[MLPnews] MLPnews June 2, 2005

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MLP News

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....working for the full inclusion of LGBT people of faith
in the life, ministry, and witness of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)

	

Volume 2
Issue 5
  June 2, 2005



 

 

 

In this issue:

    More Light Across Oklahoma - the MLP Van Tour, June 1-8
    MLP media release: More Light Sunday participation doubles in 2005
    Send us your More Light Sunday stories and photos
    Presbyterian pastor fired for supporting full LGBT equality - read
    his "outrageous" editorial
    National MLP Leadership Conference a success in Kansas City
    Ordination overtures - notes from MLP field organizer Michael Adee
    Heads up - the "phone scam" fraudster is back
    African American LGBT people of faith conference - Chicago, June 23-25
    More Light Church wins 2005 Lilly-funded Award Grant
    Moms, Unconditional Love, Family and Baseball


*More Light Across Oklahoma - the MLP Van Tour, June 1-8*

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/From our field organizer Michael Adee:/

MLP members, friends, advocates, allies and inquirers:

To support LGBT persons, their partners, families, parents and friends 
-- and the churches who welcome and affirm them as children of God along 
with everyone else --- June 1 - 8 is a special *More Light Across 
Oklahoma Van Tour*.

The More Light Across Oklahoma Van Tour will include participation in 
the June 3 - 4 Tri-Presbytery Meeting of Eastern Oklahoma, Cimarron and 
Indian Nations presbyteries at the First Presbyterian Church, Stillwater 
<http://www.stillwaterfpc.org/> with keynote speaker, Rick Ufford-Chase, 
Moderator, PCUSA. Rick will have just returned from a mission 
partnership visit to the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Celebrating More Light Sunday on June 5 in Tulsa will be a major stop on 
the tour at College Hill Presbyterian Church. A MLP Reception, Christian 
Education Class, worship celebration in the morning will be followed by 
CHPC hosting the Diversity (LGBT Pride) Interfaith Worship Service. A 
big MLP pool party follows which sounds great to me thinking about being 
in Oklahoma in June. By the way, did you know that the tarmac melts in 
Oklahoma in June? Well, it does. I lived there as a kid.
*Read more... <http://www.mlp.org/article.php?story=20050530205847605>*

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MLP media release: More Light Sunday Participation Doubles in 2005*


/(MLPnews editor's note: as of June 1 the number of participating More 
Light Sunday churches is now over 30.  We'll have a total count and list 
available in the next issue of MLPnews.)/


May 18, 2005

Minnetonka, MN: More Light Presbyterians (MLP) today announced a 
record-breaking number of church participants in More Light Sunday, an 
annual day when supporters of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender 
(LGBT) equality within the Presbyterian Church USA (PCUSA) unite 
together to organize local educational and prejudice reduction events. 
This year's More Light Sunday is scheduled for June 5. To date 28 
Presbyterian churches have signed up to hold local events in 2005, more 
than double the participation from 2004, the kickoff year for More Light 
Sunday.

"The response has been phenomenal," commented MLP national co-moderator 
Erin Swenson. "We've had signups from churches all over the country. 
It's exciting to see this type of groundswell of support for full 
equality for all Presbyterians."


"What's particularly striking," noted MLP co-moderator Donna Riley, "is 
that over a third of our participating churches this year aren't 
official More Light churches. There are 115 More Light churches today, 
with more churches declaring themselves More Light each year, but this 
support comes from both inside and outside of that 115-church community. 
It's strong evidence that there's a growing majority, a loving majority, 
which wants to bring full equality for all lesbian, gay, bisexual and 
transgender people to the PCUSA."

*Read more... <http://www.mlp.org/article.php?story=20050517225211905>*

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*Send us your More Light Sunday stories and photos*


/From Chris Glaser, our editor for MLP's quarterly print publication the 
More Light Update <http://www.mlp.org/staticpages/index.php?page=update>:/

Dear Friends,

If your congregation is celebrating More Light Sunday June 5, please 
send me photos, short articles, special bulletin covers or graphics, 
and/or any special liturgical elements of your special Sunday to me at 
MoreLightEditor at aol.com. I want to do a special spread for the Summer 
issue. Technically the deadline is June 1, but if you can get it to me 
the week following June 5th, I'll get it in!



*Presbyterian pastor fired for supporting full LGBT equality - read his 
"outrageous" editorial*


In a telling reminder of why More Light Presbyterians exists, Rev. 
Jeffery Falter, pastor at Davis Memorial Presbyterian Church 
<http://www.dmpc.org/> in Elkins West Virginia, has been fired for 
writing a newspaper op-ed piece in which he noted that "Gay and lesbian 
Christians are no different than the rest of us" and supported full 
equality for LGBT people in both the church and broader society. This 
latest attack demonstrates a tactic common to the anti-gay faction of 
the PCUSA, which is to retaliate financially against people who speak 
out in favor of equality. The tactic was first discussed in detail in /A 
Moment to Decide: The Crisis in Mainstream Presbyterianism/ 
<http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0967910609/qid=1117219843/sr=1-4/ref=sr_1_4/002-0677299-5979254?v=glance&s=books>, 
published in 2000 by the Institute for Democracy Studies 
<http://www.idsonline.org>.

Here are extracts from a WVNS-TV online news article 
<http://www.wvnstv.com/story.cfm?func=viewstory&storyid=2993> about Rev. 
Falter's removal:
*Read more... <http://www.mlp.org/article.php?story=20050527110756119>*


*
National MLP Leadership Conference a success in Kansas City*

Dozens of More Light supporters gathered the weekend of May 20-22 in 
Kansas City for the first National More Light Presbyterians Leadership 
Conference <http://www.mlp.org/article.php?story=20050410232625243>. Our 
prayers and good wishes were with them as they met together to learn, 
study, converse, improve their activist skills, and work together to 
strengthen our movement's ability to bring equality to the Presbyterian 
Church U.S.A. We thank conference trainers Eunice and Dick Poethig, 
Marco Grimaldo, and Michael Adee; conference co-planner Vikki Dearing; 
and all of the conference attendees from around the country for their 
wonderful leadership and vision for our church.

We have additional More Light conferences coming up in October 
<http://www.mlp.org/calendar.php?month=10&year=2005> and November 
<http://www.mlp.org/calendar.php?month=11&year=2005> this year which 
will have a more traditional emphasis on communal worship, story 
sharing, and "More Light 101" introductory content. Locations include 
Louisville KY, Pittsburgh PA, and Santa Fe NM. Watch this space for 
registration information later in the year.

*
Ordination overtures - notes from MLP field organizer Michael Adee*


*Getting an Ordination Overture written and approved by your church's 
Session and considered by your presbytery*
Now is the time to write and get an ordination overture passed by the 
Session of your church and considered by your presbytery this Summer or 
Fall of 2005.

The more Presbyterians, clergy, elders, commissioners to presbytery, 
commissioners to GA 2006 get exposed to: the consideration of an 
ordination overture; LGBT concerns and the presence and gifts of LGBT 
within every congregation; the anti-gay discriminatory barriers within 
our church life, polity and Book of Order, and what it means to be a 
genuninely welcoming and affirming church -- the better.
[...]
To meet the February 15, 2006 deadline for overtures to the General 
Assembly 2006, it is prudent to get Sessions considering an ordination 
overture now so that it can be considered this summer, fall or winter 
and make the deadline. The wheels within presbyteries can move slowly as 
we know -- so it is prudent to act earlier -- like now -- rather than 
later. It would be sad and poor stewardship of a great opportunity to 
have a good effort lost by not acting early enough.

If you need any resourcing, counsel, coaching or encouragement about 
drafting, presenting and passing an ordination overture within your 
Session and presbytery, please do contact Mike Smith, MLP Board Member, 
Victory 2006 Co-Chair, and Legislative and Judicial Affairs Committee 
Co-Chair at mikesmith55 at cox.net
*Read more... <http://www.mlp.org/article.php?story=2005051620331338>*



*Heads up - the "phone scam" fraudster is back*


A perennial con artist problem has cropped up again recently which seeks 
to take advantage of the good will of More Light churches and MLP 
supporters. Victims of the "phone scam" generally receive an urgent 
phone call, sometimes made collect, from somebody pretending to be 
Michael Adee or an MLP board member, asking them to wire cash to a U.S. 
or Canadian bank (the location varies) for assistance. The caller will 
often drop the names of other well-known More Light supporters or local 
church members as a way to sound more convincing.

While we can understand why more people might like to be our fantastic 
field organizer Michael Adee (who wouldn't?), More Light Presbyterians 
staff and board members will never ask you to wire money to anybody. If 
you receive a phone call from somebody who claims to be MLP board or 
staff and asking you to wire funds, or to use similar funds transfer 
services such as Western Union, /that phone call is a fraud attempt/.
*Read more... <http://www.mlp.org/article.php?story=20050516120731658>*


*
**African American LGBT people of faith conference - Chicago, June 23-25*

EVENT: Souls a'Fire 2, the second national conference of the African 
American Roundtable of the Center for Lesbian and Gay Studies in 
Religion and Ministry (CLGS) at Pacific School of Religion in Berkeley, 
Calif, focusing on the theme, "Re-Imagining Black Religious Identity: 
Race, Class, Gender & Sexuality."

WHERE & WHEN: In Chicago, Illinois, at University Church on Thursday, 
June 23; at Chicago Theological Seminary on Friday, June 24, and 
Saturday, June 25.

For a full listing of panelists and conference events, go to 
www.clgs.org <http://www.clgs.org>.
*Read more...*
<http://www.mlp.org/article.php?story=20050516204110391>

*More Light Church wins 2005 Lilly-funded Award Grant*

Congratulations to More Light Church Jan Hus Presbyterian 
<http://www.janhus.org/>, New York City, for being awarded a 
Lilly-funded worship-renewal grant from the Calvin Institute of 
Christian Worship. Jan Hus was one of nine Presbyterian churches granted 
such awards this year. Many Presbyterian leaders have been part of Jan 
Hus including Donna Riley, Co-Moderator, National MLP Board of 
Directors; and Brian Cave, the first National MLP Youth and Young Adult 
Liaision.
**Read more...* <http://www.mlp.org/article.php?story=20050526121136297>*


*Moms, Unconditional Love, Family and Baseball*

Mother's Day reflections by MLP field organizer Michael Adee

A tribute to our More Light Moms: Mitzi, Eunice, Gail, Jean, Patricia 
and more.

Last night I began thinking about Mother's Day and I wondered how it 
would be, how I would feel. I had a great Mom. She was voted "nicest 
Mom" on our block in south Louisiana by the neighborhood gang of guys I 
grew up with. We played baseball in the street, camped out in the 
treehouse in my backyard, went to school and Boy Scouts together, and on 
long, hot summer days we played hours of Risk or poker. All summer days 
in south Louisiana are hot and we would often escape to the nearest 
bayou to swim.

Two of us young guys went to Westminster Presbyterian Church, Sulphur, a 
church of less than a hundred in a town of less than 20,000, Keith Brown 
and me. We went through confimation class together and looking back now 
I believe Mrs. Grubb who convened the class should have been given a 
medal for her courage and patience. I stayed at the Brown's house the 
summer and fall my Mom went blind and endured months of unsuccessful 
surgery. I was in fifth grade.
*Read more... <http://www.mlp.org/article.php?story=20050508180834797>

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<http://www.mlp.org>.  Text not attributed otherwise is copyright (c) 
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