by Brian Ellison | Jun 27, 2018 | 223rd GA (2018), Covenant Network News
Brian Ellison has served as executive director of the Covenant Network of Presbyterians since 2012. This speech, delivered in St. Louis at the biennial CNP General Assembly luncheon on June 18, 2018, was part of “Twenty Years and Counting: Looking Back and Looking...
by Brian Ellison | Nov 10, 2015 | Covenant Network News, PC(USA) History & Polity
On Saturday morning at the 2015 Covenant Conference, national organizer Tricia Dykers Koenig offered an early look at the Covenant Network’s priorities at the 222nd General Assembly (2016), which will meet next June in Portland, Oregon: We have a...
by Brian Ellison | Jul 16, 2015 | Biblical Interpretation, Marriage & Civil Unions, Personal Testimony, Theology
by Michael B. Regele Nashville, Abingdon Press, 2014. A book review by Tricia Dykers Koenig Love God with all you have and all you are, and love your neighbor as yourself. Are these two Great Commandments ever in conflict? Does God put people of faith in the position...
by Brian Ellison | Apr 6, 2015 | Biblical Interpretation, Personal Testimony
By Tricia Dykers Koenig Our PCUSA Book of Confessions, in the Larger Catechism [7.254], teaches that “a charitable esteem of our neighbors, loving, desiring, and rejoicing in their good name” and “a ready receiving of a good report, and unwillingness to admit of an...
by Brian Ellison | Feb 13, 2015 | Biblical Interpretation, Sermon
A Sermon on 1 John 4:7–21 by the Rev. Tricia Dykers Koenig Philadelphia Regional Conference ~ Chestnut Hill Presbyterian Church February 7, 2015 At my alma mater, Duke University, the road to the main quad of the main campus begins with a traffic circle at the head of...
by Brian Ellison | Sep 15, 2014 | Amendment 14-F, Marriage & Civil Unions, PC(USA) History & Polity
By Tricia Dykers Koenig The 221st General Assembly took two steps toward honoring the covenant of marriage for all couples regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity – an authoritative interpretation (AI) of the current section W-4.9000 in the Book of Order,...
by Brian Ellison | Apr 4, 2014 | 221st GA (2014), Marriage & Civil Unions, PC(USA) History & Polity
By Tricia Dykers Koenig ‘Ask, and it will be given to you; search, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened for you. For everyone who asks receives, and everyone who searches finds, and for everyone who knocks, the door will be opened. Is there anyone...
by Brian Ellison | Mar 27, 2014 | 221st GA (2014), Marriage & Civil Unions, PC(USA) History & Polity
By Tricia Dykers Koenig Would it be permissible for the PCUSA to interpret and/or amend the Book of Order section on marriage to reflect the reality of same-gender marriage, even though The Book of Confessions uses the language of “a man and a woman”? Based on the way...
by Brian Ellison | Jan 8, 2014 | Biblical Interpretation, Ordination Process, Theology
Reframing the Church’s Debate on Same-Sex Relationships, by James V. Brownson A book review by Tricia Dykers Koenig One of the resources suggested for further reading in the study of “Christian Marriage in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)” prepared by the Office...
by Brian Ellison | Nov 11, 2013 | 221st GA (2014), Covenant Network News, Marriage & Civil Unions, PC(USA) History & Polity
The Saturday morning plenary at the 2013 Covenant Conference, “Marriage Matters,” included a look by National Organizer Tricia Dykers Koenig at the Covenant Network’s work leading up to the 221st General Assembly (2014), to be held in Detroit June...