On Nov 12, 2010 ⋅ 5 comments
11/12 Bruce Reyes-Chow, pastor of the Mission Bay Community Church in San Francisco and Moderator of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) from 2008 to 2010, has started a new project on his blog he calls “PresbyMEME: Why I am voting yes on Amendment 10a.” In his blog post describing the project he writes: “. . . […]
On Nov 5, 2010 ⋅ 2 comments
11/5 The mid-term elections are written in the Book of Life and now Congress will return for the lame duck session. The House has already passed the bill to end Don’t Ask Don’t Tell (DADT) and the Senate leadership has promised to pass it before the end of the year. If all goes well, lesbian, […]
On Oct 29, 2010 ⋅ 13 comments
10/29 When I was a child in Sunday school, I was taught that “justice” was a quality of God’s kingdom manifest in acceptance and equality. As the years have passed I have become dismayed by how, both in the church and in our national discourse, this beautiful word has seemingly lost its meaning. Instead of […]
On Sep 10, 2010 ⋅ 6 comments
9/10 Labor Day, for me, means the start of the new school year. The late summer days in September, with their slanting light and thin, spent warmth, still give me a sense of hope and anticipation for new areas of study and challenge. As I reflect, I am grateful for this week’s rise in hopeful […]
On Jul 2, 2010 ⋅ 3 comments
7/2 For the third time, service on the board of More Light Presbyterians takes me to the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), this year, in the Twin Cities, Minnesota. Today I am working at the More Light booth, greeting friends, blessing rainbow scarves upon the shoulders of former strangers, now sisters and brothers, […]
On Jun 25, 2010 ⋅ 3 comments
6/25 I had the immense privilege last Sunday to preach at the Westminster Presbyterian Church in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Knowing that their pastor, Chester Topple, identified the church as “fiercely Presbyterian,” I began the sermon by asking this wonderful congregation, “What is the essential quality of being Presbyterian?” The first one of many to […]
On Jun 11, 2010 ⋅ 3 comments
6/11 Arcane errors in the translation of 16th-century German religious texts are not typically something to get worked up over. So why is the restoration of the Heidelberg Catechism — a topic before our General Assembly this summer — so important to many in the PCUSA, myself included? This is a question that even I […]
On May 28, 2010 ⋅ 4 comments
5/28 Imagine what it would be like to have heard your whole life that God doesn’t love you for who you are. Now, imagine sitting in church on Pentecost Sunday, reading the section on the Holy Spirit from The Brief Statement of Faith (1983) and hearing the entire church repeat these words: “The Spirit sets […]
On Aug 28, 2009 ⋅ No comments
8/28 Last weekend was a good one for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender (GLBT) Christians. The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America voted to allow GLBT pastors to serve with the same requirement as all other pastors: celibacy or a committed monogamous relationship. And on Saturday, in my Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), another pastor was acquitted of […]
On Aug 7, 2009 ⋅ No comments
8/7 Jimmy Carter’s prophetic act of ending sixty years of faithful leadership in the Southern Baptist Church because of the public renewal of their prohibition against women in ministry has reminded us that injustice against women continues to plague human society, including American culture. As he explains in his statement, President Carter is taking his […]
