[MLPnews] MLPnews February 21, 2006
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Tue Feb 21 15:14:52 PST 2006
www.mlp.org
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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 3
Issue 2
Feb. 21, 2006
In this issue:
- General Assembly registration opens: Join us in Birmingham, or
fund a More Light volunteer
- Nine hundred eighty new Essential Tenets? Help us name the new
Pittsburgh overture
- More Light church in the news: more on Clarendon's stand for
marriage equality
- Twelve churches contribute to landslide delete-B concurrence in
New York City Presbytery
- Complete list of delete-B overtures and concurrences
- Detroit Presbytery holds strong: attempt to rescind delete-B
overture fails
- Another kind of Sanctuary Movement
- Secular gay rights groups increase their awareness of their
religious allies
- Despite dire predictions, UCC church withdrawals negligible after
denominational marriage equality stance
- 29 years to victory: the story of Washington State's gay civil
rights bill
- Jensen Fails Again as Accusations Against Former MLP Board Member
Are Dropped
- More Light Church pastor Chuck Booker-Hirsch in the news
- Rev. Jane Adams Spahr to be put on trial for supporting marriage
equality
- Guest commentary: "Not Justice, Not Progress"
*General Assembly registration opens: Join us in Birmingham, or fund a
More Light volunteer*
The PCUSA has just opened up online registration
<http://www.pcusa.org/ga217/> for the 2006 General Assembly in
Birmingham, Alabama. This year's GA promises to be both exciting and
loaded with activity, due to the 21 pro-LGBT overtures
<http://www.mlp.org/article.php?story=20060202172126811> headed for the
assembly and a broad range of MLP-organized activities that we'll be
announcing over the next several months. If you can't join us in
Birmingham, we invite you to support our efforts, and subsidize the
costs of our volunteers
<https://secure.groundspring.org/dn/index.php?aid=7550>, financially.
MLP's presence at General Assembly includes an exhibition hall booth, a
training and hospitality suite, commissioner and supporter briefings,
leaflettings, public visibility actions, resource distribution, press
coordination, and much more. Take a look at our online contribution page
<https://secure.groundspring.org/dn/index.php?aid=7550> to see how your
support can help cover our costs for this major event of the year.
If do you plan to attend, our resident logistics experts have the
following recommendations:*
Read more... <http://www.mlp.org/article.php?story=20060219202817766> *
*Nine hundred eighty new Essential Tenets? Help us name the new
Pittsburgh overture*
On Saturday Feb. 4, in an eleventh-hour action taken after more than
half of the voting members had left, by a close vote of 68-62 Pittsburgh
Presbytery passed a motion to send to the 2006 General Assembly an
overture which attempts to turn all of section "G" of the Presbyterian
Book of Order into a giant heresy manual. The overture, submitted by
Robert Gagnon, author of the anti-gay text /The Bible and Homosexual
Practice/, would amend G6.0108b to make any sentence that uses the word
"shall" into an Essential Tenet of the Reformed faith -- one of the
orthodox beliefs to which one must subscribe if you want to avoid being
charged with heresy. The overture is very likely a broad-brush attempt
to turn the anti-gay provision G6.0106b into an Essential Tenet in a way
that doesn't overtly telegraph homophobic intent.
Thanks to the miracle of modern technology, MLP has done a word count on
section "G" of the current Book of Order and found that there are 980
occurrences of the word "shall", making for 980 new and exciting
Essential Tenets of the Reformed faith which, perhaps, all Presbyterian
seminary students will be required to memorize and sign a blood oath to
uphold as part of their candidacy process. These new Essential Tenets of
section "G" would include:
*Read more... <http://www.mlp.org/article.php?story=20060205160110780>*
*More Light church in the news: more on Clarendon's stand for marriage
equality*
/
Back in November we ran an article
<http://www.mlp.org/article.php?story=2005111521224040> about Clarendon
Presbyterian's <http://www.clarendonpresbyterian.org/> stand for
marriage equality. Clarendon's pastor David Ensign has since been
invited to keynote at St. James UCC in Lovettsville, VA. The Times
Community Newspapers <http://www.timescommunity.com> of Northern
Virginia has the story
<http://www.timescommunity.com/site/tab1.cfm?newsid=16021125&BRD=2553&PAG=461&dept_id=506037&rfi=6>
- extracts appear below./
*What's real marriage - Church takes on hot-button issue*
By Eileen M. Carlton
The congregations of St. James United Church of Christ in Lovettsville
and Clarendon Presbyterian Church
<http://www.clarendonpresbyterian.org/> in Arlington differ in many
ways. But both congregations are united in their belief that the nature
of marriage is changing and that the Christian approach to these changes
should be one of tolerance and enlightenment. The pastor of the
Clarendon Presbyterian congregation, the Rev. David Ensign, made
headlines last November by renouncing his state authority to marry
couples, heterosexual or same sex, as a protest against Virginia laws
banning same-sex marriage.*
Read more... <http://www.mlp.org/article.php?story=20060201110258439>*
*Twelve churches contribute to landslide delete-B concurrence in New
York City Presbytery*
/
Mieke Vandersall sends us this good news from New York. This brings the
total to 21 delete-B overtures and concurrences headed for the 2006
General Assembly./
I am proud to announce the affirmative vote of the New York City
Presbytery to concur with the Heartland Overture
<http://www.mlp.org/article.php?story=20050419234203172>, with our own
rationale. The presbytery met today (Jan. 31, 2006) and the vote was a
stand/sit vote. I could only count about 7 people who stood in
opposition with perhaps 75 standing for the overture. The moderator
quickly ruled that the overture passed and the numbers were not counted.
Elders Jim Nedelka and Esther Sohn articulately presented the overture
which was passed by the sessions of the following congregations:
*Read more... <http://www.mlp.org/article.php?story=20060131222923666>*
*
Complete list of delete-B overtures and concurrences*
In this article we'll maintain an updated list of all known delete-B
overtures and concurrences, with links to specific MLP articles and a
vote count when available. The postmark deadline for submitting
overtures to the 2006 General Assembly is Feb. 15, 2006.
April 19, 2005: Heartland Presbytery, 109 yes - 92 no. ( MLP article
here <http://www.mlp.org/article.php?story=20050419234203172>)
May 24: Western Reserve, 69 yes - 39 no - 4 abstentions
*Read the full list...
<http://www.mlp.org/article.php?story=20060202172126811>*
*Detroit Presbytery holds strong: attempt to rescind delete-B overture
fails*
/
MLP supporter Ken Collinson in Dearborn, Michigan recently sent us this
summary of delete-B news from Detroit Presbytery, which passed a
delete-B overture
<http://www.mlp.org/article.php?story=20050628223732981> in June 2005
and then on November 22 defeated an attempt to rescind the sending of
that overture./
In November 2005, after publication of the Task Force Report, a motion
to rescind the June overture
<http://www.mlp.org/article.php?story=20050628223732981> was made. It
was said the Task Force report had somehow contradicted our overture.
Then one speaker pointed out the need for reform of the spiritual
violence caused by G-6.0106b:*
Read more... <http://www.mlp.org/article.php?story=20060131224155999>*
*Another kind of Sanctuary Movement*
/by Michael Adee, MLP field organizer/
Individuals and churches understood clearly the life-saving need of the
Sanctuary Movement of the 1980's to assist Central American refugees
escaping for their very lives from oppressive, deadly regimes in their
own countries seeking safety in the USA. Border communities understand
well the life and death struggles faced by persons today seeking a safe
place and a chance at a new start.
In 1974 another kind of Sanctuary Movement started with the witness of
the late Rev. David Sindt and the genesis of the More Light Movement in
the Presbyterian Church (USA). Now 32 years later, remarkable progress
has been made in terms of understanding and movement toward recognition
and equality of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender persons and their
families. And, at the same time the safety, well-being and equality of
LGBT persons and their families is still not realized fully in either
church or society. There is much yet to do, to make real.*
Read more... <http://www.mlp.org/article.php?story=20060202171222655>*
*Secular gay rights groups increase their awareness of their religious
allies*
The National Gay and Lesbian Task Force <http://www.thetaskforce.org>
has just released an extensive study titled /DAVID v. GOLIATH: A report
on faith groups working for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender
equality/
<http://www.thetaskforce.org/theissues/library.cfm?issueID=28&pubTypeID=2>.
The 42-page report highlights what many have known for quite some time:
religious LGBT equality groups like MLP are significantly underfunded
when compared to the array of anti-gay organizations seeking to take
over the oldline denominations. (Feel free to help offset the imbalance
by contributing to MLP
<https://secure.groundspring.org/dn/index.php?aid=7550> today!) Below
is a copy of the NGLTF's press release
<http://www.thetaskforce.org/media/release.cfm?releaseID=918> announcing
the report.
*National Religious Leadership Roundtable releases David v. Goliath,
first-ever study of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender-affirming
religious organizations*
Study reveals huge forces arrayed against progressive religious groups;
calls for secular organizations to actively support people of faith to
counter religious right and anti-LGBT religious bigotry
WASHINGTON, Jan. 31 -- The National Gay and Lesbian Task Force National
Religious Leadership Roundtable today released a groundbreaking study on
the resources, challenges and opposition to lesbian, gay, bisexual and
transgender-affirming religious organizations. *
Read more... <http://www.mlp.org/article.php?story=20060202000403796>*
*
Despite dire predictions, UCC church withdrawals negligible after
denominational marriage equality stance*
The net result of the UCC's mid-2005 decision to support equal marriage
rights
<http://news.ucc.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=243&Itemid=54>
has been a wash in terms of congregations departing compared to
congregations joining. The 365gay.com article
<http://www.365gay.com/Newscon06/01/012006ucc.htm> below notes that
while 49 churches have left, 65 other congregations have either
affiliated or expressed a "firm interest" in doing so.
*UCC Loses Churches, Gains Others In Supporting Gay Marriage *
by 365Gay.com Newscenter Staff
(Cleveland, Ohio) Leaders of the 1.3- million-member United Church of
Christ are reporting mixed outcomes during the six-month period that
followed its General Synod's controversial decision to affirm support
for same-gender marriage equality. Since July, about 49 churches - or
less than one percent of the UCC's 5,725 churches - have voted to
disaffiliate, according to the denomination's research office. Most, but
not all, of the departures appear related to disagreement with the
marriage- equality resolution. *
Read more... <http://www.mlp.org/article.php?story=20060201231425470>*
*29 years to victory: the story of Washington State's gay civil rights bill*
Our traditional focus in MLPnews is on all news both Presbyterian and
LGBT, however it's worth keeping an occasional eye on events in the
civil sphere as an indicator of how we might set our expectations for
change within the PCUSA. As the extracts from the article below
indicate, 29 years after its original introduction, an
anti-discrimination bill has finally passed the Washington State
legislature. Not all of the bill's original champions lived to see this
day, yet their perseverance built the foundation for eventual success.
As we continue our work to remove anti-LGBT language and policies from
Presbyterian rules, it may help us to know that though the struggle may
take years, we'll eventually achieve our goals.
*A "New Dawn," and a New Political Reality*
With the Passage of the Gay Civil Rights Bill Comes an Era of Intense
Political Maneuvering
The Stranger, January 28, 2006
When it was first introduced in the state legislature in 1977,
Washington's gay civil rights bill was a nonstarter, too radical to
merit serious consideration. That wasn't surprising, given the times,
but over the next three decades, as all of Washington's major cities
came around to the idea that sexual minorities should be protected from
discrimination, and as the national conversation on gay rights shifted
from a debate over the need for basic protections to a debate over the
need for gay marriage (a debate that now largely presumes the need for,
and the existence of, basic discriminaton protections), Washington's gay
civil rights bill remained stubbornly stuck. Until this year.
*Read more... <http://www.mlp.org/article.php?story=2006020121454155>*
*
Jensen Fails Again as Accusations Against Former MLP Board Member Are
Dropped*
/
Recent MLP board member Chuck Booker-Hirsch sent us this statement in
the wake of recent news that all accusations against him have been dropped./
The Rev. Charles Booker-Hirsch, MLP Board member from 2002-2005 and
Pastor of the More Light congregation Northside Presbyterian
<http://www.northsidepres.org> in Ann Arbor, MI recently was released by
an investigating committee of the Presbytery of Detroit from five
accusations filed against him by Paul Rolf Jensen. Prominent among the
accusations against Chuck were performing same-gender marriages and
participating in the ordination of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and
transgender persons.*
Read more... <http://www.mlp.org/article.php?story=20060131225052303>*
*More Light Church pastor Chuck Booker-Hirsch in the news*
/
The Ann Arbor News <http://www.mlive.com/aanews/> has run a piece about
Rev. Chuck Booker-Hirsch of More Light Church Northside Presbyterian
<http://www.northsidepres.org/> (Ann Arbor, MI) and his decision to
decline to sign all marriage licenses until equal marriage rights are
granted to same-gender couples. The online version of the article cuts
off the first sentence, so we've restored that here in the partial
extracts below./
*Pastor refuses to sign marriage licenses - Lack of gay marriage
recognition protested*
by Catherine O'Donnell
As a Presbyterian pastor, the Rev. Charles Booker-Hirsch has signed
dozens of marriage licenses. But for the foreseeable future, he won't
be signing any. Earlier this month, Booker-Hirsch told leaders of
Northside Presbyterian Church <http://www.northsidepres.org/> that he
will no longer be an agent of the state at weddings until both gay and
straight couples can enter into legal marriages.
*Read more... <http://www.mlp.org/article.php?story=20060131231610502>*
*Rev. Jane Adams Spahr to be put on trial for supporting marriage equality*
/
Extracts from a recent Presbyterian News Service article:/*
Lesbian activist to stand trial for conducting same-sex weddings*
If convicted by PJC, Jane Spahr could be removed from ministry
by Evan Silverstein
LOUISVILLE -- The Rev. Jane Adams Spahr, a Presbyterian lesbian
activist, will go on trial in California on March 2 for allegedly
performing two same-sex marriage services. If found guilty by the
Permanent Judicial Commission (PJC) of Redwoods Presbytery, Spahr could
be removed from the ministry. The constitution of the Presbyterian
Church (U.S.A.) specifically states that marriage is a covenant only
between a man and a woman...
*Read more... <http://www.mlp.org/article.php?story=20060216181706218>*
*Guest commentary: "Not Justice, Not Progress"** *
/MLP supporter John Shuck, recently back home after attending the MLP
Nashville conference
<http://www.mlp.org/article.php?story=20060109154022439>, was inspired
to write this commentary on the PCUSA Theological Task Force's
<http://www.pcusa.org/peaceunitypurity> report, which was released in
the fall of 2005./
*Not Justice, Not Progress, Just the Same Second-Class Status:*
*An Evaluation of the Theological Task Force Report*
John Shuck, Pastor
First Presbyterian Church <http://www.1stpres-eliz.org>
Elizabethton, Tennessee
Valentine's Day, 2006
It is good for the soul to be reminded of one's privilege. It doesn't
feel good but it is good for you. I was reminded of my privilege
recently. I attended the More Light Regional gathering at Vanderbilt
Divinity School in Nashville... Near the end of the conference, we
gathered to talk about the upcoming General Assembly. This is the point
at which I remembered my heterosexual privilege. I had been thinking
that maybe the Task Force Report wasn't so bad. I had read somewhere
that it wasn't justice, but it was progress... While there is much in
the report that is good, its final recommendation shatters any good that
can come from it. Recommendation number six will allow for neither
justice nor progress for lgbt people in our denomination. It requests
that we make no change to an unjust, untruthful, and discriminatory policy.
*Read the full article...
<http://www.mlp.org/article.php?story=20060217172517764>*
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