The Church's Future in a Gay-Supportive Age
Writing before last November’s Election Day and the stunning progress at the ballot box, Hope College Professor of Psychology David Myers has reflected on the rapid and inevitable shift toward marriage equality, and the dangers for the church in opposing it.
"Wedding Games"
A Sermon on John 8:2-11 and I Corinthians 13 by the Rev. Dr. Robert J. Campbell. Text: “Where you go I will go, your people shall be my people and your God my God.” (Ruth 1:16) "... given today’s rhetoric and national debates, with laws being enacted one way or the other, just as with any other issue of justice down through history it is the job of the pulpit to speak the word of an accepting God so that you can speak that word to one person and then to another. And like those twelve ordinary individuals who witnessed what happened that day with Jesus and that woman you too can then begin to change the world that surrounds you. That is how this faith of ours works..."
Joining the religious voices urging SCOTUS toward marriage equality
The Board of the Covenant Network of Presbyterians has signed on as an Amicus curiae in briefs supportive of same-gender civil marriage from a religious perspective, as the U.S. Supreme Court hears the Perry and Windsor cases.
Thoughts on Officiating at Same-Gender Blessing Services
May Presbyterian ministers officiate at weddings of same-gender couples? May Sessions give permission for such ceremonies to be held on their premises? The Board of the Covenant Network has analyzed the General Assembly Permanent Judicial Commission’s decisions in cases where teaching elders have been involved in same-gender marriages, and offers thoughts for those who are concerned with providing pastoral care that is consistent with the GAPJC’s authoritative interpretation of the PCUSA Constitution.
Marriage Equality in the PCUSA
At the Rocky Mountain Regional Conference, Dan Saperstein's presentation included both background information - biblical, theological, and constitutional - and a new approach to moving toward marriage equality in the Presbyterian Church (USA). Read his address, with accompanying slides.
A Pastoral Emergency
By Tricia Dykers Koenig: A more comprehensive version of the article first posted at ecclesio.com: "...With the spread of marriage equality, more and more Presbyterian ministers are being asked to perform for their LGBTQ congregants the same ministry that they provide with joy to their heterosexual congregants – to officiate at the services of worship in which couples commit their lives to one another in marriage. And yet, Presbyterian ministers are not free to exercise their own judgment in deciding whether or not to conduct such services..."
The Plan-B God for ecclesio.com
Covenant Network week, with its focus on same-sex marriage, continues at ecclesio.com with an excerpt of Mark Achtemeier's "The Plan-B God," an address delivered to the Twin Cities Area Regional Conference in October 2012.
A Pastoral Emergency: The polity crisis that engulfs teaching elders, sessions and couples around same-sex marriage
Tricia Dykers Koenig discusses the pastoral crisis for Presbyterians in jurisdictions with marriage equality, with a brief history of the development of constitutional interpretation. It's Day 2 of Covenant Network week on ecclesio.com.
Weather Forecast
Jay McKell: "... But when thinking about the temperature not in the context of climate change but in the context of cultural change, as well as change in the church, this warming trend is turning into something which we can all celebrate. I am, of course, speaking about not only the acceptance but also the welcoming of GLBT persons into the mainstream of society as well as within the life and ministry of the Presbyterian Church..."
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..."
Smudged Lenses
The Rev. Laurie Kraus celebrates the faith and the gifts of new Inquirer Danny Morales, and his first sermon: "...Since wearing glasses for a few months now, I’ve learned we don’t always see the smudges on them. Instead we get so accustomed to those smudges, that foggy vision, that we create or even become our own impediments to clarity, impediments to the voices that like Bartimaeus are still screaming..."
October 2012 GAPJC Decisions
Three decisions by the General Assembly Permanent Judicial Commission address the controversial issues of marriage, the property trust clause, and ordination standards.
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..."
Covenant Network Goals for the 220th General Assembly
Remarks by National Organizer Tricia Dykers Koenig to the Covenant Network Luncheon, Monday, July 2, 2012: No turning back!
The Church is for Blessing
A reflection on ministry, church, relationship, love, holiness, and the PCUSA General Assembly, by Marci Auld Glass:Because these two young men LOVE Jesus. They LOVE the church. They LOVE each other. And the place they most wanted to be to celebrate their relationship is in a church.What, exactly, is our problem with this?
Apologia for a Marriage
The Rev. Ken Cuthbertson reflects on his recent marriage to Doug Calderwood after more than 25 years as committed life-partners.