GA 223 Preview: Committee 14 - Taking Our Confession to the Next Level … the Here and Now
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.
Sharing and Creating Spanish-Language Resources Addressing LGBTQ Issues
Christian Hispanic/Latinx sisters and brother often must hide their sexual orientation or gender identity from their family, friends and religious community for fear of being rejected due to cultural, biblical and theological misconceptions. The Covenant Network is committed in 2017 to making many of its existing resources available in Spanish, and--where it will be helpful--to creating new ones.
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?"
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."
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.
Bible, Gender, Sexuality
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 of Theology and Worship is a recent book by James V. Brownson, Bible, Gender, Sexuality: Reframing the Church’s Debate on Same-Sex Relationships, published by Eerdmans in 2013. Tricia Dykers Koenig reviews the content of Brownson's book and commends it as a valuable contribution to the church's ongoing conversation.
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 Call to Christian Hospitality: Living Into a Truly Welcoming Church”
Keynote Address by Henry Brinton at the Baltimore/DC Regional Conference, March 9, 2013: "I believe that all of you want to be part of a truly welcoming congregation, one that embraces all people with God’s love and grace. But if you are like me, you haven’t mastered the practices of Christian hospitality. You probably set up some barriers to inclusion without even knowing it."
The Redemption of Our Bodies
At the Kansas City Regional Conference, Dr. Mark Achtemeier continued his exploration of biblical insights into marriage: "...We have now come to the end of our experiment in reading the Scripture like the faithful scribe in Jesus’ teaching. We have taken what is old – the testimony about God’s purposes for love and marriage and sexuality that comes to us from the broad sweep of the Bible’s story. We have brought out this old, time-tested wisdom and combined it with what is new: the recently emerging opportunity for gay and lesbian people to openly makes vows and commitments to one another in the covenant of marriage.The result of this combination of old and new is not the abolition of biblical sexual morality or the abandonment of Scripture’s teaching. The result is the right and proper extension of the Bible’s time-honored teachings on love and sex and marriage into these new relationships where it manifestly belongs..."
The Plan-B God
Dr. Mark Achtemeier addressed the Twin Cities Regional Conference on same-gender marriage: "...The vocation of groups like the Covenant Network will be critically important in the months and years ahead. It is not within our power to turn back the rising tide of cultural and historical forces that are sweeping our church into a period of decline. But we are confident that the day will come when God will purge the poisonous legacy of exclusion and hatefulness from our culture’s image of Christianity. Until that time it falls to you and me to keep the lights of a gracious witness burning in the midst of the surrounding darkness.To carry out that task, to make that positive Christian witness, you and I must be absolutely clear that our affirmation and celebration of gay marriage is a consequence of the Bible’s testimony and not its contradiction..."
God vs. Gay?
God vs. Gay? The Religious Case for Equality, by Jay Michaelson. Beacon Press, 2011.A Book Recommendation from Tricia Dykers Koenig
Knowing We Are All the Image of God
A reflection by Laurie Kraus: "...Our families are not all the same: the children we treasure have come to us from birth, surrogacy, national and international adoption, or foster care; and we connect with friend or partner or spouse in a variety of ways. One thing I believe is common among us: that we all are formed in our relationships by Love, which comes from God; and that we all of us, are made truly in God’s image and living a life of faith intended to let that God-image shine forth more clearly. We listen to one another, share our stories and practice community together because it is the way Christ has taught us to see the face of God..."
The Threat of Literalism
An essay by Kenneth E. Kovacs: "...reality is infinitely more complicated and complex than fundamentalists will acknowledge, actually more than they are free to admit. Fundamentalism, especially the religious variety, is the very opposite of freedom. It’s a form of bondage..."
The Language of Love
Reflections by Randy Bush East Liberty Presbyterian Church, Pittsburgh, PA: "To move from the cultural language about love to the spiritual language of love, it is important to remember that love is primarily directed away from us."