Nacoochee Witness
When the Presbytery of Northeast Georgia met to consider Amendment 14-F, both the Pastor of Nacoochee Presbyterian Church, the Rev. Robert W. Prim, and Ruling Elder Theodore Brothers shared their testimony.Bob: "The Bible does give a clear sense about God’s purposes for marriage — God has given us marriage so that human beings might grow in self-giving love. In this way marriage is a beautiful metaphor for God’s relationship with Israel and Jesus’ relationship with the Church."Ted: "Now, I know that many of you believe that I chose to be gay. You are wrong. Being gay is something God chose for me when I was born. Being gay is how I was created. For me, to deny being gay would be to deny God. I cannot do that. Nor can I deny the love that I have for my husband, Mike."
Presbyterian parents on Amendment 14-F
Mike and Debbie Regele are among many evangelical Christians whose views on same-gender relationships have been challenged when one of their children came out to them as LGBT. Each of them prepared remarks for the meeting of the Presbytery of Los Ranchos considering the Marriage Amendment 14-F.Mike: "The question I want to address in a few brief comments is why I am on the affirming side."Debbie: "This is my story — but it is only one of many families’ in our presbytery who face this issue in a personal way. So I speak for them too — please prayerfully consider supporting this amendment."
Marci Glass elected Co-Moderator of Board
The Rev. Marci Auld Glass, pastor of Southminster Presbyterian Church in Boise, Idaho, is the new Co-Moderator of the Board of Directors of the Covenant Network of Presbyterians. "Even as we have made great progress, we recognize the Covenant Network's vision toward a church as generous and just as God's grace is not yet complete. I look forward to working with the Board, and with the greater church, as we live into a church ever more generous and ever more just."
Anticipating the presbytery meeting
As the Presbytery of Santa Fe prepares to consider Amendment 14-F this weekend, Ken Cuthbertson reflects on the amendment, church history, theology, and relationships within the PCUSA: "I hope to speak to having been at GA and how deeply impressed I was/am at the care taken to move into a newly worded description of marriage while endeavoring to honor and hold space for those who differ. We are “one in the Spirit” and “one in the Lord.” What we need on Saturday is for our folks to show up, and - as needed and as moved - to speak our truth."
A Table for All
Coming soon from Presbyterian pastor Chris Neufeld-Erdman, to be published by Cascade Books – A Table for All: How I Came to Understand the Gospel Means Full Inclusion of Gays and Lesbians. Written by a Christian leader with a passion for evangelism who also happens to be the father of two gay sons, A Table for All explores Scripture and church history and how the authorities to which Christians turn to guide our lives have informed his own journey (and that of his congregation) in issues surrounding sexual orientation and marriage – taking seriously the individuals and families affected by the church’s deliberations.
Going to the Chapel
A Sermon on 1 John 4:7–21 by the Rev. Tricia Dykers Koenig at the Philadelphia Regional Conference, Chestnut Hill Presbyterian Church, February 7, 2015: "Friends, we don’t welcome other religions because we believe they are true – we welcome them because we believe our own Lord and Savior. We are not kind to others because they particularly deserve it – we are kind because it is our call in Christ. Welcoming all, especially the marginalized, is not about who they are. It's about who we are. Or perhaps more precisely, because we know who we are – children of God because God loves us unconditionally – then we know we can never deny that identity to another."
We Journey Together
A Sermon on James 2:1-17 by the Rev. Bertram Johnson at the Northwest Regional Conference, Mercer Island Presbyterian Church, 30 January 2015: "Through our acts of partiality, of favoritism, of judgment, of limitation on not just LGBTQ people, but on all God’s people, we pit the truth of God’s grace against itself and show our hypocrisy and lack of faith. As these first century believers dishonored the poor by favoring the rich, we continue to dishonor God’s people by creating divisions and obstacles to God. Through our biases the Church becomes a stumbling block and an exclusive club to those who seek to know God. We do this because we fail to believe that Christ’s sacrifice is big enough, wide enough, and deep enough to heal all our human-made fears and prejudices. When I’m faced with such opposition from my brother and sister Christians, like James, I ask do we really believe that the power of God is for all or is it that we think it’s only for some?"
Amendment 14-F: F is for February
By the end of the month of February, more than half the presbyteries will have voted on the amendment that seeks to extend the good gift of marriage to all. We've had a good start, but there is still much work to do. The Covenant Network is working tirelessly this month to organize, educate and advocate for a successful outcome -- approval by 86 or more presbyteries. Three donors have pledged to match, dollar for dollar, all contributions of $86 or more in the month of February (up to $1000 each). Please click here to donate.
What's Next?
Ben Fitzgerald-Fye is Director of Mission Services for Goodwill Industries of North Central PA, Inc., and a Ruling Elder at the Presbyterian Church of Punxsutawney; his husband, Sean, is a Deacon. Ben shared this reflection after he and Sean attended the Regional Conference at the Presbyterian Church of Chestnut Hill on Saturday, February 7: "As the right to marriage becomes a reality, we must also begin to address the responsibility of marriage."
Dress You Up in My Love
A Sermon on Colossians 3:12-17 by the Rev. Kenneth E. Kovacs, Ph.D., preached at the Covenant Network Regional Conference, University Presbyterian Church, Baton Rouge, LA, 24th January 2015: "The non-possessive delight in the particularity of the other. Love sees the other and does not confuse the other with oneself. Love allows the other to exist in freedom and creates a space for the other to be. Love creates a space to be—it always creates a space. Love does not possess the other, or control, define, delimit, or diminish the other. Love transforms the other from an it (an object to be controlled) into a Thou (a subject worthy of respect and honor). Love allows the other to be, to thrive, to grow, to exist apart from oneself, to have a life apart from oneself, and then takes immense delight and joy in the particularity, the uniqueness, the incomparability of the other. When we love this way the other comes into focus before our eyes and we are allowed to see, really see the other for whom s/he really is. The non-possessive delight in the particularity of the other."
The Gospel of the Christmas Pageant
Michael Lukens reflects on his congregation's Christmas pageant -- and the deepened meaning of God's gift to the world, when the parents of the infant in the role of Jesus are a gay couple.
Same-Sex Marriage and the Bible: A video series featuring Mark Achtemeier
The Covenant Network is pleased to offer a four-part video series featuring the Rev. Dr. Mark Achtemeier, author of The Bible’s Yes to Same-Sex Marriage: An Evangelical’s Change of Heart, discussing how his journey with the Scriptures led him away from his initial opposition to marriage for committed lesbian and gay couples, and toward wholehearted support for marriage equality.
Being Humble When You Know You’re Right
A Sermon on Acts 11:1-18 by the Rev. D. Mark Davis at the Covenant Network Regional Conference, St. Mark Presbyterian Church, November 22, 2014: "What it means to be part of a church that is empowered by God’s Spirit, is to spend our lives playing “catch up” to a Spirit who disrespects our prejudices and will not be hampered by our anxieties. None of us follows this Spirit easily, without some wrestling with God, without some difficult transitions from naïve certainty to perplexity to a chastened and transformed certainty. When we follow this Spirit, we are humbled, even when we’re right. We can listen to even our severest critics, because we know that the same Spirit whose work is confounding them is the same Spirit whose work once confounded us. What we can only do is to tell our stories with confidence and tell them with grace."
Risk and Reality
A Sermon on Matthew 25:14-30 by the Rev. Brian D. Ellison at the Covenant Network of Presbyterians Regional Conference, College Hill Presbyterian Church, Tulsa, Oklahoma, November 15, 2014: "The reality is that we all have been entrusted with much. It is as if we have been given a talent, and knowing our master as we do, knowing the way the master reaps where he hasn’t sown, and harvests where he hasn’t scattered, having done so much already, we bury it. We cling to that hard-earned achievement, preserve that wealth of good will and justice abounding around us, ensure a comfortable if not extravagant future. Or we find a way of differentiation, of sheltering in place, of keeping the faith when surrounded by adversity through isolation and fear."
Lucy Strong - A sermon on Psalm 78
Covenant Network Regional Conference, November 8th, 2014, Idlewild Presbyterian Church / Memphis, TN: "We keep hearing the stories that connect our present with our past. The stories continue but what is our place in the stories? What are the stories we tell? What are the stories that shape us today and give us life? "
They Will Know We Are Christians by Our Love
Ruling Elder Ben Fitzgerald-Fye: "Sean loved God and Sean loved me and that reality began to build a bridge that would reshape my view of faith, of Christianity, and of God."
Just Tell Them Who You Are
Ruling Elder Ben Fitzgerald-Fye tells of his experience as a married gay man speaking during the debate on Amendment 14-F in the Presbytery of Kiskiminetas: "I had an intense conversation with God about reclaiming the right of gay and lesbian people to have faith and to shed the shame and fear we all knew too well. I began to feel that Saturday’s debate was no longer about myself and my husband, it was about the nature of Christianity as an accepting and socially just force in a much larger world than rural Pennsylvania."
The Marriage Amendment, 14-F: What it does and doesn't do
The 221st GA approved Amendment 14-F by a 71% margin – seemingly, expressing the strong desire to help the PC(USA) move beyond the decades-long conflict over human sexuality by ensuring that the Book of Order embraces the faithful views of a diverse church.
Marriage: Why It Matters to the Church
Keynote Address by the Rev. Larry Owens at the Covenant Network Regional Conference at Idlewild Presbyterian Church in Memphis, Tennessee, November 8, 2014: “Lord, we are forever asking you for many things, and what you are forever giving us instead…is the gift of one another.”