was one of the mainstays of the Circle of More Light that met there for many years. Carl also served as the local coordinator for Presbyterians for Lesbian & Gay Concerns, and as a member of the Lesbian and Gay Concerns Unit of the Presbytery of New York City. Carl's devotion to the cause of lesbian and gay folk in our denomination goes back to the 1970s when these issues were first being raised. For more than twenty years, he never wavered in his insistence that sexual orientation should be no bar to full participation in the life and work of the Presbyterian Church. In innumerable committee meetings, at church conferences, and on the floor of Presbytery, his voice was heard time and again pleading for the community of saints that Christ called together. I will especially miss Carl because he opened the door for my own involvement with these issues in our denomination. Shortly after my own ordination as an elder at Lafayette Avenue Church in 1977, I became aware of the growing outspokenness of gay and lesbian Presbyterians seeking an equal place at the table. In my attempt to link up with these men and women, I telephoned our denomination's headquarters, then at 475 Riverside Drive. The person who answered the telephone replied with three simple and abundant words: "Call Carl Bisson." I did, thus beginning a friendship that I shall always cherish. Carl quickly accepted my invitation to make a presentation to our Social Concerns Committee and brought Jim Anderson along. Thanks to Carl's witness, there was set into motion at Lafayette Avenue the dialogue that led to our becoming one of the first More Light churches soon afterwards. As the years went on, Carl continued his witness always with grace but not always with gentleness, an inspiration to me and so many others to continue the struggle. I remember with particular pain the times -- more frequent in recent years -- when he wondered whether he would live to see the church live up to the promise of its Founder by opening up to God's wildly inclusive love. I am confident that Carl is now enjoying the fullness of life with God in a heaven well beyond the pale of definitive guidance and Amendment B and *Books of Order* and all the other principalities and powers that separate us from the love of Christ. Farewell, good and faithful servant. We also extend our heartfelt sympathies to John Lembo, Carl's life partner of 25 years, and to his other family members and friends. Gifts in memory of Carl may be made to The Carl Bisson Memorial Fund, which will provide camp and conference scholarships for needy children and youth. Please make out your check to Rutgers Presbyterian Church, 236 W. 73rd St., New York NY 10023; write "Carl Bisson Memorial Fund" on the check. For years, in the early days of the *More Light Update,* Carl hosted the mailing parties where hundreds, then thousands, of *Updates* were stapled closed and sorted in proper zip-code order for mailing. I would stay over night. Carl and I would read the *Book of Order* to each other before falling asleep. -- Jim Anderson.] * * * "R.I.P. Queen Mum" by Alice Barnes, Carl's sister As we mourn Carl's passing, I pray you will take a moment to reflect on how our Lord has blessed us all these years by allowing us to share in Carl's life. Each one of us, no doubt, has her or his favorite story to tell about something Carl has done that marked our lives forever. I regret that I cannot be with you in person to do likewise but I send you this from California. Carl has been my older brother for more than a half century, I could be more specific but no lady wishes to reveal her exact age. Carl has been a substitute father to me since our father died 35 years ago. Carl has been a substitute mother to me since our mother died nearly 30 years ago. Strangely, I feel like Little Orphan Alice today. Several times over the years I have been fortunate to share Communion with you there at Rutgers Church. If I lived closer than 3,000 miles I would have done so more often. Your friendship and your love for Carl were a treasure that he always wanted me to experience and to enjoy. Whenever I would call him, as I did recently for his birthday, Carl would mention that he was getting together with some of you or working on a project for Rutgers or something else Presbyterian or presbyopic. Only Carl would make believe he understood the latter and see right through it. You should know that you were a very important part of Carl's life. He had an unshakable faith in our Lord Jesus Christ and he had come to that rapture with your encouragement. He was never afraid to share a few words from scripture to help me over the bumps in my life. So I thank you for making Carl such a strong Christian and, in turn, showing me the way. May I share with you a recent example of how Carl's style of love traveled, travels, and will travel? This being that time of year when we acknowledge suicide awareness, it is timely if nothing else. During the past few years I have attempted to take my own life more times than I care to share. When I felt endangered I knew I could call Carl and he would tell me to get help. Then I would have myself admitted to a psych hospital for my own self- preservation and because I had promised Carl. Along the way I shared that lesson with others -- when in need of help, ask for it. A favorite saying I repeat is, "if you can't take it any more, take it to the Lord." A friend of mine who had attempted suicide twice before recently was on that brink again -- you know that time when one is paralyzed and cannot see any other solution. Rochelle tells me that she kept remembering what Alice had told her, "It is okay to have yourself admitted to a hospital if you are in danger of taking your own life." A couple weeks ago, Rochelle found herself at that crucial juncture again. This time, instead of picking up a bottle of pills, she picked up the phone and called. It is marvelous to know that something Carl did for me and I did for someone else has made such a difference in another person's life. This was the kind of life Carl lived. We know it. What you may not know is how those lessons have passed from him through you to others. If you have not noticed it yet, try it with a complete stranger. Watch how a good deed leads to another and to another and to another. There is a stellar way of capsulizing Carl's stellar life. It is a concept I first encountered behind locked doors while God was bringing a stubborn Alice to her senses. It is called the "Star Concept." Emily Dickinson wrote: "We never know how tall we are Until we are called to rise And then, if true to plan, Our statures touch the skies." Carl was like that, in spite of his reluctance some days. When he touched the skies, Carl grabbed a bunch of stars, stars of love. Then he would share those stars with each of us. The amazing part of this story is that whenever we give a star to someone else, several more stars find their way to us. If you do not believe it, turn to the person next to you and give that person a hug. Did you get one back? What did I just tell you? What did Carl always tell us? Can you imagine all those people who would not come close to Carl's life for whatever reason, whatever fear, whatever time? Poor folks, they missed out on Carl stars, aye? I am sure we all have a cache of Carl stars, even though we may not have known it. If you have misplaced some, just ask Carl, right now. You know darn well Carl is handing out shinier stars these days. To bring this full circle, if you are down and out, in need of a boost, can't take it anymore, take it to God and to Her new assistant -- the Queen Mum, a.k.a. Carl Bisson. Open your hearts and your minds to the love and stars we witnessed Carl share. If you need a star, give one away to the next person you see -- maybe even to yourself. Thy will be done, LORD! Alice Barnes * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * The Inclusive Church Award Remarks by Chris Glaser PLGC Celebration June 13, 1998 In memory of and thanksgiving for Carl Bisson and Merrill Proudfoot. At the start of this column I wish to thank the PLGC committee and PLGC itself for honoring Janie Spahr and me with the Inclusive Church Award this year during our celebration at the Charlotte General Assembly. Thank you! What was particularly pleasurable about receiving the award that night (June 13, 1998) was that it marked twenty years **to the day** that I was dropped as a candidate for ordination to the ministry because of our denomination's antigay policy! The only thing that could sweeten the pie was sharing this award with my friend Janie. It reminded me of an award I won in high school for which I had voted for the other guy, because he was a graduating senior and wouldn't have another chance to win. When it was announced there had been an exact tie for the coveted Choir Award, I relished winning all the more. In truth, Janie and I share the award with all of you in PLGC -- as Paul wrote, if one member is honored, all are honored. And I share it with the two men of my life who have loved me and given me the emotional and spiritual support I've needed to continue my work -- George Lynch and Mark King. Mark was there to celebrate with me. I share the award with my parents as well -- my dad Wayne, who has gone ahead to glory, and my mom Mildred -- both of whom loved me well enough to get me through whatever opposition I faced in my church family. The last thing my dad said to me regarding such opposition was just after the rejection of the human sexuality report in 1991. A few weeks before his death he told me, "The next time you go tilting after a windmill, I hope it falls down." What follows is an adaptation of my remarks at the celebration before the award was announced. Many of us will remember as children being assigned theme papers in the fall of a school year, "How I spent my summer vacation." The organizers of the PLGC celebration essentially asked me to focus on the theme, "How I spent my bummer vocation." Or, the way Howard Warren put it when he called to ask me to do this, "How the decision of the Presbyterian church regarding ordination of gay and lesbian candidates affected my life." This caused me to indulge in a few reminiscences as I rocked in my rocking chair on the front porch. I thought back on the **olden** times, the early stages of our movement that began almost a quarter of a century ago in 1974. The writer Lillian Hellman once warned that the longest sentence in the world begins with the words, "I remember ...." Keeping that in mind, I'll keep these few remembrances short: I remember when David Bailey Sindt was the only homosexual in the Presbyterian church. I remember when Sandy Brawders was the only lesbian seminarian in the Presbyterian Church. I remember when Char and Gus Sindt and Bob and Evelyn Davidson were the only Presbyterian parents of gay children. I remember when Janie Spahr was straight. I remember when PLGC was Gay United Presbyterians, the Presbyterian Gay Caucus, and then Presbyterians for Gay Concerns. I remember when our newsletter was a one-page letter. I remember when consulting the entire membership of PLGC required making a dozen phone calls. I remember when our only friend at General Assembly was the Witherspoon Society. I remember when we thought the report of the task force on homosexuality would reform the church. I remember when we thought the report of the committee on human sexuality would reform the church. I remember when we thought ordination was only five to ten years away. I remember when I thought I'd spend my life as a parish minister. Sadly, I remember, too, when most of us thought we would all enjoy a normal span of life, threescore and ten, and that we'd live to see the day when some of us would be ordained. I remember when I thought the church would take care of me if I got sick or faced a crisis, or when I retired and grew old. "How did the decision of the Presbyterian church affect my life?" Better: "How did the many and almost annual negative decisions of the Presbyterian church affect my life?" On the positive, Pollyannish side, it gave me a living, a ministry far wider in scope than I might have had. As one of my friends in the church has chided me, I've become a professional victim. She said to me, "If the Presbyterians ordained you, you'd be out of a job!" It's true that Janie and I may be said to benefit from the situation in the church, not only in terms of having something to do with our lives, but in terms of traveling the country and meeting good people like yourselves reforming the church in a variety of ways, people committed to making the church and their communities and their workplaces more inclusive, loving, and just. That's what gives us the edge of hope. My recent appointment as interim editor of *Open Hands*, the quarterly journal for congregations in all denominations welcoming of us, comes providentially at a time when I feel less and less connected to the church. The work has reminded me of the sacrificial effort of many Christians trying to make the church a place where God's open hands and arms of tradition and community, Word and sacrament, may embrace us. But Janie and I also are put in touch with the many individuals and families who feel sacrificed on the altar of the peace, unity, and purity of the Presbyterian Church, sacrificed to a golden idol of money and membership, a fertility god of heterosexuality, a whitewashed tomb of an institution. It is in my solidarity with these -- "the least of these" -- that I refuse to receive Holy Communion at the hands of our church. I call it a eucharistic fast. Spiritually it has increased my compassion for those neglected, rejected, and abandoned by our church. One of Judy Garland's daughters recently explained in an interview how people still come up to her and express their condolences on her mother's death. "They treat me as if she just died," she explained -- as if she hasn't gotten on with her life. In the same way, I have people view me as if I had just been denied ordination, though it happened twenty years ago. Believe me, neither my life nor my ministry ended when denied ordination! But there is an existential ramification of that denial and the almost annual renewal of that denial by our church. The weekend previous to General Assembly I had seen the film, The Truman Show. It's about a person, Truman Burbank, whose life, from conception onward, is played out live on television. He's the only one who doesn't know it. He's surrounded by actors who are carefully choreographed to make him think his life is real. To compel him to stay on the set, which is a whole town built on an island under a dome made to look like sky, Truman's dreams of adventure are kept in check by manipulation, shame, guilt, and fear. He wants to escape, to find his unscripted but true love, whom he has been told moved to the Fiji Islands -- but at every turn is thwarted. What surprised me as I watched what I had thought would be at most a touching comedy is that a rage began to overwhelm me. I shared the protagonist's frustration, his feeling of entrapment. At the same time I felt overcome by grief. By the end of the film I could hardly keep myself together as we left the theater. My kinship with the character grew out of my own feelings of entrapment. I *also* remember when they used to entrap gay people to imprison us. Now we're entrapped in a different way, forced to explain ourselves medically and scripturally, forced to defend our rights and to struggle to share the privileges of straight society, compelled to play our roles as gay or lesbian or bisexual or transgendered Christians instead of as simply Christians, or simply gay, or simply people. I thought further of how many of us across the whole sexual orientation spectrum are additionally entrapped by our respective culture or race or gender or class. I had been in Mobile, Alabama a few weeks earlier to speak to a regional gathering of MCC churches. In a nearby museum, I happened onto a display of photographs of middle class African- Americans of fifty to a hundred years ago. I found the photo captions describing their life experience to be either a product of white paternalism or of black apologetics -- in other words, as if their innate worth had to be proved by their accomplishments. Looking into their faces I saw something far deeper than words could express. The toughness of their situation, the specter of slavery not far behind them, the demon of bigotry always before them. I came away feeling grief. And I thought, what right do *I* have to complain? This is the second edge to the sword hanging over our heads as lesbian and gay and bisexual and transgendered people. Though we feel our situation deeply, we sometimes are told and sometimes tell ourselves that we have little right to our feelings. Perhaps especially in the church, many of our feelings of hurt and grief and anger are as boxed in, as closeted as our sexual feelings once were. Our slavery and our holocaust have "only" been metaphorical, in no literal way comparable to that of African- Americans or European Jews. But while reality places our plight in an appropriate perspective, I wonder if, at the same time, we underestimate the power of our spiritual abuse? Look at the children and teenagers engaging in violence in recent months because they have been taunted and humiliated by classmates. Think of the gay children and teenagers committing suicide because they have been taunted and humiliated by classmates. We have been spiritually taunted and humiliated by supposed soulmates. How are we to feel? When I was in Mobile I met the pastor of the local MCC, the Reverend Helene Loper, who wanted to tell me a dream she had when she was a Presbyterian student at Columbia Theological Seminary in Atlanta, a dream that prompted her to leave the Presbyterian church for MCC. She gave me permission to tell her dream to others. Helene is a horse lover, and had a horse at the time. In her dream, she thought her horse was pregnant and that she needed to check if this was so by putting on an arm-length glove and reaching deep inside her horse to feel for a fetus. Needless to say, a horse doesn't like this, and the person checking risks being severely kicked. In her nervousness in the midst of the procedure, she suddenly realized -- still in the dream -- "Hey! This ain't my horse!" She was risking being fatally kicked to check for pregnancy in a horse in which she had no investment! When she awoke, she realized that the "wrong horse" was the Presbyterian church! Now I know that of everything that I've written here, this will be the one story that you remember. It's pregnant with meaning. I hate to think that you and I have bet on the wrong horse. We have been kicked many times in the gut, in the head, in the heart. And yet we believe this horse we've sunk ourselves into may still give birth to a new thing. Thank you all for serving as midwife to a fresh nativity of the Spirit. You give me hope to carry on. I hope Janie and I may continue to give you hope as well as we also struggle with the beast. The day that Howard Warren phoned to invite me to speak along with Janie at the PLGC celebration, I had prayed Psalm 86, a prayer in a time of trial, a psalm that could be our movement's theme song. It includes the petition, "Give me a sign of your kindness." The Inclusive Church Award is a sign of God's kindness and of yours. Thank you, and thanks be to God! * * * Chris Glaser's Bio Prepared for the Inclusive Church Award Chris Glaser received his M.Div. from Yale University Divinity School in 1977. For ten years, he served as Director of the Lazarus Project, a ministry of reconciliation between the church and the lesbian and gay community in Los Angeles, funded by the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), the first denominationally-funded ministry of its kind in the United States. Since then, he has published five best-selling books, including *Uncommon Calling, Come Home!, Coming Out to God,* and *The Word Is Out*. Recently, Glaser's dog wrote a book, *Unleashed -- The Wit and Wisdom of Calvin the Dog*. Glaser's next book, *Coming Out as Sacrament*, will be published next fall by Westminster John Knox Press. He travels widely as a speaker and retreat leader, while making his home in Atlanta with his partner, Mark King, director of education for AID Atlanta, and their golden retriever/labrador mix, Calvin. Mark and Chris are members of Ormewood Park Presbyterian Church, a More Light congregation in Atlanta, where Mark serves as trustee and where Mark and Chris had a commitment ceremony in 1994. Chris has served as national coordinator and treasurer of PLGC, overseeing its acquiring not-for-profit status with the IRS and writing the first annual report accepted by a Presbyterian General Assembly in 1979. As editor of its newsletter for three years, he gave the publication its name, *More Light*. He has continued to serve *More Light Update* as columnist and guest editor and writer of semi-annual prayerbooks and collections of resource materials. He has also served on PLGC's executive board. Chris was the openly gay member of the Presbyterian Task Force to Study Homosexuality, which met from 1976-1978. He ghostwrote and edited much of the denomination's book, *Breaking the Silence, Overcoming the Fear -- Resources in Homophobia Education*. Chris has written two curricula for the Presbyterian Church, one on worship and the other on racism, and edited two more on evangelism and 1 and 2 Samuel. He has contributed to eleven books, including *Called Out*. His writings have frequently appeared in *Monday Morning, Presbyterians Today* (and its predecessors), *The Presbyterian Outlook*, and the newsletters of the Witherspoon Society, PHEWA (on whose board he served), the More Light Church Network, and regional synods and presbyteries. He has also been published in *Christianity and Crisis* and *The Christian Century*, and many non-religious publications, including *Newsweek*. He has never been published in *The Presbyterian Layman*, though he has been quoted there more often than in any official Presbyterian publication. Chris has served in a variety of parish, campus, and youth ministries and as a member of countless presbytery and synod committees, even including a Committee on Preparation for the Ministry! For two years he chaired the Spiritual Advisory Committee of AIDS Project Los Angeles. Presently Chris is interim editor of *Open Hands*, a national quarterly journal for congregations welcoming of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgendered persons. He had previously written and guest edited for that publication. Because he is gay, Chris was dropped as a candidate for ordination in the Presbyterian Church June 13, 1978. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * HIGHLIGHTS FROM THE MORE LIGHT CHURCHES CONFERENCE Celebrating Virginia West Davidson Upon Completion of Two Terms as Co-Moderator for Advocacy By the Rev. Dr. Janie Adams Spahr 1. When she was 50 years old, her sons gave her two feminist books, one of which was *Born Female*. 2. A young pastor visited her home in tears, came out to her, and said he couldn't change. He was a "homosexual." He said he had met with the Dean of his seminary, who had leaned over his desk and asked him, "don't you ever fantasize about touching women's breasts?" "No, sir, no I do not." he answered. Ginny had never thought much about homosexuality (that was the word that was used then). But, here was her friend, loved by her, her husband, and her children. She must learn, and learn she did. She says up until then, she had lived the erotic plot. Her dear husband, Davie, and four children kept her busy in the community, church, and schools. But, catapulted by these feminist books and her friend, she has come into a life that she not only values, but she passionately embraces. 3. Active in her church, she soon became active in her Presbytery, and thus quickly became Moderator of the Presbytery of Genesee Valley in 1974. 4. That same year, at her first General Assembly, Bob Lamar, then the elected Moderator, asked Ginny to become Vice-Moderator. 5. At that same time, she served on the General Assembly Mission Council, she was a member of the Support Agency, she was a member of the Council on Women and the Church, she was a member of the Committee on Pluralism and Conflict. At home, she was founding member and President of Rochester's Downtown Ecumenical Ministry. Her learning curve, as she says, went up from there. 6. In 1976, she was named Chair of the National Task Force to Study Homosexuality. For two years, this study occurred all around the country. Chris Glaser, then a new graduate of Yale Divinity School and openly gay man, served on that Task Force. The Church, at the 1978 San Diego General Assembly, reversed the Task Force's decision that said if a candidate was qualified, they should be able to serve. 7. At the age of 62, she said, "there had been so many Bibles embossed with swords waved at me as I served on that National Task Force that I decided to go to seminary." There were many questions people asked her, one of which was "Do you want to be ordained?" And, she would answer, "I am ordained. I am a Presbyterian Elder." She loved the thought of going to Seminary at age 62, for there she was enveloped and coddled by feminist theologians. Halfway through Seminary, Davie became very ill. For over two years she loved him and cared for him and he died in 1986. During her grieving time people asked if she would finish her dissertation. She wasn't sure. But, thanks to feminist friends, people like Joanna Duey, Professor of New Testament, and others at the Episcopal Divinity School, urged her on. She finished Seminary, writing her thesis titled: Co-Ministry, a Partnership Affair. It is a model for all to read. 8. She was also a Trustee, for over ten years, of the Alban Institute in Washington, D.C.; a Trustee, for over eleven years, at the Fund for Theological Education in New York City. 9. From 1990 to 1992, she co-chaired the Pastor Nominating Committee of the Downtown United Presbyterian Church that hired an open lesbian, and now co-chairs their mission project, That All May Freely Serve. 10. In 1992, she became the Co-Chair for Advocacy for the More Light Churches Network. 11. She has won several awards: The Women of faith Award, given by Presbyterian Women every year at the General Assembly. The Inclusive Church Award, from PLGC. The Witherspoon Award. The Rochester Interfaith Community Award. Rochester Women's Foundation Award. And on and on. 12. She loves the More Light Churches Network. She has seen it grow to almost 100 churches. 13. When she travels around the country with me, she is known in the press as a "Touring Partner of the Lesbian Evangelist, Jane Spahr." She is known as a "homosexual sympathizer." But she prefers to call herself "The Snowy-Haired Het." 14. It was Martha Juillerat who sent us a sign for the back of our car that said "Thelma and Louise." For many, Martha's sign has named us "The Thelma and Louise of the Presbyterian Church." 15. Sometimes, in these last two years, she considers us probably more "The Paula and Phoebe of the Presbyterian Church," out on our mission of inclusiveness. 16. In Atlanta recently, she was named for the first time "An Octenagarian." 17. Now, I have slept with this woman in a double bed where we are each hanging on a side; I have eaten breakfast, lunch, and dinner with her. I have flown with her, driven in a car with her, gotten lost driving in a car with her. I have toured with her, spoken with her, visioned with her. 18. Her heart and life have been this movement for over thirty years. There are so many great moments in which she has been doing our work. She was asked to be one of ten speakers at the Inauguration of the new President of the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley. Other speakers were Carlos Gutierrez, Rosemary Radford Reuther, and others that you might know. Ginny gave an amazing, embodied speech. One part that I will never forget, which brought the house down, was when Ginny said: "You know, I'm sick of being called a layperson." She said, "It is a power-over word in which laypeople are seen as less than." She looked out at the audience and she said, "You know, as a layperson, I've been laid for the last time." And the place went wild. 19. 1 love when she looks out over a crowd and says, "Twenty years from now you don't want to look back and ask, Why didn't we do this then? Why didn't we do it when it really counted? You don't want to miss this amazing liberation movement." 20. And then she says, "You know, I want to taste the Promised Land. I want to put my feet in it, and I want to tromp around in it. I want to touch, and smell it." Well, Ginny, this is the Promised Land, for you are our witness and our promise. We are there already because of your passion, because of your purpose, and because your focus is so clear. For thirty years you have given your life to this promise. The Promised Land is not a land. It is a promise. It is in the promise of someone like you and all people like you who, in the face of evil, in the face of great challenge, say and believe, "We can do it." 21. Tonight, our dearest advocate, friend, and ally, we honor you for your life, your light, your faithfulness, and yes, your promise of always being here. 22. Your advocacy makes us all stronger advocates and we are here, with you, living out your work. That is our promise to you. 23. Ginny, you have said you were my Touring Partner, but, all along, I have known, that I have been your Touring Partner. I am so glad and so honored to work beside you. 24. In the South, Ginny, what I saw in Atlanta, I hope that you heard that there was a reverence for you. I heard people say, "I have known and admired you most of my life." And, I saw a reverence so deserved and so beautiful. 25. Tonight, we take a reverent moment for our dearest friend and dearest advocate as Co-Moderator of the More Light Church Network. 26. Ginny, you are us and we are you. We honor you and we thank you, dear, dear friend. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * The Wildly, Wonderful, Extravagant, Inclusive Love of God seems to be on call waiting. By Whom this time? By the Rev. Howard Warren This sermon, preached at the More Light Churches Conference at McKinley Presbyterian Church on May 22, 1998, is dedicated to a wonderful friend and poet, Glen Fennema. Scripture: 23rd Psalm and Revelation 7:9-17. Since I am not an E-mail user, many of you think I am technologically-challenged. The original title of this sermon was "The Wildly, Wonderful, Extravagant, Inclusive love of God is on hold," but to show my ability to handle the new technology. I have changed "hold" to "call-waiting." The church can be a dangerous place. Just how dangerous is indicated by this top ten list of the ways you know you have joined the wrong church sent to me by Jim Oxyer: 10. The church bus has a gun rack. 09. The church staff consists of Senior Pastor, Associate Pastor and Socio-pastor. 08. The Bible they use is the "Dr. Seuss Version." 07. There's an ATM in the lobby. 06. The Choir wears leather robes [Hey, Howard, some of us might like that! -- JDA] 05. Worship services are B.Y.O.S. -- "Bring your own snake." 04. No cover, but a two-drink communion minimum. 03. Pastor regularly attends "services" at Las Vegas and Atlantic City. 02. Ushers ask, "Smoking or Non-smoking?" 01. The Women's Quartet are all married to the Pastor. Now that we have had a laugh, let us consider what a wonderful, yet dangerous place the PCUSA is for us and those we love. Look around. We have come a long way since David Sindt went up and down the escalator with his sign asking, "Is there another Gay person here?" In the twenty years since the ordination freeze, we have come alive with P.L.G.C., More Light, Shower of Stoles, Parents of Gay and Lesbian Presbyterians, Open Door, That all May Freely Serve and our desire to name and include Bisexuals and Transgender individuals, The Other Sheep, the dissenting churches, The Covenant Network, a 47% popular vote for us on the lost Amendment A and now, a merger of P.L.G.C./More Light which is hiring staff to help all of us to build stronger natural and grass roots relationships in our presbyteries and synods. We must lay aside the rotting tooth, pull it out, and embrace the Open Door of the More Light Puritan Promise. As one of my mentors, Rev. Dan Smith said, "In this merger and new work with all inclusive organizations, we are not simply rearranging chairs on the deck of the Titanic." In our work of reaching out together, More Light will come. In these twenty years of the ban on ordination, God has whispered and shouted for Lesbians, Gays, Bisexuals, the Transgendered, and Inclusive Heterosexuals in spite of the growth of the relentlessly repressive repulsive self-proclaimed religious right power in our denomination; we will stand together to proclaim that ordination is open for all who hear God's call. Is that true? When Rev. James Robinson was thrown out of England in 1620, he said "God hath yet more light to break forth from the Word." We are the children of that proclamation. Will we unite and work and live to see it happen? Chris Glaser in *The Word is Out* paraphrases 1st Peter 2:10, "Once we were not a Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgendered people, but now we enjoy God's mercy and we are." I have been rereading some of Patricia Nell Warren's, *The Beauty Queen,* a story of a woman politician who hates Gays and finally discovers that her father is gay. These words are alive for us now, "The whole history of humanity boils down to two infidels cursing each other. Sometimes I think that what separates us from animals is not that we have souls, but that we are capable of nasty arguments about religion. Can you imagine two aardvarks arguing about how many angels you can fit on the head of a pin? How about two elephants arguing about whether Moses really wrote the first five books of the Bible? Are we today a pulsing nerve of the rotting tooth of American's Puritanism?" Today that rotten tooth of left-over American Puritanism is attempting to chase us out of our church home, but we will not be silenced. Let us relish, renew and grow out of our evening scripture. When the 23rd Psalm was written, a shepherd could not enter the Temple. The shepherd was unclean because in daily life that shepherd broke two of the ten commandments: working on the Sabbath and going onto another's property to rescue a lost sheep. Both God the Creator and Jesus use the analogy of the shepherd, one who is outcast, one who is "other" to describe the intimacy of their work in us. Such depth and strength underlie the simplicity of this Psalm. Its peace is not escape, its contentment is not complacency, there is a readiness to help us to face deep darkness and imminent attack. Have you been in these situations? Have you used the God-given strength inside to let God walk with you toward peace? So many Old Testament words for God are distant: King, deliverer or rock-shield, but here we hear of a shepherd, one who lives with the flock (us) and does everything to be our guide, physician, protector. My security is in God's promise to be near me always. Even now, in a church that doesn't want me and my people unless we repent. You have the same promise from God. And you. And you. God and we are bound together. In those dark early haunting nights of facing AIDS with shame and guilt, my shepherd let me know that God just doesn't "do" disease (or weather for that matter. Seems to have turned that over to El Nin~o). The Shepherd brings hope, release, healing and unity, exactly what is promised by More Light. Now this marvelous passage from Revelation: Notice it is Revelation, not Revelations. The one thing that is revealed to us is the knowledge of the wildly extravagant inclusive Love of God, the creator, the Savior/Spirit who is for all of us. John, Chapter 7, proclaims that all people from every race, tribe, nation, speaking every language stand equally before God. Today let us proclaim that every gender and orientation also stand equally before God. We are all the people who came through the persecution. We all serve the Lamb who protects us all. We will not hunger or thirst, we will not burn in sun and scorching heat because the Lamb of God who is the center will be our shepherd. and will guide us to streams of cooling life-giving water and God will wipe away every tear from our eyes just as we do this for one another. Wow? What about that? Are we using the power of the For-All-God every moment of our lives? Emmanuel God is with us not only for Sunday worship, but every moment. God is with us in the peaks and valleys of life saying, "Hey, you! You are my creation. I am with you. Use me. Give me a chance to smooth the ride now and to lift you to me forever." I seldom quote Leviticus, but listen to Chapter 26 verse 13. I am God. I brought you out of Egypt so you would no longer be slaves. I broke the power that held you down and I let you walk with your head held high. What do you say we, as former slaves of the PCUSA, rename it the Head Held High Presbyterian Church that ordains all God calls? Our job as God's More Light people is to bring everyone alive, set them free to live and love here and now and forever -- MORE LIGHT for all! What do you say to this? Let me hear you say Alleluia. Amen. There are 31,110 verses in the Bible. There are 5-6 used to keep us in our place, to keep us out, to keep us from ordination. The repressive, repulsive reprehensible unreligious right is so desperate to find a word from Jesus to make us second class citizens that they now quote, "a man shall leave his father and mother and cleave unto his wife." Get serious. This is about heterosexual marriage/divorce. The Torah/Law-breaking shepherd of the Old Testament and the revelation of John continually speak of the crowd standing around the throne: from every race, tribe, nation, language. All escaped the terrible persecution. When will we? The Lamb is the shepherd who will use us to break through the church walls and provide the springs of life-giving water and we will cry no more. We are fully included in God's love. It is mean spirited, legalistic men and women who would shut us out. Use your imagination. Look at who was in that crowd: Mary, Martha, Lazarus, Jesus' family of choice, lepers, Philip and the Ethiopian Eunuch, Phoebe and the wonderful women from Acts, the blind, the lame, the beggars, the Samaritan woman, all the people who could not enter the Temple. These are the people of Revelation. Today we are those people who were left out until the word of God was revealed and we will no longer be left out. We will shout with the progressive Presbyterian church: Jesus Christ is for all! There are no left out people! We must hold our heads high and proclaim this love of God for all. We must show that 5-6 verses cannot compare with the 23rd Psalm, the two Great Commandments of Jesus, John 3:16, 1st Corinthians 13. Open your Bibles. Where is that pesky asterisk that says, "For Heterosexuals only"? Folks, it is not a lion but a lamb on the throne. The lions of the church focus on the business of the church law to keep us out. The lamb calls us to focus on the business of the Spirit, Soul of the PCUSA so no one will be left out. I often (daily?) wish I could remove that rotting tooth of Presbyterian puritanism, just give it up. In fact, I have said more than once that this is just what I intend to do. But you know, I will instead stand like you and with you, my head held high and proclaim the shepherd is on the throne for all the sheep and will, will, will wipe away our tears. Feel that! Use that! The Creator, Easter, Pentecost, these are for all of us and we must use them daily, moment by moment, day-by-day to share the For-All-God who is for all with our people, with all people who are left out. You know, I must get ten calls a week asking if I know what the Bible really says, or if there is a safe place to worship openly and honestly. A "safe place" to worship. What does this say about churches in this country? Not much. I don't know about you but I am sick and tired of being called "an issue." The only thing being an issue has done for me is to solidify my love for the rainbow colors. I am particularly upset with Houston Hodges, editor of *Monday Morning,* who supposedly is supportive of us and yet used the words, "I'm very bored with the words about homosexuality." Leave it to the Presbyterians to make sex boring. Also a former moderator, Price Gwen, whose great theological gift to the debate repeated ad nauseam, "We must get out of the pelvic area." Excuse me, but who put us there? Isn't it the church that keeps the debate focused on sex? These hard-hearted men hear and see us only as sexual bunny rabbits creating an issue, but we are not an issue. We are Presbyterian People and in this decade God the shepherd/savior calls on us to concentrate on the uniqueness of our Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender soul/spirit. The Bible gives us the Heterosexual soul, feminist theology gives us the woman's soul, we must proclaim the unique inner light the Good Shepherd, the Risen Christ has given us so that when the church gets its head and heart together and invites us back, we can give our full soul/spirit so the church will reflect all God's Creation. We are not defined by sexual acts but by a sexual orientation, a way of looking, seeing, feeling, experiencing God's grace-filled gift of life, and what a full picture of the For-All-God we will have when all genders, orientations, races can be together openly in the Light. In these weeks between Easter and Pentecost, the Spirit came and she will not rest until all are freely ordained. We are so grateful to be in the midst of the Shower of Stoles. Imagine what joy we will have when we are in the midst of a Progressive Presbyterian church, when the stoles are returned to those who were formerly put out, left out because, like the sheep which was lost, they are now back with the flock and we are a whole church. The Shepherd of the 23rd Psalm and the Lamb of Revelation is with us now to make our vision of More Light a reality. After Easter, there was a sign reading "Christ rose from the dead so we can rise daily" outside a church which is next to the Indianapolis nursing home that is dedicated to HIV/AIDS patients. Sounds very Christian doesn't it? The only problem is that this is a church that doesn't want any unrepentant AIDS people in their midst or their ministry. Last week I saw the movie "Les Miserables." In it, the French poor, the outcasts who were seemingly powerless as they stood up to the French army shouted, "Long live the Republic!" They were shot down. In my heart, I was shouting, "Long live the For-all- Presbyterian Church!" So many of our people have been shot down: Jane Spahr, Elder Virginia Davidson, and the Rochester Church. They tried to shoot you down with church courts and a new interpretation of the '78 ban on ordination that said those of us ordained before that date could only serve in specialized ministry. Look at the ministry of "That all May Freely Serve." You and the elders have traveled for witness and dialogue and soon there will be four regional centers. What other downtown church has done that? Scott Anderson. You were shot down and now you are the Executive Director of the California Council of Churches and Co-moderator of the P.L.G.C. How God has used and continues to use your gifts for the PCUSA. So many of our Seminary students have been shot down: Will sent out 150 dossiers, worked in a book store, and now will go to grad school for a degree in Social work to proclaim the For-All-God. Katie, now in Graphic Arts school, will finish her two Seminary courses in the summer. She said, "Wow, Howard, there is a lot of God talk in graphic arts." The hundreds of teaching and ruling elders shot down who are now in other denominations, raised by the Shepherd to continue to proclaim the Good News. The PCUSA continues to try and shut us out with old and new regulations and rules to keep us in our place: unordainable. The Wildly, Wonderful, Extravagant, Inclusive, God raises us up. The Very Practical Trinity: Creator, Savior, Spirit is, with our help, always creating a Presbyterian Pentecost in which the PCUSA will be brought to its knees as more and more inclusive heterosexuals get to know and see us as Presbyterian people, not "an issue." We are marching toward the light. Do you see it? Feel it? O God, sheep Savior, Spirit, we are ready. Bring us more light and life of the For-All-God to heal our denomination. More light! More Light! More Light! Shalom. Alleluia. Amen. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * MOVING ON Deciding to Seek Release from Ordianed Ministry (G-11.0414) Presented to the Presbytery of Boston, May 18, 1998 Mary L. Foulke Frederick Buechner defines vocation as "the place God calls you ... where your deep gladness and the world's deep hunger meet." I have found deep gladness and met deep hunger as I have answered my vocation to teach and to preach for Christ's healing and justice for individuals, communities and the world as proclaimed in the gospel; my particular call has been to witness for racial justice and healing, an end to all oppression, meaning to work for God's kingdom to be "on earth as it is in heaven." For the past nine years I have practiced my vocation as a Presbyterian minister, primarily in pastoral ministry, but I worked briefly on Presbytery staff and now am in college chaplaincy. However, my call did not begin nine or even twelve years ago, but in 1963 when I was baptized at the Westminster Presbyterian Church in Dayton, Ohio. At this point now in my ministry I am finding ordination to be more of a barrier than a help to my vocation. Since Amendment B has been added to the constitution, ordained people are now almost required to participate in the sin of the church -- either by lying to friends, colleagues and other Christians by saying that we have no unrepentant sin, or by "vainglorious boasting" in our own righteousness (see the Scots Confession 3.15). Most of us know that Amendment B is really about excluding gay and lesbian Presbyterians from full inclusion in our church. For whatever reasons, the authors of Amendment B chose not to be clear and so have, I believe, excluded us all. Let me be clear, I believe that excluding lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people from full membership in Christ's church is sin. The PCUSA continues in this sin, and continues to benefit from a long history of talented gay and lesbian clergy, elders and other church workers; the only requirement is silence, self- hatred and lying. I personally can no longer participate in this ecclesiastical exploitation, nor can I allow the sexual obsessions of a few to interrupt important steps forward in the eradication of racism and poverty (about which we as a church have been quite inarticulate since we began our obsessive dialogue on sexuality). It is not that sexuality is not important; it is. The problem is that we as a church are so obsessed with three passages of scripture that we have coldheartedly ignored anything else. The defamed sexuality committee of 1991 talked with people around the country for three years and identified sexual violence and abuse as one of the most prevalent and profound issues facing our church. Our hearts were hardened against the pages and pages of that report and the many hurting, people it represented because of one small paragraph on homosexuality. The painful irony is that, in my experience, often people who are most reactive to the issue of sexual orientation are also those who have experienced some kind of abuse. Why can we not look deeper than a simple paragraph or phrases from scripture quoted out of context? Why can we not hear or see the pain of so many of our brothers and sisters, victims and perpetrators, family members and loved ones? I have lost my patience, compromised my integrity and felt obstructed in my vocation. Out of faithfulness to my call, I respectfully request that I be released from my ordination. Amendment B has yet to be proven constitutional. I leave the hypocrisy and contradictions of our constitution to you, my sisters and brothers. I pray for our church mired as we all are in multiple sins including racism, sexism and homophobia. And, I pray for the coming of God's freedom, divine judgment and healing for us all. * * * Also from the Presbytery of Boston: Fidelity and Integrity A presentation to the Presbytery in the Debate on Amendment A by the Rev. Rick Spalding As far as we know, there were no women among "the twelve" in the circle of people closest to Jesus. Yet more than half of the people in this room tonight, in this circle of friends who would be close to Jesus, are women. And Boston Presbytery could not possibly demonstrate the love and the healing of Christ in the vital way that it does without you. How did you get there? By demonstrating fidelity and integrity. Like the fidelity of the women who took a great risk to go to the Tomb on Easter morning. Like the integrity of Lydia, merchant of purple goods, who consecrated her resources to the expanding life of the early church. And there were no Gentiles in that first circle that gathered around Jesus' work. Yet virtually every one of us gathered here in this room around Jesus' work did not inherit by blood the covenant of God's chosen people. Boston Presbytery could not even exist without us. How did we get here? By demonstrating fidelity and integrity. Like the fidelity of Cornelius the centurion, who accepted the hospitality of those who had once found him religiously impure. Like the integrity of Onesimus, whose experiments with the freedom of faith helped to set us all free. And there were no members of races other than the dominant Semitic ones in the circle of those closest to Jesus. Yet the gathering in this room is so incalculably enriched by the presence here of so many races. Boston Presbytery could not be as strong nor as beautiful without the passionate witness of the Korean Church of Boston, Roxbury Presbyterian Church, Gloucester Memorial Presbyterian Church, the Young Sang Church, Primera Iglesia Presbiteriana, and now, the Taiwanese Presbyterian Church of Boston. How did you get here? By demonstrating fidelity and integrity. Like the fidelity of Simon of Cyrene, who carried Jesus' cross. Like the integrity of the Ethiopian chamberlain [a eunuch!] who understood and pointed out that there was nothing, nothing at all, to prevent his being baptized. By law, there can be no gay or lesbian people here in this room tonight. Or at the session table in any of our churches. Or at the General Assembly. Or in any of the courts of the church in which the fidelity and integrity of their Christian citizenship is being debated, disputed, even mocked. Yet our pews and our church are richly and beautifully peopled with gay and lesbian friends of Jesus. How could they get there? By demonstrating fidelity and integrity. Being baptized -- because there is nothing, nothing at all, to prevent their being baptized. Consecrating their resources to the expanding life of the church. Courageously demonstrating the power of faith to set us all free from fear and death. Fidelity: making their way at great risk to the broken, wounded body of Christ that is the Presbyterian Church and loving it enough to anoint it with their tears and carry its cross. Integrity: standing proudly in spite of all the insults, stereotypes, hatred and fear and steadily, persistently knocking on the door. -- March 2, 1998. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Youth Suicide In the context of the recent campaign of hate ads in the national press, this story about the consequences of false gospels is especially telling. -- JDA Youth Suicide and the White Ribbon Campaign in memory of the 23 LGBTQ youth who committed suicide in North America during the 1997 UCC General Synod by Timothy Brown, Commissioned Minister Youth and Young Adult Program Coordinator United Church of Christ Coalition for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Concerns On May 31, 1998, I was officially installed as a Commissioned Minister of the United Church of Christ at Community UCC in Boulder, Colorado. Commissioned Ministry is a recognized form of lay ministry in the UCC. My commissioning is to work with lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender youth. Among the sixteen ordained clergy from 6 denominations who participated was the Rev. Laurene LaFontaine, Co-Moderator of PLGC. Laurene's task was to give me charges in an ecumenical context -- a task she fulfilled admirably. One of her charges was to serve as a model for other denominations. She pointed out some denominational differences -- that, in the UCC, I, as an openly gay man, have been recognized by my church to be called by a recognized LGBTQ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, questioning) group to work with LGBTQ youth and young adults, while the PC(USA) still struggles with ordination issues. (This still happens in some parts of the UCC as well.) I am unique among denominations. The following article I share with the *More Light Update* in the spirit of ecumenism, and as a sign that I take Rev. LaFontaine's charge very seriously. It originally appeared in *Waves*, the newsletter of the UCC Coalition for LGBT Concerns in November 1997. I recently became aware of the White Ribbon Campaign. This campaign, similar to the red ribbons worn for AIDS awareness, is to call attention to lesbian/gay/bisexual/transgender/questioning youth suicide. There is a suicide of a lesbian or gay youth approximately every five hours in the United States and Canada. I plan to wear a white ribbon frequently, and hope you will consider wearing one as well. The story of seventeen-year-old Bill Clayton can be found on the Internet at http://members.tripod.com/~claytoly/Bills_Story and is used here with the permission of Gabi Clayton, Bill's mother. Bill came out to his family as bisexual at age fourteen. They were relatively easy to tell, as his mother is a counselor. He was accepted and loved by his family. However, he was not accepted by everyone. Bill was violently assaulted in a hate crime in the Spring of 1996; he committed suicide a few weeks later by taking an overdose. After the General Synod, I became aware of another tragic story carried in the *Press and Sun Bulletin*, Binghamton, New York. A gay seventeen-year-old ran away from home in Oconto, Wisconsin, to Binghamton, where an adult man lived whom he had met in a telephone chat room. The man was married, and when it became apparent that the relationship was not going to work out, Steve Hrabik committed suicide by jumping off the State Street Bridge into the path of oncoming traffic on North Shore Drive. An article which ran on Easter Sunday in the *Cleveland Plain Dealer* tells the story of fourteen-year-old Robbie, who committed suicide Jan. 2, 1997 by shooting himself with his father's gun. He had made several attempts before and had run away to Chicago once. His family had canceled his Internet account after he ran up charges. He apparently met an adult man on-line who mailed him pornography. After his death, "God made me this way," was discovered written in one of his textbooks. Many of you are aware of the debate which began nearly two years ago at East High School in Salt Lake City over allowing LGBTQ student groups. This fight was led by Jacob Orozco. I was saddened to learn of this seventeen-year-old's suicide on Sept. 9, 1977. Was a support group too much to ask for? There are many other stories, but I need to spare myself further tears in telling them. The few I have told you have been of young men, but we are also tragically losing young women for similar reasons. As I contemplate each of these suicides, I also contemplate what the role of the various faith communities was, could have been, or should have been. Why do LGBTQ teens think that they have to resort to the Internet or telephone chat rooms to make connections into the LGBTQ community? One probable reason is that they know of nowhere else to turn. How many of our church youth groups are safe spaces? At the youth group sock hops, is there a place for LGBTQ youth and young adults? Where were our churches when these youth were running away from home to nearby cities or faraway states? Where were our faith communities when an assailant learned that it was okay to beat up someone simply walking along the street with two friends? Where will life- saving support come from? The lack of response to these situations makes me furious. I hope others of you will become angry, too -- enough to take action, as I intend to do. So put on your white ribbon and, when asked, tell people what it's for. But don't stop there. Talk about these issues in your local congregations. Organize safe housing for runaways, safe from predators. For those of you who are LGBTQ, be out enough, yourself, that you can be a positive role model and provide support for a struggling young person. Encourage your local congregation, your Association, Conference, [Presbytery!], or youth group to offer workshops on these issues. Timothy Brown may be contacted at 1005 East Ninth Avenue, #102, Broomfield, Colorado 80020, 303-439-2698, fax 303-438-1208, email: Timothy_Brown@ceo.cudenver.edu * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * The Stoles Go to Canada by Martha Juillerat, Director, the Shower of Stoles Project The Shower of Stoles Project was honored to be invited to take part in the annual meeting of the Toronto Conference of the United Church of Canada. The meeting was held in Dundalk, Ontario (near Toronto) the last weekend in May 1998. Created from a merger of Presbyterian, Methodist and Congregational churches in the 1920's, the United Church of Canada is the largest Protestant denomination in the country. They began ordaining gays and lesbians to the ministry in 1988. Today, they are the only denomination in North America that ordains gays and lesbians in every conference. (The United Church of Christ also ordains gays and lesbians, but leaves it up to individual districts to decide whether they will do so. Consequently, some districts will ordain and some won't.) This year the United Church is celebrating ten years of inclusive ordination. Taking part in one of their meetings is like taking a hopeful glimpse of what our own Presbyterian denomination could look like, if only we could learn to get past the hate, stereotyping, lies and bigotry that have taken such a stranglehold on our church in recent years. Although g/l/b/t members of the United Church will be quick to tell you that, to some degree, homophobia is still present everywhere in their denomination, it is almost impossible to describe the difference that inclusive ordination has made for them. In the United Church, g/l/b/t people are no longer "the issue" or even "the enemy." They are colleagues in ministry, no longer second class citizens. They are free to be truthful about their lives, and their relationships. Stereotypes are fading as congregations get to know g/l/b/t folk as sisters and brothers. Despite the fears of many when the decision was made in 1988, the denomination has not split, or even "splintered." And despite the stereotypes that persist in some corners, there has been no wholesale "recruiting" of young people to the "gay lifestyle," there have been no cases of child molesting brought against any gay ministers (sexual misconduct cases there, as here, continue to be dominated by heterosexual white males) and to the best of my knowledge, lightening has not struck any pulpit in the United Church. As Conference delegates walked through the display of stoles, many said that they were struck by the large number of "anonymous" stoles. It was a vivid reminder to them of the pain that so many of their own g/l/b/t members were forced to endure in the past, and how far they've come in the past ten years. In that place, the stoles stood as a bitter witness to the thousands of g/l/b/t Christians in the United States, and in their own country, who still must choose between being open and honest about their lives, or serving in silence. More than one United Church member expressed the hope that their church could stand as a different kind of witness -- one of great hope for the future. I hold my breath, and wonder what it would take for the Presbyterian Church (USA) to take this same step. I hardly dare imagine such a possibility. In the meantime, I pray that God will continue to bless our sisters and brothers in the United Church, and that our own eyes will be open to the great possibilities that they have shown us. For more information about the history of the g/l/b/t movement in the United Church of Canada, read "Daring To Be United," a newly published book by Alyson C. Huntly celebrating the ten year anniversary of inclusive ordination in that denomination (United Church Publishing House, 3250 Bloor Street West, Etobicoke, Ontario, Canada, M8X 2Y4, Telephone: 416-231-5931). * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * AS OTHERS SEE US This is the story about our merger that was sent out to the whole church by the Presbyterian News Service. Thanks Alexa! 10 June 1998 MLCN Votes to Merge with PLGC, Reach Out to Moderate Grass Roots by Alexa Smith CHAMPAIGN, Ill. A merger with Presbyterians for Lesbian and Gay Concerns (PLGC) was unanimously approved by delegates of the More Light Churches Network (MLCN) during the network's annual conference here, initiating a new strategy for gay and lesbian Presbyterians to work more cohesively in the church's grass roots to reach supportive but cautious moderates. To further that goal, Bill Capel, a Champaign, Ill., elder, donated $30,000 to start a salary pool so that the new group -- tentatively known as More Light Presbyterians (MLP) -- can hire a full-time organizer and an assistant to work with congregations and presbyteries, particularly in regions where the denomination's 1997 vote on Amendment A, the "fidelity and integrity" amendment, was close. The defeat of Amendment A, which tried to broaden the more restrictive ordination standards that went into the church's constitution in 1997, effectively closed the door on the ordination of sexually active homosexuals. Capel is a member of the McKinley Memorial Presbyterian Church, on the campus of the University of Illinois, the MLCN congregation that hosted the conference and just unveiled an "inclusiveness" stained-glass window (with a pink triangle, recalling the symbol homosexuals in Nazi concentration camps were forced to wear, at the top) in its sanctuary. MLP is aiming to raise another $30,000 and to hire staff early in 1999. PLGC's members will vote on the merger during their annual meeting at the General Assembly this week. "We're entering a new phase of this struggle ... and there's a desire to reinvent ourselves to be a bit better prepared for this new phase," said Scott Anderson of Sacramento, one of PLGC's co- moderators. "While we'll always be a presence at the General Assembly, for the next phase we're going to enlarge our work at the local level dramatically, [particularly in] swing-vote presbyteries," Anderson said. "Five to 10 years' work will make the difference." The vote is both for a merger and a reunion of sorts. In 1978, when the General Assembly adopted "definitive guidance," denying ordination to homosexuals, New York City's West-Park Presbyterian Church immediately declared itself a conscientious objector to the policy and defined itself as gay welcoming. The Munn Avenue Church in East Orange, N.J., and the Downtown Church in Rochester, N.Y., quickly followed. In 1992, the MLCN was organized as a way to nurture the growing numbers of congregations practicing ecclesiastical disobedience. While churches in the network ordain gays and lesbians as elders and deacons, members, when asked, were able to identify only one MLCN church in the 95-congregation network that has called an openly gay minister. PLGC, on the other hand, built its reputation as a lobbying organization, focusing most intently upon changing General Assembly ordination policy. It emerged at the 1974 General Assembly of the United Presbyterian Church in the United States of America as the Presbyterian Gay Caucus. It became Presbyterians for Gay Concerns in 1979 to accommodate growing numbers of nongay members. The name was officially changed to Presbyterians for Lesbian and Gay Concerns in 1980. The organization now has 20 active chapters. "The popular vote was so much larger this time," said MLCN co- moderator the Rev. Richard Lundy of Excelsior, Minn., referring to the 46 percent of Presbyterians who voted for less restrictive ordination standards in presbyteries this year, even though Amendment A was ultimately clobbered by a 114-to-59 vote. "That helps us know where we need to concentrate our grassroots efforts. ... "The MLCN tradition is committed to nurturing churches," said Lundy. "PLGC has focused on legislative initiatives at the General Assembly. Now we're committed to grassroots organizing in addition to the legislative initiatives." Areas targeted for a stronger MLP presence are the Southeast, an up-to-now solid wall of opposition to ordination of gays and lesbians, and the Midwest, where voting has been more mixed. The decision to bankroll local organizing isn't a new one among gay and lesbian activists within the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). In her advocacy work throughout the United States, the Rev. Jane Spahr, an evangelist hired by the Downtown Church in Rochester, N.Y., to educate the denomination on gay and lesbian concerns, is laying the groundwork for local congregations to hire what she calls "regional evangelists." These gays and lesbians, working side by side with MLP, will be advocates and educators in the church's historically moderate middle. Projects under the auspices of Spahr's supporting organization, That All May Freely Serve, are under development now in Baltimore, northern California and Chicago, and are beginning in Atlanta. Spahr gained denomination-wide recognition in 1992 when the General Assembly's Permanent Judicial Commission declared her call as pastor to the Downtown Church in Rochester out of order, prohibiting her installation there. An ordained minister, Spahr is an "out" lesbian. Presbyterian Welcome, a coalition of ten New York City Presbyterian churches, has already hired a part-time regional evangelist -- United Church of Christ pastor Cliff Frasier -- and its latest project is petitioning the Synod of the Northeast to become a "G-6.0106b-free Zone." G-6.0106b is the clause in the denomination's constitution that in effect prohibits the ordination of sexually active gays, lesbians and unmarried heterosexuals. "It's hard work," said Frasier, when asked about mediating between the more radicalized congregations in his coalition who are ecclesiastically disobedient and the more moderates ones, who are supportive but who are committed to working for change within the system's rules. "It's hard to negotiate different points of view. ... Not impossible just difficult." Such disparity in perspective has created tension in More Light circles for years, leading the organization to develop a second- tier membership of inclusive-but-not-quite-More Light churches -- something hard-liners in the ordination debate consider a compromise and others accept as pragmatic politics. "Being inclusive without becoming More Light ... may be a comfort for the conscience of an organization. But it doesn't tell gay and lesbian people they're welcome there ... if it's just privately known to the congregation," said Donn Crail of West Hollywood, a retired minister who has long worked in gay and lesbian advocacy and who wants moderates to take a more vocal and visible stance. He includes in that group members of the Covenant Network of Presbyterians (CNP), the self-styled middle- of-the-roaders who worked to get "fidelity and integrity" language into the constitution and who intend to continue as a moderate voice in denominational debates but who, much to Crail's dismay, list no openly gay people in their literature. "I'd like to push the moderates to come out," Crail said. Pam Byers of San Francisco represented the Covenant Network of Presbyterians in MLCN presentations and in a General Assembly strategy session that was closed to the press. Byers told the gathering that the CNP is working to mobilize those who are "much more moderate than the folks in this room" and described her constituency as people who "lost a vote, but found a voice." Many in MLP believe it is time to widen the group's membership to include those who are supportive of gays and lesbians but unwilling to be ecclesiastically disobedient. But while MLCN's other co-moderator, octogernarian activist Virginia Davidson of Rochester, N.Y., is willing, she's still dragging her feet on compromising much to accommodate people who don't take the risks More Lighters have historically taken. Davidson, who wrapped up her last three-year term as co-moderator at the close of the conference, believes that the only way gays and lesbians will be ordained anytime soon in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) will be by a favorable Permanent Judicial Commission (PJC) decision brought about by judicial action. "People want to get this one by one by one," said Davidson, referring to pastors who want to change parishoners' minds slowly because they are reluctant to upset members by taking convictional stands. "I want to maintain connections and I want to keep talking and listening with them ... but I don't think we're gonna change the church that way. It's the polity that has to change. "And we need a decision like that on the books from a PJC," said Davidson, who believes that a favorable PJC action now would be comparable to civil rights legislation in the 1960s. Anderson believes that those cases are inevitable, but is less certain that now is a favorable time. MLP is compiling lists of volunteer lawyers to represent gays and lesbians and More Light churches in ecclesiastical court and has socked away $20,000 toward covering whatever fees arise. "We're not folding up our tents and quietly going away, becoming UCC [United Church of Christ, which, with its congregational polity, permits the ordination of homosexuals]," he said, stressing that gay activists intend to turn whatever Presbyterian judicial cases get filed into national media stories and that they will also work to improve pastoral and spiritual care of the flock in this tense time. "We are preparing ourselves, ..." he said. "There were 41 years of overtures before women's ordination [was approved] -- judicial cases and irregular ordinations. The parallels are so strong. So if we adopt that perspective, we're still in the early stages of this discussion in the life of this denomination. "We've only been at this 25 years," said the 43-year-old former Presbyterian minister who was "outed" and demitted his ordination, "and I think it will take another 25. I hope it happens before I die, but I'm not holding my breath on that." PLGC co-moderator Laurene Lafontaine, parish associate in a Denver Presbyterian church, is also focusing on the long haul. "I feel pretty hopeful, even though it's hard now," she told the Presbyterian News Service, describing the frustration and hope that swings back and forth like a see-saw as she meets with CNP's moderates, antsy More Lighters and even more conservative factions. "We want to do the right thing," she told her constituents, "and we're trying to figure out how to do it. Part of the challenge of this work is how to work together." * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Our New Presbyterian Catechisms: Conspiracy or Opportunity? An analysis by Tom Hanks Two new catechisms, a shorter First Catechism and a longer Study Catechism, were approved for 5 years of study and use by the 210th General Assembly (1998) in Charlotte. Whatever our evaluations of these documents as a whole, we should celebrate and use the exposition of the 9th Commandment in the Study Catechism: Question 115. Does this commandment forbid racism *and other forms of negative stereotyping?* "Yes. In forbidding false witness against my neighbor, God forbids me to be prejudiced against people who belong to any vulnerable, different or disfavored social group. Jews, women, *homosexuals,* racial and ethnic minorities, and national enemies are among those who have suffered terribly from being subjected to the slurs of social prejudice. Negative stereotyping is a form of falsehood that invites actions of humiliation, abuse, and *violence* as forbidden by the commandment against *murder*" [italics mine]. This, the only reference in the documents to sexual minorities, is thus totally favorable and constitutes a major paradigm shift in the way homosexuality is viewed by the church. For years we have been plagued with statements that include homosexuals in the old paradigm: "alcoholics, drug addicts and homosexuals." Now However, in the new catechism, homosexuals are linked with racial minorities and recognized as oppressed victims of negative stereotyping and the slurs of social prejudice that foments violence and murder. One presbytery executive tells me that in his presbytery of some forty-five churches, only two churches did the study of human sexuality agreed upon in GA actions. Nationwide less than 20% of our churches did the required study. In such contexts, where study has scarcely begun, but where the catechisms may be used, Question 115 provides us with an excellent platform to assure recalcitrant Less Light churches: they can forget about studying homosexuals (the much desired sabbatical rest -- but without the six days work). However, we need to start studying our homophobia and speech patterns that have fomented violence and murder of sexual minorities. At last, on the basis of church documents approved for study and use, we can become proactive and not simply defensive. Every example of negative stereotyping can now be confronted and denounced with the citation from the Catechism. We can call people to repent of their homophobia instead of their homosexuality. And we might consider examining pastors and other church leaders to see if their unrepentant persistence in the sin of negative stereotyping disqualifies them from holding office. Candidates for ordination might be questioned regarding their discourse regarding sexual minorities instead of inquiring into their sexual orientation and acts. The recent affirmation by African American pastors, together with the linking of negative stereotyping of homosexuals with racism in the Catechism, also provides us with an opportunity to become proactive and very intentional in linking More Light Presbyterians with the Presbyterian Black Caucus. The *More Light Update* and our resource packets should include specific literature on African American sexual minorities and make clear the support of black Christian leaders (Coretta Scott King, Jesse Jackson, Bishop Desmond Tutu, Nelson Mandela with the South African Constitution) in opposing racism and homophobia. The Catechisms in Catechetical Order: General Comments After the introductory questions, the Study Catechism follows the classical trilogy of the Apostles' Creed, the Ten commandments and the Lord's Prayer. The First Catechism does not include the Apostle's Creed verbatim, but includes its general narrative content. The heavy traditional dependence on the **Apostle's Creed** gives the mistaken impression that this much later document has apostolic authority. It leaps from the Virgin Birth to Jesus' death, omitting all reference to Jesus' ministry/praxis, and includes the highly problematic phrase about the descent into Hell. The Virgin Birth, despite its lowly estate in Biblical teaching (only Matthew and Luke) is thus elevated to the rank of a fundamental doctrine and the common cultural and neo-platonic notion that human sexuality is always dirty is re-enforced for modern Presbyterians. Such negatives are to some degree counterbalanced by sophisticated Barthian interpretation (spin) of the doctrines. The focus on the **Ten Commandments** as a charter of liberty has the advantage of rooting Christian praxis in God's liberating act in the Exodus and making heterosexual males the main concern regarding sexual sin (adultery and coveting the neighbor's wife). This undercuts any tendency to make homoerotic acts God's main concern in the sin area. The prohibitions in Leviticus of male- male anal sex (before condoms) does not enter the picture. The impression is even given that God's Law is to be equated with the Ten commandments (First Catechism Question 18). Actually, by Jewish reckoning the Pentateuch contains 613 commandments and only two of them might be construed as directed specifically toward homosexual males. As someone has observed this only goes to show that heterosexuals simply need more supervision, but such subtleties do not surface in these documents. The exposition of the **Lord's Prayer** preserves the traditional non-inclusive reference to Our Father, and thus the tilt toward patriarchy, but repeated efforts are made to avoid the extremes in the traditional language and theology. Matthew's version of the Lord's Prayer is followed, with no acknowledgment of the significantly different and more original Lucan version. Also the *Textus Receptus* (a 16th century Greek version of the New Testament) addition of the concluding doxology (from 1 Chron. 29:11, 13) is included. Such traditionalism in the use of classical trilogy framework, however, is counterbalanced to a considerable extent by the often sophisticated Barthian exposition. In addition to the prohibition of racism and other forms of negative stereotyping cited above, the catechism authors point to four significant areas where the Study Catechism moves beyond the traditional trilogy and previous reformed catechisms: Feminism (Questions 11-13): God is Father, but not male. Modern Science (Question 27): To be accepted. Is Christianity the only true religion? (See Questions 50-52). Modern critical biblical scholarship (Question 61): Also now kosher. Unfortunately, however, the praxis does not consistently glorify the theory. Scientific Biblical scholarship is not only ignored but contradicted by the arbitrary preference for Matthew's version of the Lord's Prayer in the *Textus Receptus*. Perhaps more seriously, the "Fall" functions as a major theological category with no indication of anything beyond the pre- scientific notion of a literal Adam and Eve in a historical (time-space) "fall" shortly after their supposed creation in 4004 B.C. (First Catechism Question 10; Study Catechism Question 20). From reading the frequent allusions to the mysterious "Fall," readers steeped in Flood geology and Creation "science" might well conclude that the modern "science" to be accepted is their lunatic fringe version. A catechism that refers repeatedly to the "Fall" and never mentions evolution lends itself well to such Fundamentalist manipulations. Probably most authors intended a sophisticated Barthian understanding of the "Fall." But a "fall" that never happened in history utterly fails to explain the universality of human sinfulness. Here the authors might better have followed a wise southern dictum in educational theory: don't shake out more snakes than you can kill (especially within the genre restraints of a catechism.). Perhaps during our five years study of the catechisms we will forget about the Fall and affirm that God our Creator worked through the evolutionary process. That would at least catch us up with the author of Genesis 2-3, who spoke simply of disobedience and not of any Fall. The authors may suppose that educated Presbyterians would never perpetrate such a hermeneutical *faux pas* with their document. But those of us who have witnessed (suffered through) years of purported "study" of homosexuality, where ExGay quackery from a few lunatic fringe Fundamentalists is put on par with an overwhelming scientific consensus, and where homosexuality is regularly equated with sexual "fallenness," "brokenness," sexual addiction, promiscuity, and child abuse, will not be so optimistic about the "scientific" lenses that will be employed in Less Light churches. Often, however, the Barthian spin on Westminster theology proves a helpful corrective. Instead of beginning with the Bible, as in the Westminster Confession, the Study Catechism (Question 56) quotes the Barmen confession: "Jesus Christ as he is attested for us in the Holy Scripture is the one Word of God whom we have to hear, and whom we have to trust and obey in life and in death." The authors of Barmen could not have known that as they wrote (May 30, 1934), the first of tens of thousands of homosexuals were soon to be executed (July 1, 1934), to be followed by other minorities along with six million Jews in the Holocaust. However, we might well point out that Barmen is especially relevant whenever the church is tempted to go along with negative stereotyping that promotes violence and murder of oppressed minorities. Less Light Churches commonly pay more attention to Paul's teaching than to Jesus' and don't like to be reminded that Jesus said nothing about homoeroticism (and according to Q, our earliest source, nothing about sex!). We have an unprecedented opportunity to point out that the negative stereotyping and slurs against homosexuals, which have promoted so much violence and murder of sexual minorities, results from following Hitler, not Jesus. While celebrating Barth and Barmen, we may also be grateful that the Catechisms in their treatment of our creation in God's image move beyond a common Barthian hang-up in the area of human sexuality. Years ago feminists properly seized upon Barth's doctrine of our creation in God's image as male and female (Genesis 1:26) to insist upon equal status and ordination rights for women. However, in recent years this appropriate modern use of the text has been distorted to deny equal status and ordination rights for sexual minorities. Only the heterosexual couple, we have been told, consisting of men from Mars and women from Venus, adequately reflects the glory of God, who wisely created only Adam and Eve, but not Adam and Steve. Happily the Catechisms correct this modern heresy, teaching clearly the New Testament truth that the ultimate expression of God's image is no longer a married couple but the single person Jesus Christ (First Catechism Questions 8-9 with citations from Col. 1:15, 2 Cor. 4:4- 6). While the focus on the **Ten Commandments**, with their stern prohibitions directed against heterosexual males, may be immensely favorable to sexual minorities, the Catechisms should also be welcomed by Seventh Day Adventists, since the clarity of the Westminster standards for the "change in day" finds no echo in the new documents. Somehow Sabbath keeping remains on par with "Thou shalt not kill." Less Light Churches commonly warn us that the Ten Commandments, like Mother Nature, are not to be tinkered with (being "ethical/moral absolutes"). Not even tinkering a la Westminster appears in the new documents, but Christian worship on the First Day of the week emerges mysteriously from the fog as the norm. However, if that major adjustment be accepted, we might also question whether rape and sexual violence are not more serious than adultery and whether Jesus' Beatitudes and Sermon on the Mount might not be a better starting point for teaching Christian discipleship than Moses. Matthew and Luke seem to think so, but the diversity of their versions (Mat. 5-7 and Luke 6) might prove disconcerting to many in our Less Light Churches. And for those who take their Bibles seriously, turning the other cheek, not resisting evil and loving the enemy has always seemed a bit wimpy, while not laying up treasures on earth has sounded suspiciously like communism. Better stick with Moses' Ten Commandments and hope no one starts snooping around in the book of Exodus to see what else Moses had been up to. Perhaps one of the more notable departures from the Westminster standards are the affirmations about Israel (Study Catechism Question 37) where Augustinian (amillenial) notions about the church replacing the nation Israel are rejected in favor of a more careful reading of Romans 11. In the 19th century, Dispensationalism first blazoned upon our modern theological and hermeneutical map a clear distinction between the people of Israel and the church. A Swiss dispensationalist who became a universalist returned from the USA and introduced the new perspective to Karl Barth, through whom is was promulgated in his commentaries on Romans and further developed by Ernst Kasemann and more recent studies of Romans. If the same sophistication in reading Romans 11 to avoid traditional anti- Judaism were to be applied to Romans 1 to avoid homophobia, we might soon dispense with the effort to keep our countless sexual minority leaders suffocating in their closets. The new documents also seek to inculcate a more purely Calvinistic understanding of the sacraments than Presbyterians are accustomed. Probably most will find it difficult to part company with their traditional Zwinglian and rationalistic understanding of the Lord's Supper, and the Calvinistic interpretation so briefly stated will sound suspiciously like Lutheran or Roman Catholic views. Although almost universally rejected by modern New Testament exegetes, infant baptism is affirmed and defended with a dose of covenant theology and the usual inadequate proof texts. The use of the three household baptisms in Acts (not "family," a concept absent from the entire Bible) is particularly weak. Lydia obviously was not even married, and if the Philippian jailer was, we may wonder why he was left to perform the traditional feminine tasks of nursing the wounded and preparing the meal for the guests. Didn't he realize that if he departed from the culturally expected gender roles his purportedly baptized children might grow up to be homosexuals? Although sexual minorities and their allies can rejoice at the new paradigm offered in the exposition of the 9th commandment, in the next five year's study, special attention also must be given to the exposition of the 7th commandment, originally directed to heterosexual males, but extended to cover an entire area of Biblical teaching and human experience as is common since Calvin wrote his classical commentaries: "God requires fidelity and purity in sexual relations. Since love is God's greatest gift, God expects me not to corrupt or to confuse it with momentary desire or the selfish fulfillment of my pleasures. God forbids all sexual immorality, whether in married or in single life" (Study Catechism Question 110). The only book in the Biblical canon devoted to sexual love (Song of Songs) is totally sex-positive and strongly pleasure oriented, but commonly ignored when the church begins to speak (negatively) about human sexuality. The Song is not concerned to restrict sexual pleasure to marriage, or even to heterosexual relations. In the original unpointed Hebrew text the poems all may be read as either heterosexual or homoerotic. In the 19th century the study of erotic poetry in the Ancient Near East led Biblical scholars to recognize that the Song was not an allegory about God's love for Israel or Christ's love for the church. Recognition of some two thousand years of confused genre identity proved quite a trauma for both synagogue and church. Biblical spin doctors soon solved the problem with an interpretation of the song as a three-character drama about sexual fidelity, and when that fell out of favor, provided notes a la Scofield that at least insured a heterosexual interpretation of the poems. Recent works on sexual ethics point out that our Christian allergy to the combination of sex and pleasure is neo-platonic and stoic, but not Biblical. The Study Catechism continues in this bondage to Greek philosophical categories with its ambiguous negative reference to sexual "immorality." Morals and ethics are Greek philosophical categories that never occur in the Bible, despite their omnipresence in Christian discourse. "Sexual immorality" in modern Biblical mistranslations has replaced the older "fornication," to represent what usually in the Greek is called *porneia *(originally "prostitution," with a variety of later meanings still hotly debated). Strangely, "fornication" is the translation given in the proof texts provided (Eph. 5:3; Heb. 13:4; 1 Thes. 4:3-4). Traditionally, of course, the church viewed masturbation as one of the worst forms of *porneia*. John Wesley wrote a scathing tract against masturbation, which has been mercifully censured from modern editions of his supposedly complete works. And since Roberta Hestenes refused to answer the question on the floor of the 1996 General Assembly, older Presbyterians have been waiting to see whether they can masturbate without becoming unchaste and forfeiting their ordained status. And dedicated younger Presbyterians, who intend to remain chaste and pure by denominational standards, may find that the 10 to 15 years from the onset of adolescence until marriage is a rather long time to wait for Dr. Hestenes to make up her mind. In addition to the foggy negative prohibition of *porneia,* the exposition refers to two positive traits of fidelity and purity. The only prooftext provided for purity is the ambiguous deuteropauline reference in Ephesians 5:3 to "uncleanness." Paul's teaching in Romans 14:20 that "all THINGS are clean" is omitted (see also Titus 1:15). Fidelity, which never in the New Testament refers to anything to do with sex or marriage, presupposes specific promises and commitments. Granted that promises made regarding sexual behavior, like any others, normally should be kept. But modern Presbyterian realism regarding heterosexual divorce reminds us that many situations in human life are not normal. A wife subjected to regular physical violence with daughters sexually abused by her spouse may well celebrate her divorce as divine liberation, not a sin to be bewailed and repented of. Gay men and lesbians trapped into "marriage" through naivete or church- sponsored ExGay quackery may well feel the same way and celebrate their liberation from a kind of scientific experimentation where they served as guinea pigs, their lives cruelly sacrificed on the altar of heterosexist idolatry. The Catechism provides as a prooftext on adultery Matthew 5:27-29, but stops short of including 5:31-32, where divorce is explicitly termed a kind of* porneia* and adultery. Divorced Presbyterians thus find their ordained status protected from assault, despite Jesus' explicit teaching in the Sermon on the Mount, while sexual minorities are subjected to the cruelties of Amendment B, devoid of any Biblical support, even in Paul (according to the latest studies). The next five years will provide ample opportunity to study and critique the deficiencies in the catechisms. Instead of torturing the 7th commandment with eisegesis (intent on reading Amendment B into the Bible) we might propose a more excellent way. We need to begin by repenting of our use of the Greek philosophical categories of morals and ethics and return to the Biblical categories of THE WAY and "walking in the truth." In our protest at the General Assembly in 1996 we wisely marched singing the South African hymn: *We are walking in the light*. Had we donned the robes of Greek philosophers and chanted "We are doing ethics and being moral" it would have been unbiblical and ridiculous. The Bible is much more subversive than we give it credit for. The great historical continuities in the Way for God's people in the Bible indicate that sexual acts and relations should be characterized as: CONSENSUAL. Because the Ten Commandments are properly designated a charter of *liberty *and* freedom*, liberation from oppression, coercion and violence should become the fundamental starting point of our exposition of the 7th Commandment. When the institution of marriage degenerates into an instrument of oppression, coercion, and violence, divorce may be celebrated as a liberation, not condemned as a sin. Bishop Spong has even provided a liturgy for such a celebration. JUST. Jesus and Paul move us away from traditional notions of uncleanness and impurity (sex acts viewed as dirty and shameful). They redefine uncleanness as injustice and purity as that which is just and loving. Our sexual acts should be done in a framework of justice, not injustice and oppression. However, in an imperfect world, if we wait for perfect justice as the context for any sexual acts, we will find ourselves waiting much longer than we have waited for Roberta Hestenes to decide whether masturbation is unchaste and a bar to ordination. Since Foucault's studies we realize how complex are the dimensions of human power and the potentials for injustice and oppression: one has physical size and strength, another financial power, another youth and sexual attraction, another charm, education, artistic capacity, or culinary ability. If we demand perfect justice as the essential human framework for any acceptable sexual act or relationship, the human race will not long continue. But the justice criteria broadly interpreted, insisted upon especially in recent feminist works, remains fundamental. LOVING. While many believe that a sexual act can be impersonal, that may be misleading. The Good Samaritan's acts involved an unconscious, nameless person, but they were nonetheless personal, loving acts and commended as paradigmatic by Jesus. Often the Gospels describe Jesus as "moved by compassion," reminding us that loving acts, including sexual ones, frequently are spontaneous. The Catechism's warning against sexual acts resulting from "momentary [free, spontaneous] desire" suggests the stereotype of Presbyterians who only do it "decently and in order" every Friday night -- a far cry from the eroticism portrayed in the only Canonical book devoted to sexual love. If further proof texts from Paul are needed, "Do everything in love" (1 Cor. 16:14) might be preferable to the ambiguous negatives now listed. WISE. Especially in an age of AIDS, sexual acts and relations should be characterized not only by freedom, justice and love, but also by wisdom. Safer Sex and planned responsible parenthood are but urgent starting points for the wisdom that should guide sexual acts and relations. While the Bible never speaks of morals, ethics or family, it speaks continuously of wisdom. It never calls the Ten Commandments "ethics," much less "ethical absolutes" (obviously the Sabbath is not absolute for any Christians except Seventh Day Adventists). But the Bible does refer to Moses' laws as "wisdom," wise counsels directed to individuals or peoples in concrete historic contexts on the Way: coming out of Egypt, entering into the Promised Land, returning from Exile, going into all the world. To a large extent the different historical contexts explain the variety in the counsels given, but we also may trace strands of unity in the Bible's diversity (see the citations of various groupings of the Ten Commandments in the New Testament, sometimes transformed into vice lists on the Greek model). FAITHFUL. When we move beyond isolated sexual acts (as in an individual act of masturbation, formerly called "self abuse," but more recently "self-pleasuring"), partners often spontaneously desire an exclusive, even permanent sexual relationship. Like the dog who "faithfully" appears daily with the newspaper, partners may move into a pattern of faithful behavior without any verbal expression of promises or vows. But, given the more recent cultural tradition of marriage involving an exchange of vows between partners (and not just the older patriarchal form of a wife purchased by the father for his son), often couples desire to exchange promises, or even vows. Oaths and vows commonly are imposed by those in power as instruments of oppression. In the Bible, however, the giving of promises is viewed as a supreme expression of freedom (either divine or human). Your dog may faithfully bring you your newspaper daily, but cannot promise to do so. When promises are made (not hastily if we are wise), normally they should be kept. If we attend to these fundamental Biblical continuities (freedom, justice, love, wisdom, and fidelity in keeping any promises given), we will find ourselves on the way to an authentic walking in the Christian way and liberation from both neo-platonism and the cruel vagaries of Amendment B. These five fundamentals hardly constitute a new legal code, but they do provide a substantive description of what we mean today when we use terms such as purity and chastity. If we have jettisoned traditional dogmas about sex only being for procreation and masturbation as an unchaste, unclean act worse than murder, then the acceptance of the five fundamental continuities is a relatively small step that can bring much greater clarity to what we teach about human sexuality. Thus the new Catechisms, liberated from legalism, foggy incoherence and bondage to ecclesiastical politics, may yet speak a prophetic word. -- The Rev. Dr. Tom Hanks, thanks@thanks.wamani.apc.org, Executive Director, OTHER SHEEP, Adjunct Professor, Universidad Biblica Latinoamericana and Samaritan Institute for Religious Studies, Lavalle 376, Apt. 2- DE, 1047 Buenos Aires, ARGENTINA. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * A GENERAL ASSEMBLY POEM [Not included in Print Version!] Ohm Sweet Ohm By Jud Van Gorder (Inspired by the theme of the 210th General Assembly, "Light For The Journey." An ohm is a unit of resistance.) We, The Presbyterian Church (United States of America) In General Assembly convened, Do solemnly seek Light For The Journey. Not 'More Light,' you understand; We have carefully shuttered Our Constitution against such. Not for us cosmic brilliance, Nor the probing laser. We prefer an oil lamp, dim, yet Good enough from tradition: It makes our sanctuary cozy, Illuminating faces of the elect, Drawing attention from the Beyond. Outside are unsettling claims, Perturbing movements, Who question our fidelity to Truth, The chastity of our purposes, Who would incarnate love here. A lamp is ample for us, since We do not plan to journey far; Our steps are close and measured, And by bending our arguments We may proceed to where we were. So stare ye, mesmerized, at the Flickering flame of our Confessions As ye recite the sins of others; Turn away from the windows, lest Pentecost's fiery tongues alarm. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * PLGC OFFICERS AND CONTACTS CO-MODERATORS: Scott D. Anderson (1998), 5805 20th Ave., Sacramento, CA 95820-3107, 916-456-7225 h., 442-5447 w., email: Scott_Anderson.parti@ecunet.org; Laurene Lafontaine (1999), 1260 York St. #106, Denver, CO 80206, 303-388-0628, PNet: Laurene Lafontaine; email: EClaurene@aol.com COMMUNICATIONS SECRETARY: James D. Anderson, P.O. Box 38, New Brunswick, NJ 08903-0038, 732-249-1016, 732-932-7501 (Rutgers Univ.), FAX 732-932-6916 (Rutgers Univ.), email: jda@scils.rutgers.edu RECORDING SECRETARY: Rob Cummings, P.O. Box 394, Jackson Center, PA 16133-0394, 724-475-3285, email: robcum@toolcity.net TREASURER: Lew Myrick, Kitzmiller Rd., RR 1 Box 1049-A, Brodbecks, PA 17329-9713, 717-229-0547, LEMyrick@aol.com PLGC Coordinators & Liaisons ISSUES: Mike Smith -- see Exec. board. JUDICIAL ISSUES: Tony De La Rosa -- see Exec. board; Peter Oddleifson, c/o Harris, Beach and Wilcox, 130 E. Main St., Rochester, NY 14604, 716-232-4440 w., 716-232-1573 fax. BISEXUAL CONCERNS: The Rev. Kathleen Buckley, 2532 Rosendale Rd., Schenectady, NY 12309-1312, 518-382-5342; Skidmore College chaplain 518-584-5000 ext 2271, email kbuckley@skidmore.edu; Union College protestant chaplain, 518-388-6618, buckleyk@gar.union.edu TRANSGENDER CONCERNS: Carla T. Pridgen, M.Div, M.Ed., 5 Delano Rd., Asheville, NC 28805, 704-285-9752, CarlaP@worldnet.att.net STOLES PROJECT: Martha G. Juillerat, Director, 57 Upton Ave. S., Minneapolis, MN 55405, 612-377-8792, PNet: Martha Juillerat, email: Martha_Juillerat.parti@ecunet.org PRESBYNET: Dorothy Fillmore, 7113 Dexter, Richmond, VA 23226, 804-285-9040 h., 804-828-8420 w., 804-274-0874 voice mail, email: dfillmore.parti@ecunet.org, dfillmor@atlas.vcu.edu, PNet: dfillmore PLGC'S WEB PAGE: Donna Michelle Riley, Box 323, 4902 Forbes Ave., Pittsburgh, PA 15213-3702, 412-422-1822, 412-268-5550 w., email: riley+@andrew.cmu.edu LIAISON FOR PRISON MINISTRIES: Jud van Gorder, 915 Walnut Ave., Santa Cruz, CA 95060-3440, 408-423-3829. LIAISON TO PRESBYTERIAN AIDS NETWORK (PAN): John M. Trompen, 48 Lakeview Dr., Morris Plains, NJ 07950-1950, 201-538-1655 LIAISONS TO PRESBYTERIAN ACT-UP: Susan Leo -- see Exec. board; Lisa Bove, 1707 Micheltorena St. #214, Los Angeles, CA 90026, 213-664-8654; Howard Warren, Jr., 2807 Somerset Bay, Indianapolis, IN 46240, 317-632-0123 w., 317-253-2377 h. EUROPE: Jack Huizenga, Voice of America, 76 Shoe Lane, London EC4A 3JB, U.K., email: jwhuizen@dircon.co.uk, tel: (171) 410- 0960, preceded by 011-44 if calling from the U.S. ALASKA-NORTHWEST (AK, WA, No. ID): Lindsay (Lin) Thompson, P.O. Box 2631, Seattle, WA 98111-2631, 206-505-7878 wk, fax 206-505- 7880, LThomp6394@aol.com; Richard Gibson, 4700 228th St., SW, Mount Lake Terrace, WA 98043, 206-778-7227. COVENANT (MI, OH): Rev. James J. Beates, 18120 Lahser Rd. #1, Detroit, MI 48219, 313-255-7059; Mary Rose, 821 N. 4th St., #2, Marquette, MI 49855, marrose@nmu.edu LAKES AND PRAIRIES (IA, MN, ND, NE, SD, WI): Cleve Evans, 3810 S. 13th St., #22, Omaha, NE 68107-2260, 402-733-1360, email: cevans@scholars.bellevue.edu; Richard Winslow, 111 E. Water St., #100, Appleton, WI 54911-5791, 414-731-0892 LINCOLN TRAILS (IL, IN): Mark Palermo, 6101 N. Sheridan Rd. East, #31-A, Chicago IL 60660-6819, 773-338-0452; Rev. L. Dean Hay, 200 N. 15th St., #3, Murphysboro, IL 62966, phone 618-687-5203, email: alfalfa@globaleyes.net. LIVING WATERS (KY, TN, MS, AL): Michael Purintun, 522 Belgravia Ct., #2, Louisville, KY 40208-2123, 502-637-4734, PNet: Michael Purintun, email: michael_purintun.parti@ecunet.org; Glyndon Morris, 1150 Vultee Blvd. #B-204, Nashville, TN 37217-2152, 615- 361-9228, PNet: Glyndon Morris, email: glyndon.morris@vanderbilt.edu MID-AMERICA (MO, KS): Victor Force, 412 N. 8th St., Manhattan, KS 66502-5939, 913-539-5307, rabbif@KSU.edu; Shelly Holle, 1430 LeGore Ln., Manhattan, KS 66502, 913-776-8325 MID-ATLANTIC (DE, DC, MD, NC, VA): Marco Antonio Grimaldo, Grimaldo & Associates, 2848 Fairhaven Ave., Alexandria, VA 22303, 703-960-0432, 202-210-3780, email: mgrimaldo@juno.com; Brent Bissette, 11 Colton Ct., Durham, NC 27713-8885, 919-544-9932. NORTHEAST (NJ, NY, New England): Gary Ireland, 10 Winter St., Montpelier, VT 05602, 802-229-5438; John Hartwein-Sanchez, 149 Bramble Way, Tiverton, RI 02878, 401-624-6698; Charlie Mitchell, 56 Perry St., #3-R, New York, NY 10014, 212-691-7118; Kay Wroblewski, 74 Freemont Rd., Rochester, NY 14612, 716-663-6632. PACIFIC (No. CA, OR, NV, So. ID): Richard A. Sprott, 531 Valle Vista Ave., Oakland, CA 94610-1908, 510-268-8603, fax, 510-271- 0127, email: sprott @cogsci.berkeley.edu; Dick Hasbany, 2245 NW Hazel, Corvallis, OR 97330-3904, 541-753-6277, hasbanyd@ccmail.orst.edu ROCKY MOUNTAINS (CO, MT, NE Panhandle, UT, WY): Laurene Lafontaine -- see Officers. SOUTH ATLANTIC (FL, GA, SC): Victor Floyd, 853 Willivee Dr., Decatur, GA 30033, 404-636-1429 ch., 404-633-6530 h., RuVic@aol.com; Jim Earhart, P.O. Box 8362, Atlanta, GA 31106- 0362, 404-373-5830, JimEarhart@juno.com; Laurie Kraus, 5275 Sunset Dr., Miami, FL 33143, 305-666-8586 SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA AND HAWAII: Tony De La Rosa -- see Exec. board. SOUTHWEST (AZ, NM): Linda Manwarren, 7720 Browning Dr. NE, Albuquerque, NM 87109-5303, 505-858-0249; Rosemarie Wallace, 710 W. Los Lagos Vista Ave., Mesa, AZ 85210, 602-892-5255 SUN (AR, LA, OK, TX): Greg Adams, 314 Steven Dr., Little Rock, AR 72205, 501-224-4724; Jay Kleine, 1108 Toyath St., Austin, TX 78703-3921, 512-477-7418 h., 471-5217 w.; John P. McNeese, P.O. Box 54606, Oklahoma City, 73120-1404, 405-848-2819, email: mcneese@theshop.net; Gail Rickey, 13114 Holston Hills, Houston, TX 77069, 713-440-0353, 713-440-1902 fax, email: patrickey@aol.com TRINITY (PA, WV): Rob Cummings -- see Officers (Recording Secretary); Eleanor Green, P.O. Box 6296, Lancaster, PA 17603, 717-397-9068; Jim Ebbenga & Kurt Wieser, 203 E. Prospect Ave., North Wales, PA 19454-3208, 215-699-4750 PLGC Executive Board Gene Huff (1998), 658 25th Ave., San Francisco, CA 94121, 415- 668-1145, email: huffrevs@hooked.net, or Eugene_Huff.parti @ecunet.org; PNet: Eugene Huff Susan Leo (1998), 4508 SE Lincoln, Portland, OR 97215, 503-235- 6986, email: sleoclu@aol.com William H. Moss (Bill, 1998), 535 Steiner St., San Francisco, CA 94117, 415-864-0477, email: WHMoss@aol.com Donna Michelle Riley (1998), Box 323, 4902 Forbes Ave., Pittsburgh, PA 15213-3702, 412-422-1822, 412-268-5550 w., email: riley+@andrew.cmu.edu Mike Smith (1998), 1211 West St., Grinnell, IA 50112, 515-236- 7955, PNet: Michael D Smith; email: Michael_D_Smith.parti@ecunet.org Tony De La Rosa (1999), 5850 Benner St. #302, Los Angeles, CA 90042, 213-256-2787, PNet: Tony De La Rosa; email: tony_de_la_rosa.parti@ecunet.org or tonydlr@ix.netcom.com Tricia Dykers Koenig (1999), 3967 Navahoe Rd., Cleveland Heights, OH 44121, 216-381-0156, PNet: Tricia Dykers Koenig, email: tricia_dykers_koenig.parti@ecunet.org Lisa Larges (1999), 426 Fair Oaks, San Francisco, CA 94110, 415- 648-0547, email: LLL@igc.org Tammy Lindahl (1999), 57 Upton Ave. S., Minneapolis, MN 55405, 612-377-2191 h., PNet: Tammy Lindahl, email: tammy_lindahl.parti@ecunet.org Howard Warren, Jr. (1999), 2807 Somerset Bay, Indianapolis, IN 46240, 317-632-0123 w., 317-253-2377 h. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * PRESBYTERIAN ALLY ORGANIZATIONS This is a list of other organizations working for a truly inclusive Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). It's "under construction"! Please send me contact information and brief descriptions for any other organization that should be included. I encourage any group to send revisions! Thanks! Jim Anderson. Hesed (Hebrew: The Covenant of Steadfast Love) Hesed is an informal coalition of PC(USA) ordained and lay church leaders dedicated to the affirmation -- in obedience to Scripture and within the Reformed Tradition and Presbyterian polity -- of the inclusiveness of God's Grace and of the love of Jesus Church for all his followers. Virginia L. Lewis, Moderator/Webmistress, 600-B Hedgewood Dr., Georgetown, TX 78628, 512-863-1802, 512-863-1846 fax, email: lewisv@southwestern.edu, website: http://www.southwestern.edu/lewisv/Hesed/Hesed.html The Lazarus Project "A Ministry of Reconciliation," The Rev. Donn Crail, Director, West Hollywood Presbyterian Church, 7350 Sunset Blvd., Hollywood, CA 90046. More Light Churches Network http://www.mlcn.org More Light Churches are Presbyterian congregations that welcome "all people into the church as full participating members, entitled to all 'the rights and privileges of the church' including ordination should they be elected to leadership positions, regardless of sexual orientation." Congregations and individuals that are working toward such inclusiveness are also part of the Network. MLCN Steering Committee: Mitzi Henderson, co-moderator for nurture, 16 Sunset Lane, Menlo Park, CA 94025-6732, 650-854-2598, fax -4177, email MHenderson@pcusa.org Dick Lundy, co-moderator for administration, 5525 Timber Ln., Excelsior, MN 55331, 612-470-0093 h., email: dick_lundy@pcusa.org Joanne Sizoo, secretary/treasurer, 5901 Cleves Warsaw Pkwy., Cincinnati, OH 45233, 513-922-8764 h., email: joanne_sizoo@pcusa.org Harold G. Porter, outreach, Mt. Auburn Presbyterian Church, 103 Wm. H. Taft Rd., Cincinnati, OH 45219, 513-281-5945 w. Richard Sprott, conferences, 531 Valle Vista Ave., Oakland, CA 94610, 510-268-8603 h., email: richard.sprott@pcusa.org Chuck McLain, outreach, 932 E. 28th St., Oakland, CA 94610, 510- 261-4696 h., 451-8639 fax, email: mcpresby@aol.com Ken Wolvington, communications, 118 Shore Rd., Burlington, VT 05401-2658, 802-862-6605 h., email: ken.wolvington@pcusa.org Cathy Blaser, development, 350 West 85th St., New York, NY 10024, 212-595-8976 h. And MLCN Partners The Rev. Dr. Johanna Bos, college/seminary chapters, Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary, 1044 Alta Visa Rd., Louisville, KY 40205-1798, email: johanna.bos@pcusa.org Ralph Carter, resources, 111 Milburn St., Rochester, NY 14607- 2918, 716-271-7649, email: rcarter@rpa.net Presbyterian AIDS Network (PAN) PAN is one of 10 networks of the Presbyterian Health Education & Welfare Association (PHEWA). PHEWA is a related ministry of the National Ministries Division, Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). PHEWA provides resources to individuals, congregations, and middle governing bodies in the fields of social welfare and justice ministries. PHEWA also works to make the church more responsive to the needs of the excluded and suffering. Alice Davis and Phil Jamison, co-moderators; Bob Gillespie, treasurer; Marge Marsh, secretary; Daniel Kendrick, at large member to the Executive Committee and PHEWA board; James Hicks, Annie Long, Dora Carrera, Marco Grimaldo, Lorna Jean Miller, Howard Warren, leadership team members. Address: c/o PHEWA, Room 3041, 100 Witherspoon St., Louisville, KY 40202-1396. Presbyterian Parents of Gays and Lesbians Caring for Each Other: A support group for parents. Jane C. Loflin, Director, P.O. Box 781-591, Dallas, TX 75378, 214-902-0987, 904-9695 fax. Presbyterian Partnership of Conscience (P.P.C.) P.P.C., a partnership project of PLGC, the MLCN, That All May Freely Serve, the Witherspoon Society, Semper Reformanda, Voices of Sophia, the Stole Project, and friends, helps coordinate faithful action and statements of conscience and supports *pro bono* legal counsel in defense of individuals, congregations, and governing bodies targeted for judicial action in the courts of the church. Contact Bear Ride Scott, Coordinator, c/o United University Church, 817 W. 34th St., Los Angeles, CA 90007, 213- 748-0209 ext. 13, PNet: Bear Scott Presbyterian Welcome "Inclusive Churches Working Together," Cliff Frasier, Coordinator, Jan Hus Church, 351 E. 74th St., New York, NY 10021, 212-288-6743. Semper Reformanda Semper Reformanda (Always Being Reformed) is a network of groups and individuals within the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) formed to share information and develop support on current issues of liberation, justice, and the integrity of creation. We are called by God's spirit to renewed commitment to, understanding of, and witnessing for the Gospel of Jesus Christ, open to new expressions of our faith. We welcome those who are committed to compassion, mutual respect, and continuing reformation, moving toward shalom. Kenneth R. Smith, Moderator, 16240 N. Park Dr., #102, Southfield, MI 48075, 248-569-1223; June Ramage Rogers, Vice Moderator, P.O. Box 23, Hanover, IN 47243-0023, 812-866- 3334; John N. Gregg, Secretary/Communicator, 1018 S. 28th St., Milwaukee, WI 53215-1612, 414-385-0311, PNet: John Gregg; Mae Gautier, Treasurer, 4242 Elmwood Rd., Cleveland, OH 44121, 216- 691-9558. That All May Freely Serve (T.A.M.F.S.) T.A.M.F.S. focuses on a national effort to give voice to those disenfranchised by the Church's policies toward ordination of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgendered persons and to educate others regarding biblical and theological connections supporting full inclusion. Contact the Rev. Dr. Jane Adams Spahr, Lesbian Evangelist, P.O. Box 3707, San Rafael, CA 94912-3707, 415-457- 8004, 454-2564 fax, website: http://www.tamfs.org Send Contributions to: Downtown United Presbyterian Church, 121 N. Fitzhugh St., Rochester, NY 14614, 716-325-4000, -6023 fax. That All May Freely Serve, Baltimore We are churches and individuals in Baltimore who envision a just and inclusive church in which *all* may freely serve. Our mission is to develop a program of education, reconciliation and advocacy that honors diversity and strives to gain full membership for all Presbyterians regardless of sexual orientation. In 1998/99, we plan to hire a minister of outreach and evangelism to work full time proclaiming our vision and working toward our goals in Baltimore. -- That All May Free Serve: Baltimore, 5828 York Rd., Baltimore, MD, 21212. Voices of Sophia Voices of Sophia is a community of women and men in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) that affirms feminist / womanist / mujerista theologies and seeks to be faithful to God's Spirit in our lives. We call the church to reclaim the fullness of God's image, embrace the diversity of the world, work for justice and inclusiveness in church and society, and celebrate the voices and gifts of women. Voices of Sophia sponsors national and regional gatherings, as well as an annual breakfast at General Assembly. Ecumenical partners are invited to join. Membership is $20/year and includes the newsletter *Illuminations*. Contact Voices of Sophia, 223 Choctaw Rd., Louisville, KY 40207. The Witherspoon Society The Witherspoon Society is a society of justice-seeking Presbyterians ... advocating for peace, justice, the integrity of creation, and the full inclusion of all God's people in church and society. The Rev. Dr. Eugene TeSelle, president, The Divinity School, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN 37240, 615-297-2629 h., 322- 2773 w., PNet: Eugene TeSelle The Rev. Robb Gwaltney, vice president, 5303 Indian Woods Dr., Louisville, KY 40207-2079, 502-895-2079, PNet: Robb Gwaltney The Rev. Jean Rodenbough, secretary/communicator, 313 S. Market St., Madison, NC 27025, 910-548-6158 h., PNet: Jean Rodenbough The Rev. Hank Bremer, treasurer, 4355 Kenyon Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90066, 310-397-6916 h., 435-1804 w., 495-2223 fax, email: 72066.543@compuserve.com The Rev. Chris Iosso, issues analyst, 191 Revolutionary Rd., Scarborough, NY 10510, 914-944-8070 h., 941-1142 w., PNet: Christian Iosso The Rev. Tom Heger, membership coordinator, P.O. Box 1359, Manchaca, TX 78652, 512-282-7586 h., -6200 w., PNet: Tom Heger Ray and Betty Kersting, membership secretaries, 305 Loma Arisco, Santa Fe, NM 87501, 505-982-4548, PNet: Ray and Betty Kersting The Rev. Doug King, newsletter editor, 7833 Somerset Cir., Woodbury, MN 55125-2334, 612-731-4885 h., PNet: Doug King * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * MASTHEAD (Publication Information) MORE LIGHT UPDATE, Volume 19, Number 1, September-October 1998. ISSN 0889-3985. Published bi-monthly by Presbyterians for Lesbian & Gay Concerns, an organization of Ministers, Elders, Deacons, and Members of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). Elder James D. Anderson, Editor, P.O. Box 38, New Brunswick, NJ 08903- 0038, 732-249-1016, 732-932-7501 (Rutgers University), fax 732- 932-6916 (Rutgers University), Internet: jda@mariner.rutgers.edu (or jda@scils.rutgers.edu), DeWitt House 206, 185 College Ave., New Brunswick, NJ 08901. Editorial Associate: Lindsay Thompson; Printer: Ken Barta, Brunswick Typographic Inc.; Production Associate: Caridad de las Mercedes Catala. Electronic version available via email. PLGC-List: plgc-list@andrew.cmu.edu; to subscribe, send message to: plgc-list-request@andrew.cmu.edu PLGC home page: http://www.andrew.cmu.edu/~riley/PLGC.html Send materials marked "For publication" to the editor. PUBLICATION DEADLINES: 6 weeks prior to issue months. Most material appearing in MORE LIGHT UPDATE is placed in the public domain. With the exception of individual articles that carry their own copyright notice, articles may be freely copied or reprinted. We ask only that MORE LIGHT UPDATE be credited and its address be given for those who might wish to contact us. Suggested annual membership contribution to PLGC: $50.00. Annual subscription (included in membership) to MORE LIGHT UPDATE: $12.00. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * corrected version 8-2-98