On Jul 3, 2009 ⋅ No comments
7/3 On Wednesday, July 1, the Council of Allegheny County of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania became the third county in Pennsylvania to pass into law an anti-discrimination ordinance that will establish a Human Relations Commission to protect the housing, employment and due process rights of vulnerable groups in our community. The County Executive has said […]
On Jun 12, 2009 ⋅ No comments
6/12 You would be correct if you assumed that I have voted Democratic all my life. I found the eight years of George W. Bush a hard cross to bear and have had little good to say about former Vice President Dick Cheney. But he stopped me in my tracks by supporting same-sex marriage in […]
On Jun 5, 2009 ⋅ One comment
6/5 Last week marked two major milestones in church and American society in the ongoing conversation about the place of GLBT people in our midst. In my Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) the discernment and voting season ended when the last presbytery voted on whether our church should allow openly gay and lesbian people to be ordained. […]
On May 18, 2009 ⋅ No comments
5/15 At the time of his recent death, Chuck was an Elder in his Presbyterian Church. He was involved in the Organ Restoration Program, the Sunday School, the Worship and Arts Committee and the Justice Committee. Chuck delighted in giving tours of the church building to introduce strangers to its history and to the present […]
On May 8, 2009 ⋅ 5 comments
5/8 “How do I tell the young woman who was baptized and grew up under our eyes, bravely came out at age 19, and still comes to church that she is not “qualified” to serve?” An elder in the San Francisco presbytery asked me this in response to a recent blog post about the defeat […]
On May 1, 2009 ⋅ One comment
5/1 In his story on our Presbyterian Church’s decision not to open ordination to gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender faithful, Eric Gorski of the Associated Press summarized the present situation succinctly: “Efforts to allow gays and lesbians to serve as clergy in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) have been defeated again, sealed by votes Saturday. But […]
On Apr 25, 2009 ⋅ 6 comments
4/25 So now we know the outcome of the presbytery vote on Amendment 08-B. Our church will not open ordination to GLBT Presbyterians this year. But as we say in Pittsburgh when the outcome is still in doubt, Elvis has not yet left the building!! A record number of presbyteries voted in favor of allowing […]
On Apr 24, 2009 ⋅ No comments
4/26 No matter what the outcome in the vote among Presbyterians to remove the fence keeping faithful GLBT people from consideration for ordained ministry, things will never be the same. The shift from exclusion in 2001 to acceptance in 2009 in 27 presbyteries (including places as surprising as west Texas and West Virginia) indicates a […]
On Apr 17, 2009 ⋅ No comments
4/17 With Holy Week and Easter written in the Book of Life, my church, the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), returns to voting on an amendment to our church constitution which, if passed, would open the way for faithful, gifted and called GLBT Presbyterians to be ordained. The results on Easter stand thus: 65 Yes, 82 No […]
On Apr 12, 2009 ⋅ No comments
4/10/09 We woke to snow on the ground the other day in my neck of the woods so avalanche comes to mind as we’ve watched both Vermont and the District of Columbia follow the good news of Iowa with civil recognition of GLBT relationships as marriage. The Vermont legislature overrode the Governor’s veto upholding the […]
