Building Gracious Space in the PCUSA: Weeping

In a follow up to my piece on forgiveness, I share with you my experience visiting Marc Benton in York. This was not easy to write. Below is a short excerpt from the piece, which you can find in full on MLP’s website. Some days have passed since then. As a slow feeler, I needed […]

Building Gracious Space in the PCUSA: Forgiveness

When I heard that Marc Benton stood before the Hudson River Presbytery in September to ask for forgiveness, I was floored. Nearly 15 years earlier, Benton brought charges against the presbytery for allowing same-sex weddings, setting in motion a series of trials and accusations within the PCUSA that sent ripples far beyond the Hudson River. […]

Welcome Alex McNeill to Leadership in MLP and the PCUSA!

It’s an exciting day—Alex McNeill’s first as Executive Director of More Light Presbyterians! Alex brings immense gifts and preparation to this call to inspire the Presbyterian Church (USA) and the world to embrace and proclaim in word and deed the Gospel of God’s love for all, especially for God’s LGBTQ children.

My Churchy Response to Jason Collins Coming Out

What a momentous thing that Jason Collins has become the first American NBA player to come out as gay! At the same time, I agree with Frank Bruni at the New York Times: This will undoubtedly bring a better day for our society, but the best day will come when matters like this are no longer a concern for anybody.

My Coming Out Was An Easter Experience

Believe Out Loud: Wholeness is what I experienced when I found the way to accurately understand my whole self as well as to describe myself to the world. My years of confusion and questioning about my sexual orientation were very much a Lenten journey through the land of my soul. Realizing who I am—a bisexual—was as freeing and life giving as Easter.Continue Reading

My Top 5 Favorite Tweets Following the SCOTUS Hearings

The intensity felt during the two days of Supreme Court hearings concerning the freedom to marry may be fading from our minds, but we cannot let it fade from our hearts. The week of March 25th, for all the conversations it prompted both inside and outside the courtroom, will be remembered as a historic moment when the arc of history bent closer to justice for LGBT people. Here are 5 of my favorite tweets from the days following the Supreme Court hearings. What were your favorite posts?

How Creating Change Shot Me Home Raring to Go

Creating Change is the annual organizing conference of the National Gay and Lesbian Taskforce. It is big, refreshing, challenging—great for running into old friends and making new ones—and generally awesome. Creating Change shot me home like the ball out of a cannon. Let me try to inspire similar enthusiasm in you by sharing some reflections on my experience there.

Be Still

Sometimes the most courageous thing is to do nothing. This takes strong faith that God is at work in the world in ways we cannot know or see. This meditative use of a verse from Psalm 46 to quiet our selves can open our eyes to God’s activity all around us and give us the courage to let go.

A Prayer for Mother’s Day

I was overjoyed when Jeff Krehbiel, who is standing as my vice moderator, offered to share a prayer for Mother’s Day. Jeff writes movingly about an issue that is often overlooked in our churches and in society as a whole. I continue to feel blessed that Jeff is travelling this journey with me and that he is able to share his pastoral wisdom with us here.

St. Augustine Prayer

For a time recently, as my husband was admitted to the hospital for the first time in his life, my vision shrank to what Augustine captures here. It took immense courage for him—usually the physician in charge—to receive care from others. For those who feel alone, afraid, sick, or face great challenges or even boredom, this prayer offers an acknowledgement of our burdens and a call to where hope can be found if we have the courage.