There Is Room in God's Great Welcome -- A New Hymn
Presbytery hymn-writer Carolyn Winfrey Gillette has composed a new hymn for post-election Sunday and beyond, and generously made it available free of charge. (Please include an acknowledgement when you copy it!)
Becoming a Multicultural Church
"What does God require of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) in the 21st century? How do we live our faith as congregations of believers within an increasingly multicultural nation and world? What do we think and how do we feel about opportunities for crossing racial and cultural boundaries and barriers? What will be our responses to entrenched racism in the coming days? What models will we pass on to our young people who will become leaders for tomorrow? Then what is the vision that will inspire and guide us as we make our choices today?"
Letters to Jerri: On the Bible and Same-Sex Marriage
Fifteen brief essays by the Rev. Dr. D. Mark Davis: 'I have written these “Letters to Jerri” in response to a question sent to me by a friend. Jerri and I began our Christian journeys as part of a theologically conservative and biblically fundamentalist faith tradition. I have moved on from that tradition, but my commitment to biblical theology is one of the many gifts that I received from that religious upbringing that I continue to appreciate.'
A La Familia - a resource in Spanish and English
Whether you speak English, Spanish, or both, you will benefit from this guide by the Rev. Dr. Miguel De La Torre of Iliff School of Theology in Denver, with the Rev. Dr. Ignacio Castuera and Lisbeth Meléndez Rivera. A La Familia: Una Conversación Sobre Nuestras Familias, la Biblia, la Orientación Sexual y la Identidad de Género (A Conversation About Our Families, the Bible, Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity) offers study and discussion questions for reflection as well as action ideas.
"Generous Peacemaking"
A Sermon on Isaiah 11:1-9 and Romans 15:5-7 by Kimberly L. Clayton for Covenant Conference 2015, Friday, November 6: "'The church is called blessed because it is a peacemaker.' I am intrigued by this slight difference in wording. This second image does not say what we are called to be, but instead declares what we are. A peacemaker. This clause in the Confession does not call us peacemakers—a bunch of individual peacemakers, each one of us doing our part, making peace in our own little sphere, as helpful as that would be in our individual families, my neighborhood, your school, her workplace, his circle of friends.No, listen to it again: The church is called blessed because it is a peacemaker. A big ol’ unified peacemaker. We are in this together, united, one, with one another. These days, I’m afraid, the church is called a blessed many things—but I’m fairly certain that a peacemaker is not our best known characteristic."
"Better Than a Hallelujah"
A Sermon on Isaiah 65:17-25 and 2 Corinthians 5:16-21, 6:1-2 by Marci Auld Glass for Covenant Conference 2015, Saturday, November 7: "The Belhar Confession reminds us that we are called to proclaim this new heaven and new earth that God is about to create. But we can’t do that in a way that tells people to be okay with the pain they are experiencing NOW, or with the injustice that is breaking their backs and their souls NOW. We aren’t called to be Pollyanna and deny the truth of people’s lived experience. As Paul Roberts said the other night, we are not called to just be nice. We are called to disrupt."
Sexuality Bibliography
Two professors at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, Steven C. Roy and Robert J. Priest, are offering a course on "Contemporary Sexualities: Theological and Missiological Perspectives." The professors have graciously provided their bibliography, which is lengthy and represents diverse perspectives; download the Sexualities bibliography for your own use.
Science, Scripture, and Same-Sex Love
A book review by Tricia Dykers Koenig: "Regele explores multiple disciplines in his search for understanding – biology, psychology, sociology, and demographics, along with biblical study, theology, and church history – and reflects on these learnings in light of his personal story. He provides an accessible survey of the science pointing to the probability that sexual orientation is innate, resulting from a combination of genetic and prenatal hormonal influences. The ethical conclusion: it is inconsistent with loving one’s LGBTQ neighbors to blame and penalize them for a characteristic they did not choose and cannot change."
TORN: Justin Lee's witness
Tricia Dykers Koenig suggests you read TORN: Rescuing the Gospel from the Gays-vs.-Christians Debate, by Justin Lee.
Faithful to Scripture and Open to Gay People
Looking for a concise way to explain that you support LGBTQ persons not in spite of, but because of the Bible? Download this brochure, prepared by the Rev. Steven Kurtz of First Presbyterian Church, Gulf Shores, Alabama.
"Of Truth and Love"
A sermon by the Rev. Brian D. Ellison at the NEXT Church Conference, Fourth Presbyterian Church, Chicago:"Speaking the truth in love. This is the change on which the church depends. Our growing up, by speaking the truth in love."
A Prayer for Courage
The Rev. Margaret LaMotte Torrence, Interim Pastor of Black Mountain (NC) Presbyterian Church, preached this sermon the day after the Presbytery of Western North Carolina affirmed Amendment 14-F. Her comments at the presbytery meeting are included: "I cannot imagine our marriage apart from the church. And how much harder it must be to nurture and sustain a relationship that runs against the grain of society’s norms. Yet we have told our gay brothers, our lesbian sisters—up until now—that their desire to live in covenant faithfulness has no place in the life of the Church. In so doing, it seems to me that we have robbed them of the companionship and the counsel of the Church, and we have robbed the Church of the full measure of their gifts—and their companionship—and their counsel. For anytime we are withholding part of who we are from our community, we are offering less than God would have us give. And anytime we have cut off part of the body, we are not fully the church."
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?"
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."
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? "