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..."
Presbyterian Welcome Launches Youth Group
Our friends at Presbyterian Welcome are beginning a youth group in the New York City area. The first meeting will be on Saturday, January 19. Read the details from John Russell Stanger, Organizer of Mission and Advocacy.
The Way Toward Birth - Dawning Light
A Sermon on Isaiah 11: 1-10 & Luke 1: 67-79 by the Rev. Ken Kovacs: "...the incarnation is not a one-time occurrence but something that has fundamentally changed and is changing the very structure of our existence. In the incarnation we discover a “demonstration” that God is forever “risking spirit” by being active in the world and our lives. The Spirit enters and for all it’s worth charges into earth – where? Yes, in Jesus, but in birth after birth, ever fresh and fresh. In your birth and my birth ever fresh and fresh, doing something new."
Resources on Church Unity Available
The Covenant Network of Presbyterians, from its founding, has had a twofold mission. We have worked for both the full inclusion of LGBTQ people in the life and leadership of the church and the real and manifest unity of that church. Sometimes these two goals seem in tension, but the value of either depends on the other. For either to matter, the church must be whole... Today, we post a collection of resources that we hope will assist those working for unity in their presbyteries.
A Voice Was Heard in Ramah: some words about the tragedy in Newtown, Connecticut
A reflection by CovNet Board member Laurie Kraus: "The world is a harsh and violent place, especially for the most vulnerable among us. Like Rachel, we must refuse to be consoled; refuse to become numbed to the unspeakable, breathtaking ordinariness of gun violence, which in addition to these too-public massacres, recurs day after day in the hard neighborhoods of our great cities. Our rage at this careless disregard for the sanctity of the gift of life must exceed Herod’s and that of his angry, alienated progeny who we call “the shooter”: our rage must be prophetic, and it must fuel our passion for healing the brokenhearted and working for tikkun olam, the wholeness and transformation of the world, so that the whispered promise of the incarnation might yet be heard, by us and by those whose lives we touch: the light has shined in the darkness and the darkness will not overcome it."
Remembering the Pioneers
This message from Blair Robertson, communicator for Affirmation Scotland, a Church of Scotland counterpart of Covenant Network, reminds us that the issues we face are transnational and the successes of the present-day are possible only because of the courage of our predecessors.~ Posted by Barbara Wheeler
Forgetting Reinhold Niebuhr
A Sermon on Isaiah 58:9-14 and Galatians 5:13-15 by Chris Henry at Shallowford Presbyterian Church, November 4, 2012: "...So, remembering Reinhold Niebuhr calls the church back to its God-given prophetic task in the community and in the world. When people are suffering in our nation and around the world, the church is called to respond. When injustice and hatred deny to some the abundant life God offers to all, the demands of the gospel compel us to speak and to act. Niebuhr was right: the church must never shrink from its call to be the body of Christ beyond the walls of the sanctuary. But there is a difference between Niebuhr’s Christian Realism and the idealistic activism of the Social Gospel movement that he finally dismissed. The difference is Niebuhr’s emphatic insistence on humility and his awareness of the ubiquity of sin. If we were able to ask Reinhold Niebuhr which aspect of the current political climate most exasperated him, my guess would be this: the self-righteousness of all sides..."
Covenant Faith Expressed in Covenant Life
A reflection on James 2:1-13 offered by Brian Ellison at the closing worship service of the Milwaukee Regional Conference of the Covenant Network, Immanuel Presbyterian Church, November 17, 2012: "And how better to express this scripture’s call than through a group that has taken as its name and as its starting place a rich theological concept: Covenant—an expression of the relationship between God and humanity, and among the people God has created and called—and said that our theology demands of us not mere belief, not mere correctness, but action: Lives lived out in faithful service and compassion and intentionality and justice."
Every Fear Silenced
A Sermon by Meg Peery McLaughlin at the Kansas City Area Regional Conference: "But the truth is: there are some words that bear repeating. Some words that we simply need, desperately need, to hear over and over and over again... Do not be afraid."
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..."
Santa Barbara "Union Presbytery" Plan Found Unconstitutional
The action of the Presbytery of Santa Barbara to form a "union presbytery" with the Presbytery of the West of ECO: A Covenant Order of Evangelical Presbyterians has been ruled unconstitutional by the PJC of the Synod of Southern California and Hawaii.
There's No Place Like Home
A Sermon on Mark 6:1-6a by Meg Peery McLaughlin, for the Installation of Pen Peery at First Presbyterian Church of Charlotte on November 4, 2012: "...Because Jesus is always reminding us that contrary to how we think about it, home... where we really belong, is not something behind us, something return to.. home is always ahead of us. Something we are always living toward..."
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..."
“A Reformed Understanding of Marriage”
Sermon on Romans 8:22-30 by David D. Colby, Central Presbyterian Church, St. Paul, MN, October 28, 2012: "So let’s be clear. The Bible does not talk about marriage as only between a man and a woman. If we are honest the Bible has a shifting definition of marriage within its pages. Because we believe in “a church reformed, always reforming according to the Word of God”[2] we are not beholden simply to tradition. The church is not supposed to do things the way we have always done them simply because. No, we are called to question, to be critical; as creation unfolds, we can see more clearly the blind spots in our culture or the culture in which the Bible was written and pull out the gospel good news from the cultural expectations."
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.
Baltimore/DC Regional Conference Postponed
The Regional Conference scheduled for Friday, November 2 at Catonsville Presbyterian Church has been postponed due to Hurricane Sandy. The tentative new date for the conference is Saturday, March 9.
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..."
Are you a student? Regional registration's on us!
The Covenant Network regional conference season is fast approaching - have you found the conference nearest you? Seminary and college students attending a conference may register for free.