Toward a Church as Generous & Just as God's Grace
We, the Board of Directors of the Covenant Network of Presbyterians, say to all our trans and gender non-binary friends in the church today: We see you. Indeed, you are us. We all stand together as God’s people, sharing in love and faith. You will not be erased—not from our church and not from our lives.
Read the complete statement by the Board of Directors of the Covenant Network of Presbyterians.
The Covenant Network of Presbyterians is undertaking a new effort in partnership with congregations and councils around the country to speak a hopeful and helpful word into anxious times for church and society. Covenant Conversations will help Presbyterians live into a new day in the church’s life, bringing communities together to talk about being church for ALL God’s people.
Our first Covenant Conversation is next month in Boise, Idaho, in partnership with the Presbytery of Boise. Register here.
It is a new day in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). Today, commissioners to the 223rd General Assembly (2018) approved two historic overtures. One affirms and celebrates the gifts of people of all sexual orientations and gender identities in the church. Another affirms the rights and dignity of people of transgender, non-binary and people of varying gender identities.
Three overtures that strengthen the church’s witness to the rights, dignity and gifts of people of diverse sexual orientations and gender identities in unprecedented ways were approved by a committee on Monday at the 223rd General Assembly (2018) in St. Louis.
The assembly’s theological issues committee (#14) has responsibility for the Book of Confessions. In 2014-15, as the PCUSA considered adding the Confession of Belhar to our Constitution, the Covenant Network was proud to help organize in presbyteries to support an affirmative vote. We believe Belhar speaks a word today as relevant as ever, and one particular action will help its timeless content speak to our current reality.
With friends across the church, the Covenant Network rejoiced when the church opened the door to same-sex marriages in Presbyterian churches in 2015. Since then, congregations across the PCUSA have celebrated God’s gift of covenant love and witnessed the uniting of couples whose relationship the church would once have rejected. But a painful reality is that the church is still living into what that means, and the Assembly Committee on Church Polity and Ordered Ministries (Committee #6) is addressing one challenging aspect of that reality.
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