Continued from Part 1

I am Bob Day from the Presbytery of Genesee Valley.  During the Open Hearings, and during the first Overture Advocates presentation, you heard from many faithful members of our denomination who have been directly affected by G-6.0106(b). You heard about the pain they feel when their sense of call, confirmed by their communities of faith, is denied by the application of ‘B’ and its predecessors. For some, this alone would be reason enough to reevaluate this perhaps well-intended, but deeply destructive, aspect of our polity.

We invite you to consider the broader impact of these provisions—not just our exclusion of Christians who are called by the Spirit of God to ordained service in the church, but what these provisions mean for all of us – for our baptisms, our understanding of membership, our mission of evangelism, indeed, for the proclamation of the gospel of Jesus Christ for the salvation of humankind.  Some people say this is about some people; we believe it is about all of us.  We propose action that is about making the church whole and faithful by allowing us to recognize the gifts of all those whom Christ calls to serve.

Many of us know from personal experience that the impact of paragraph B has been far greater than simply excluding some from ordained office. It has created a constitutionally approved class distinction within the body of Christ.  Though its proponents argue that the measure deals only with conduct, in reality, G-6.0106b and its predecessors are statements to all lesbian and gay Christians, whether partnered or not, sexually active or not, that in the Presbyterian Church (USA) their baptism into the body is at best second class, neither desired, nor honored as equal with all other members.

Brothers and sisters, can we hear the call of the Gospel as Paul proclaims it in Galatians?  (3:24-28)    “Therefore the law was our disciplinarian until Christ came, so that we might be justified by faith.  But now that faith has come, we are no longer subject to a disciplinarian, for in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith.  As many of you as were baptized into Christ have clothed yourself with Christ.  There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus.”  Human beings have always placed relative value on each other, but Paul insists that the grace of Christ has abolished all distinctions – ethnic, economic, social, legal, even something seemingly as basic to the created order as gender.  He doesn’t mean to say that we’re not different – just that our differences do not determine our worth in the eyes of God.  But we continue to construct hierarchies of value and give the impression to some that they are less-than.  This makes it sound as if the good news of grace in Jesus Christ doesn’t apply to me!    What could be more anti-evangelical?  Yet that’s the message we are sending to lesbians and gay men through our current policy.

I am Dick Carlson, from the Presbytery of Mid-Kentucky.  In the second letter to the church at Corinth, the Apostle Paul reminds us:  For in the one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—and we were all made to drink of one Spirit. Indeed, the body does not consist of one member but of many... The eye cannot say to the hand, “I have no need of you,” nor again the head to the feet, “I have no need of you.”  [I Cor. 12:21]

But G-6.0106(b) does precisely that, saying to one group of Christians, “the body has no need of you.”   What devoted Presbyterian parent doesn’t want her child to love and be loved by the Church, to be welcomed and valued and nurtured in the community of faith?  Yet my church has turned its back on my gay son, and the children of faithful Presbyterians. 

Our appeal to change the church’s policy is rooted in our love for all God’s created children, straight and gay, and the church that baptized them.  We are depriving the Presbyterian Church of the gifts of countless talented Christians, Christians who are especially sensitive to those rejected by their families and society, who share the struggle of those the church most needs to reach. 

One church is working to get it right with respect to mission and honoring gifts, replacing an anti-gay stand with a Christ-like welcome.  Back in the 70’s, it was nearly empty, headed toward closing.   A new pastor came with a question: who is out there that we’re not reaching?   The Session hired six seminary students and sent them out; as they returned, the answers were as you might imagine: poor folks, African-Americans, elderly, street people, and… gays. Yes, one of the seminarians had ventured into a gay bar.   Now the Session was OK with reaching out to others, but they weren’t too sure about a ministry to gay folks.

Even so, the church started reaching out. Some folks from the suburbs heard about the efforts and drove in. There was modest growth. A young teacher began to attend worship. He offered to help restore a nonfunctioning computer. Soon he began coming on Fridays to help print and fold the bulletins and newsletter along with a few of the older members. One Friday he returned to his apartment, took a gun and killed himself.

It was a terrible shock, as you can imagine. Some folks said they didn’t realize his pain in life as a gay man. There was a change of attitude. A new mission statement was adopted by the church that their mission would be to reach out to all marginalized people.

By recognizing the gifts of all people, that church has become a vibrant community of believers in Jesus Christ, There are children in the church school, babies being born and baptized, fellowship groups.  It hosts a monthly dinner for HIV-AIDS persons in the community and a weekly prayer luncheon for anyone needing a meal.   It blows the top off per-capita mission giving in the presbytery.   All of this is because they gave up their fear and stepped out with faith into Jesus’ ministry of hospitality and healing. 

There is much talk about how the action we are urging relates to the Report of the Task Force on the Peace, Unity and Purity of the Church.  We Overture Advocates have different responses to the Task Force report and recommendations.   We all agree, however, that the process of removing G-6.0106(b) must begin at this Assembly, and that the old authoritative interpretation(s) must be relegated to history by action of this Assembly.  William Penn said it precisely when he said, “To delay justice is injustice,” while the prophet Micah speaks to us perfectly:  “What does the Lord require of you, but to do justice, and to love kindness and to walk humbly with your God?”   If we move into the season of discernment including all voices that the Task Force Report calls for,gay and lesbian persons must be clearly heard.  If G-6.0106(b) remains in the Book of Order the voices of the gay community will be severely muffled because of the danger involved in speaking up and speaking out.

I am Beth Wheeler, from the Presbytery of San Francisco, and in spite of the personal risk, I want to speak about discernment in my own life.  I accepted Jesus into my heart when I was nine, and at that moment dedicated myself to following Jesus for the rest of my life.  I faithfully attended a local Presbyterian Church, which later left the denomination over the issue of the ordination of women.  Between the ages of nine and eighteen, I lived in fear of displeasing God, because in my church I had been taught all about fearing God.

After graduating from Westmont College, where I was one of the ones trying to get gay students to become ex-gays, I began to feel called to ministry.  I struggled with whether I was discerning correctly for I had been taught women should not be pastors.  I went to Princeton Seminary wondering whether I would pursue ordination.  I ended up marrying a man I had met at Westmont, and I became a director of Christian education.  It was then that I realized that God was calling me into ordained ministry.  I was ordained in 1991.

As is often the case, my theology went through the refining fire of real life and real ministry.  My safely constructed world of absolutes was blown apart and the Holy Spirit led me into a theology that was living and growing and present.

By 1996, I had two young daughters, I was struggling in my marriage, I had served a very conflicted church, and I had deep spiritual longings that I could not even name.  I sought the help of a spiritual director.  With my director’s guidance I spent much time during the next two years in an intentional spiritual discipline that included fasting, prayer, and meditation on the Scriptures.  This was an incredible time.  During those two years I spent five days doing a fast in the wilderness. It’s amazing how clearly one can hear God’s voice when all you have is a sleeping bag and water.

As a result of this intentional seeking, God called me—I use this word intentionally—God called me out of my twelve-year marriage and into authenticity in evey part of my being. Part of this authenticity included my coming out as a lesbian woman.  As many pieces of my life began to fall into place, many others were shattered.   I lost everything except my daughters and my relationship with God.  You know, when people use words like “urges” or “attractions” or “lifestyles,” I just want to shake my head.  I don’t think I look unintelligent.  Do you really think I would throw my life away for an urge or an attraction or a lifestyle? I am here to tell you that there is nothing that would make it worth it.  The only reason I would ever consider throwing away my life as I know it is that God asked me to.  That’s why I did it.  I could have chosen to ignore God’s call, and continue living a lie; but Calvin said in the Institutes, “knowledge of God is knowledge of self and knowledge of self is knowledge of God.”    He was absolutely right.   The deeper I went with God, the more I came to know myself and the more I came to know myself, the deeper I went with God.

After leaving the church I was serving, I struggled with my call to ministry.   I begged and pleaded with God to call me to something new.   I had witnessed the pain when people like me try to stay in the church.  They either have to be quiet about who they are or they end up being targets.  I didn’t want either, for me or my daughters.  God continued to call me to the Presbyterian Church and I am currently serving a small, struggling church in need of transformation.

Through the persistent movement of the Holy Spirit, through seasons of pain, through intense discernment, and through immersion in Scripture, I have come to understand more fully who God created me to be, who God created me to Love, and how the love of Christ frees me and calls me into a ministry that is more faithful, more whole. Our church finds itself somewhere along a similar journey with the Spirit and this week we have come to a critical point of discernment.  Our outgoing Moderator Rick Ufford-Chase told us tonight in worship that the movement of the Holy Spirit is messy.  It is messy.  Remember that warning from Annie Dillard?  Why do we come to church all dressed up and wearing fancy hats?  We should be wearing crash helmets and body armor in case the Holy Spirit shows up! 

Those of us who are advocating for this overture are convinced that when an individual has heard the voice of God in the form of a call to ordained ministry it is our responsibility together as the church to discern whether that call is to be affirmed and lived out. Why have I chosen to continue to serve in this church?   For one reason and one reason only:  because God has asked me to.

I am Jay McKell, Overture Advocate from the Heartland.  Finally, after your long day, finally is probably a word you are glad to hear ... we want to address a fear that some have expressed: the fear of schism.  I want you to know we share that none of us wants to see the body of Christ, our beloved church split.   So let me remind you of the promise found in 1 John, that “perfect love casts out fear.”  (1 John 4:19)    Now we still have a lot to learn about loving as perfectly as God loves.  Yet we, who advocate the deletion of paragraph B from the Book of Order and the adoption of a new Authoritative Interpretation, do so confident that God’s love of us, joined by our love of God will keep us from dividing.  Such love - God’s love - will strengthen us.  Such love - God’s love - enacted by us, will unite us.  Sure it feels dangerous to move ahead, to be prophetic, to lead the church into tomorrow, but to stand still because of fear or to be held hostage by our distrust of one another compromises God’s love while encouraging the continuation of division, suspicion, and loss.  Surely none of us wants that. 

So where do we go from here  How do we move beyond our fears, our paranoia of grace, and affirm the faithfulness of so many who love God and the church so much that they are willing to risk themselves to be themselves? 

As a child I remember making many trips through Birmingham while on the way to our family's home deep in the pine forest of southern Mississippi.  Back in those childhood years I remember driving by the Vulcan Statue south of town.  On those trips I remember seeing the blazing fires in the city's steel mills lighting the night sky.  But I also have other memories of Birmingham, frightening memories of Bull Connor unleashing his dogs and fire hoses on people who were being treated unjustly because of the color of their skin and of four little girls who went to Sunday School one morning and never returned home.  I didn't know much about prejudice as a child, but I did know Birmingham was a scary place and I was glad when we got through the city safely.

Later, as I looked back on those years I remember feeling betrayed by my church's timidity in challenging the wrongs of society and what we now know to be a violation of God's will for the world.

Ironically, perhaps I could say providentially, this week the church we all love is meeting in the city of Birmingham of all places. Much has changed. Some of it has been good.  Yet still we find ourselves on the road toward the reign of God and a time when fear will no longer describe our culture, determine our ethic, or diminish the gospel. 

Imagine what a good world it will be when God's way becomes our way.

Imagine a time when every child will know her sacred worth in the eyes of God.

Imagine a world in which every child will know he is wanted and welcomed, regardless of his uniqueness.

Imagine a church where all of us can be honest and open and vulnerable about who we are, trusting that God's grace has supremacy over all else.

Imagine all of us confident that Jesus loves us, this we know, for the Bible ... the Bible tells us so.

Imagine this group of Presbyterians gathered in the city of Birmingham having so much faith in God’s love and so much trust in God’s power that through the adoption of 04-01 we continue this city’s and our church’s transformation from that of a scary place of prejudice to that of a sacred place of hope for those who are yet to be freed, yet to be welcomed as sisters and brothers in Christ.

Earlier today you head a Caucasian woman speaking about the concern African-American women have about this matter.  Let me tell you what an African-American woman had to say.  Coretta Scott King, who, like me, once rode through fearful Birmingham, spoke four days before the 30th anniversary of her husband's assassination saying,  "I still hear people say that I should not be talking about the rights of lesbian and gay people and I should stick to the issue of racial justice. But I hasten to remind them that Martin Luther King, Jr. said, 'Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice every where!'  I appeal to everyone who believes in Martin's dream to make room at the table of brother and sisterhood for lesbian and gay people." (Reuters, March 31, 1998) 

 It took American Presbyterians repeated efforts knocking - not battering, but knocking - for over two hundred years to affirm clearly that African-Americans and that women are made in the image of God and fully welcomed in the church.  Is it going to take us Presbterians that long to be as courageous and as compassionate and as committed to justice and to Christ as she and her husband were?

God has placed you in this room for a purpose. You have been given an opportunity to right a wrong that our denomination has written into law as part of our Book of Order in much the same way that the city of Birmingham once had laws to disenfranchise and deny African-Americans their place at the table Mrs. King spoke of.  Those laws have changed, thank God.  In fact, now the people of Alabama have a treasured monument to reconciliation which quotes our prophet Amos, “Let justice roll down like waters and righteousness live an ever flowing stream.”  (Amos 5:24)  Has not the time come for us Presbyterians to hold up our Book of Order as a similar monument to reconciliation?

You are about God's work and that is always risky business.  As such it is our hope and our prayer that as we live into a new way of conducting General Assembly business that is sometimes a bit frustrating - “Can someone help me get Les working?” - if not frightening, so you will lead us into a new way of acknowledging the Lordship of Jesus Christ as you see to it that all of God's people, rich and poor, of every color, women and men, gay and straight, bisexual and transgendered, young and old are seen and celebrated for who they are, beloved children of God, called to leadership in the church. 

This is not about sex.  This is about love and it is about service ... both so badly needed in today’s world. 

Friends in Christ, we urge you to send Item 04-01 to the General Assembly with a recommendation that it be approved.  And as you do so, we covenant to pray for you and for our Church, as together we seek God’s will.  Thank you.

Advocates for 19 of the Presbytery Overtures to Delete G-6.0106b and provide
a new Authoritative Interpretation – #04-01

Ellen Acton, Detroit                                       Jay McKell, Heartland

Barbara Campbell, Cascades                           Deana Reed, Redwoods

Dick Carlson, Mid-Kentucky                        Jean Southard, Boston

Ted Coppock, Des Moines                            Don Stroud, Baltimore

Stephanie Crossland, Lake Michigan              Mieke Vandersall, New York City

Terry Davis, Southern New England              Lisa Ross Thedens, East Iowa

Bob Day, Genesee Valley                               Charles Thompson, Newark

Jean Holmes, Newton                                    Beth Wheeler, San Francisco

 Michael Kirby, Chicago                                 Stephen Hamilton Wright, Winnebago

 Tricia Dykers Koenig, Western Reserve