Daniel Vigilante Conference Scholarship
The CovNet Board of Directors has established a scholarship to help seminarians with the expenses of attending the Covenant Conference, in honor of the ordination of board member Dan Vigilante. All seminarians REGISTER FREE, but if you would like to apply for further assistance, you can download the application here. Application deadline for this year's Marriage Matters Conference, October 31 - November 2 in Chicago, is October 1. Contributions to the scholarship fund are also welcome!
Conference Keynotes Will Challenge, Reform, Inspire
The 2013 Covenant Conference will take place at Fourth Presbyterian Church, Chicago, October 31 to November 2. In a series of compelling keynote addresses, three of the leading voices of the Presbyterian Church (USA) will bring words of enlightenment and challenge to this year’s Covenant Conference. Don't miss Macky Alston, Amy Plantinga Pauw, and Stacy Johnson. Registration is open now. Read more...
Celebrating the Ordination and Installation of Dan Vigilante
On the afternoon of Sunday, August 25, 2013, the Presbytery of the Twin Cities Area ordained Daniel Vigilante as a Teaching Elder and installed him as Pastor of Grace-Trinity Community Church and Associate Pastor of Westminster Presbyterian Church, Minneapolis. Dan is a member of the Board of Directors of the Covenant Network, and we rejoice with him as he has, at long last, reached this stage in his ministry. Read more...
"Whose Body Is It, Anyway?"
A sermon by the Rev. Brian D. Ellison at the ordination and installation of the Rev. Daniel Vigilante as Pastor, Grace Trinity Community Church, Minneapolis, and Associate Pastor, Westminster Presbyterian Church, Minneapolis, by the Presbytery of the Twin Cities Area at Westminster Presbyterian Church, August 25, 2013.
A Season of Welcome- Laurene Lafontaine
Laurene Lafontaine is pastor-elect of Community Presbyterian Church in Rochester, MN. She will be installed on September 22, 2013 at Community Presbyterian. Read Laurene's story on A Season of Welcome – https://aseasonofwelcome.org/.
Love the One You're With
A Sermon by Ken Kovacs on Psalm 86 & Romans 13:8-10: "Love of God, we know something about that, although we’re not very good at it. Love for neighbor, we know something more about that, although we’re not very good at that either. But what does it mean to love yourself? It’s clear that the ability to love one’s neighbor is inextricably linked to the ability to love one’s self. But how does one love one’s self without being or becoming selfish? Our response will shape the way we understand the Christian life. So with apologies to Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young, how do you love the one you’re with? “One” here meaning oneself, this one, this self within, who we are. How do we love ourselves?"
A Season of Welcome- Ken Cuthbertson
Ken Cuthbertson is a member-at-large in Santa Fe Presbytery, and a Parish Associate at Las Placitas Presbyterian Church. His book, The Last Presbyterian?, was published in May 2013. Read Ken's story on A Season of Welcome – https://aseasonofwelcome.org/.
A Season of Welcome - Janet Edwards
The Rev. Janet Edwards is a member at large in the Pittsburgh Presbytery. Read her story on the Covenant Network's website dedicated to celebrating the gifts of ordained LGBTQ Presbyterians, A Season of Welcome - https://aseasonofwelcome.org/.
Congratulations to More Light Presbyterians and Alex McNeill!
The Covenant Network celebrates with our friends at More Light Presbyterians the appointment of their new executive director, Alex McNeill. It is a historic moment in the life of their organization, and we congratulate them. Read the statement by Covenant Network executive director Brian Ellison.
Explore Marriage Liturgies at the 2013 Covenant Pre-Conference
The 2013 Covenant Conference, “Marriage Matters,” will take place at Fourth Presbyterian Church in Chicago October 31-November 2. Before the conference on marriage equality, join us for a theological conversation about marriage. What does “Christian marriage” mean? What do we believe happens during a wedding? And what should a marriage service look like? Kimberly Bracken Long will lead the pre-conference workshop focused on liturgy.
"Crossing Over"
A Sermon on 2 Kings 2:1-2, 6-14, by the Rev. Brian D. Ellison, The First Presbyterian Church in the City of New York, Sunday, June 30, 2013: "You see, the dividing line—the Jordan River we all must cross—is not running on this Pride Sunday between LGBTQ on one side and straight on the other. Or between one group with problems and another. And it certainly isn’t between sinner and saint, for all would surely be on the same bank of the river then. The crossing over we are called to do—all of us—is from in here together to out there together. The Jordan of our lives is the threshold that so persistently separates us from Fifth Avenue and from the world. It is a line of demarcation between celebration and action, between faithful gratitude and trusting obedience. We carry with us all that happens in here, but then we cross over into the out there."
Covenant Network Celebrates Supreme Court Decisions
The Covenant Network celebrates—together with justice-minded Presbyterians across America—today’s decisions of the U.S. Supreme Court. We rejoice in today’s rulings striking down the Defense of Marriage Act and ensuring that same-gender couples in California are now able to enjoy the legal rights and privileges of marriage. With state and federal benefits now available to couples in a total of 13 states (and the District of Columbia), the country has taken a significant step toward marriage equality. We also eagerly await guarantees that teaching elders and congregations can, without fear of discipline, provide the same pastoral care to same-gender and opposite-gender couples by extending the opportunity to have their marriages celebrated and recognized in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.).
2013 Covenant Conference - October 31-November 2
Keynote speakers will be Macky Alston, Stacy Johnson, and Amy Plantinga Pauw. Preachers will be Brian Ellison, Frank Yamada, and Sharon Youngs. Kimberly Bracken Long will lead the pre-conference workshop. October 31-November 2 at Fourth Presbyterian Church in Chicago.
Presbyteries vote for better translation, clearer standards
The Covenant Network rejoices in the approval of a new translation of the Heidelberg Catechism for the Book of Confessions. It also is thankful for the defeat of Amendment 12-B, which would have added unnecessary language to the ordination standards newly approved in 2011.
A Confessional Affirmation on Christian Marriage
The Rev. Dr. Kenneth L. Cuthbertson is a Minister of the Word and Sacrament in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), a scholar of church history and historical theology, and a spiritual director. He is a native of Kansas and a graduate of Sterling College, Gordon-Conwell Seminary, and the School of Religion at the University of Iowa. His new book, The Last Presbyterian?, is a historical-theological-spiritual memoir about the "psalm-singing, Sabbath-keeping" strain of old-time Scots-American Presbyterianism from which his family came, and includes reflections on how we might carry key elements of that faith heritage forward into an inclusive, emergent, and missional church for the 21st century. Ken and his spouse, Doug, live in New Mexico.Ken offers a draft of a confessionally-based statement about marriage for our day and time.
"A Man and a Woman": A Look at the Presbyterian Confessions in Context
Ken Cuthbertson explores the historical contexts of the usage in the PCUSA’s Book of Confessions where marriage is specifically spoken of as being between “a man and a woman” -- particularly relevant since that phrase has become the focus in so much of the rhetoric in the current debates concerning same-sex marriage in the church, and in society in general.
"The Reign of God We Get"
A Sermon on Luke 7:1-10 by Brian Ellison, at Southminster Presbyterian Church, Boise, ID, June 2, 2013: "But this is the world. And this is where God is. When Jesus shows up we might like every story to be like a magic wand being waved. The leper is touched and the healing occurs. The mud is put on the eyes and sight is restored. But the world we live in is a Luke Chapter 7 world, and healing rarely happens that way. Justice is rarely a matter of a single spoken word. Every problem is not healed by each just action. The day you or I offer a cold cup of water to an overheated stranger, he will be better and a thousand more will still thirst. But the witness of the scriptures and the promise of the gospel is that it still matters. That, in fact, it couldn’t possibly matter any more. That this is the kingdom of God."