With gratitude to God, the board, staff, and community of That All May Freely Serve rejoice in the vote by the 218th General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (USA) to open the door to the gifts and callings of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer members by removing its institutional barriers to ordination.

Working alongside More Light Presbyterians, the Covenant Network of Presbyterians, and other fairness-loving organizations, That All May Freely Serve and our New Church (R)evolution has experienced a new opening to the Holy Spirit at this Assembly. Through worship, hospitality, prayer, creative educational events, and more, together we invited the church to join the welcoming generation and vote for its future. Today’s action demonstrates a choice by the church to draw an ever-widening circle.

In our joy, we are especially mindful of all the saints—those with us, and those who have gone to be with God—whose dedication and faithfulness has made such a day as this possible. Now we commit ourselves to bringing this invitation of a hope-filled future to the 173 presbyteries. Spreading this good news to all of the denomination will require the cooperation, hard work, and contributions of every fairness-minded Presbyterian.

Won’t you join us?

__________

Also see the New Church (R)evolution announcement at NCR GA Announcement.

Jim and Jackie have a long history of supporting LGBT equality. They were the founders of the PFLAG (Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays) chapter in their community, and were at the forefront of advocating for full insurance coverage of those living with HIV/AIDS. Jim and Jackie have also been strong proponents of marriage equality and full inclusion of LGBT people in the life of the church.

Today’s event took place outside the San Jose Convention Center where the 218th General Assembly of Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) is currently meeting.

An abandoned parking lot sits in the midst of the city, not far from the glitz of convention centers and high-rise hotels. Strains of Moby and a thumping beat lead people into this space off the beaten path. Sidewalk chalk marks out a labyrinth to one side, and young adults walk along its paths thoughtfully. There's an RV, and undulating images to accompany the music are projected against the large white walls of the vehicle. Nearby, there's a table with cookies and a cooler full of water to revive tired worshippers. Dozens of tea lights flicker and form paths in the darkness.

Welcome to Techno Evening Prayer, held nearly every evening during the 218th General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (PCUSA). Members of the New Church (R)evolution create the alternative worship space each evening, after the fervor of the Assembly proceedings.

In a quiet corner, a rug and pillows allow people to pray quietly alone or with a prayer leader. In the center, people are dancing, wearing and waving glow sticks. Others are playing with beach-balls. Still others are painting designs on each others' faces. The music is lowered for opening and closing prayer and words of welcome.

Here twenty to thirty young adults, and often members of older generations gather to dance, sing, pray, hug, cry, shout and laugh with one another. There's something for everyone, and leaders and participants alike actively seek to make everyone feel welcome.

Sure, it's advertised as the 'church of the future,' but what does this have to do with full inclusion of LGBTQ members of the church? For some, it is simply a safe place to express identity and practice acceptance of themselves and others as they are created. For others, the variety of activities available as forms of prayer and worship illustrate the many kinds of people that are in our churches and how worship and prayer in community need to be made available and accessible to all.

Last night, after an anti-gay hate group accosted members of the Assembly, worship participants drew out in sidewalk chalk all the meanings they could think of for love. The parking lot was filled with handwriting and some profound thoughts, from 'Love doesn't endure abuse' to 'Love is Radical' to '[Love] is always enough.'

Techno Evening Prayer will continue to be held each night at 11:30 just off the Parkside Walkway between the San Jose Civic Center and the Crowne Plaza Hotel. For pictures, please visit:

picasaweb.google.com/newchurchrevolution.

-- Le Anne Clausen Director, Center for Faith and Peacemaking

773-656-4745

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http://www.seminaryaction.org.
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The revolutionaries of the New Church (R)evolution reacted to the protesters with cookies and prayer.

As the old saying goes, a picture is worth a thousand words. See photos at: Hospitality and Hatred.

For more photos from the New Church (R)evolution, go to New Church (R)evolution photos.

LGBT issues and our lives were the subject of our brief time together. Three of our members shared their faith stories and their hopes for the church. We also had an honest and engaged conversation about the need for education in the denomination on transgender concerns.

We pledged to pray for the Moderator throughout his term, and we ended our meeting in prayer, led by TAMFS Board Member Sara Herwig.

New Church (R)evolution, a group formed by That All May Freely Serve, had their first Techno Evening Prayer service on Saturday, June 21 in downtown San Jose. This time of post-modern prayer was a time for people at the Presbyterian Church (USA) General Assembly to mediate and worship with their bodies. Techno Evening prayer was started to give people the chance to have a little fun and wind down from the stressful days of the General Assembly.

SAN JOSE – That All May Freely Serve (TAMFS), a group advocating for full membership of gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender individuals within the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), hailed a 41 to 11 committee vote to remove discriminatory language from the church’s constitution, opening the door for ordination of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people.

"Today was an historic day for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender individuals who have been waiting for the Presbyterian Church to embrace all people as equal members," said Lisa Larges, Executive Director of TAMFS. "This was the most votes on record affirming LGBT people who are called to ministry."

The next step in the process is for the full assembly to vote on the recommendation made by the “Church Orders and Ministry” committee. The vote is expected to occur either Thursday or Friday of this week. If the full assembly votes affirmatively on the committee’s recommendation then each of the 173 presbyteries across the country will have to ratify the decision before it takes effect.

For more information about the 218th General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) please visit pcusa.org/ga218 .

For more information about TAMFS please visit tamfs.org .

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Last night after the Church Orders committee voted overwhelmingly in favor of LGBT equality, New Church Revolution held a revival. Gospel music, food, celebration... typing fails to express the joyous energy of that prayer-filled night. I'd have to sing the songs with you to communicate it properly.

Joel 2.18-32 was the core of the service, echoing through everything that happened. Richard Lindsey preached a prophetic sermon on the pouring-out of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit makes us church. We do not need to wait to be invited into their church, he said; we are to invite them into the church we have found here. "Why should we ask all the Israelites to go back to Egypt?" he said.

There was such cheering. There was such joy in the house.

Reflecting on this and our more formal worship service on Sunday, I think again and again of the vitality in worship that our LGBT community has. That's not a comment about the tempo of the music or the excited cadences of anyone's voice. (We have quiet worship too, provided no one yells out any wisecracks.) More than anything it's about the relief on people's faces. In worship we are like something that's been bottled up in a jar for a long time, and the lid just came off, and everyone's heart flies up faster than sight in gratitude and freedom.

I've seen this kind of relieved vitality in a few other places. In churches of color. In churches in the U.S. whose language is not English. In churches of predominantly poor people (of any color.) In the prayers of homeless men about to sit down to a big meal.

I don't really know what to call it, or how to analyze it. Maybe it's a special gift of the Holy Spirit to people on the margins, for He knows how badly the people on the margins need it. Or maybe it's something about our response to the Spirit, that our ability to respond does get bottled up and twisted around by oppressive structures, and it takes a worship environment that's less influenced by those structures to un-bottle and un-twist us. I don't know. All I know is it's real, and the church needs it. I think of all the staid, dull, dead, rote worship services I've sat through in mainstream churches. If the church doesn't want to die, it needs the vibrancy of the margins. The church needs this. This is the revival for today.

http://holy-vignettes.blogspot.com/2008/06/general-assembly-blog-day-5-revival.html

Those who are called to ordained service in the church, by their assent to the constitutional questions for ordination and installation (W-4.4003), pledge themselves to live lives obedient to Jesus Christ the Head of the Church, striving to follow where he leads through the witness of the Scriptures, and to understand the Scriptures through the instruction of the Confessions. In so doing, they declare their fidelity to the standards of the Church. Each governing body charged with examination for ordination and/or installation (G-14.0240 and G-14.0450) establishes the candidate’s sincere efforts to adhere to these standards.

Today, June 24, 2008, the Committee on Church Orders and Ministry recommended to the 218th General Assembly that the above new language replace the old version of this portion of the church constitution in the Book of Order. The current language, approved by the PC(USA) in 1997, has long been used as a weapon against lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender persons who have sought to answer God's call to them to serve the church as Elders, Deacons, and Ministers of the Word and Sacrament.

The vote of the committee was 41-11. This is an astonishing 80% of the members of this group of commissioners.

Earlier in the day, the same committee voted to uphold the action of the 217th General Assembly in its authoritative interpretation (AI) regarding "scrupling" (a process in which an individual being examined for ordained office in the church can declare that his or her faith and conscience leads them in another direction than the one declared by the church). This ability was threatened by a decision of the church's highest court, the General Assembly Permanent Judicial Commission, in a case called Bush, et al. v. Presbytery of Pittsburgh.

The decision in the Bush case has effectively put a stumbling block in the middle of the road to ordination for TAMFS Minister-Coordinator Lisa Larges. If the General Assembly acts to approve this AI, Lisa's--and many other's--ordination processes will be back on track.

“The 218th General Assembly (2008) affirms the authoritative interpretation of G-6.0108 approved by the 217th General Assembly (2006). Further, the 218th General Assembly (2008), pursuant to G-13.0112, interprets the requirements of G-6.0108 to apply equally to all ordination standards of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). Section G-6.0108 requires examining bodies to give prayerful and careful consideration, on an individual, case-by-case basis, to any departure from an ordination standard in matters of belief or practice that a candidate may declare during examination. However, the examining body is not required to accept a departure from standards, and cannot excuse a candidate’s inability to perform the constitutional functions unique to his or her office (such as administration of the sacraments).”

The committee also affirmed its support for the 2006 Peace, Unity, and Purity report of the Theological Task Force by voting 42-12 to answer five overtures that would have rescinded or amended the report with the action taken on the new authoritative interpretation.

Actions of Other Committees:

Also approved to be submitted to the General Assembly was the overture from the Presbytery of Denver that would strengthen Presbyterian commitment to pastoral care and to equal civil rights for families of same-gender loving couples. It would also establish a study committee to explore the theology and practice of marriage and related matters. Although this overture is not as affirming and powerful as the one submitted by the Presbytery of Baltimore on marriage, it is still one that will move the church in the direction of recognizing our relationships.

An overture initiating the process of replacing the inaccurate translation of the Heidelberg Catechism currently in our Book of Confessions with a translation faithful to the original language was passed. The other part of the PC(USA)'s constitution, the Confessions are both a witness to our faith and a teaching tool for the faithful. The version of the Heidelberg Catechism currently in the Book of Confessions contains several passages that are inaccurate translations of the original language, including mistranslations that are used against queer people.

That All May Freely Serve thanks everyone who worked so hard to bring these overtures and proposals from sessions to presbyteries to the General Assembly, and for those Overture Advocates who presented the work to the committees. Thanks and appreciation also go to committee members who advocated for fairness and love, and the inclusion of all God's children in the Church and the world.

The work of all of the committees has now concluded, and the entire body will begin its deliberations in plenary sessions tomorrow. This work shows that the Spirit is blowing through San Jose, and that there is, indeed, a New Church (R)evolution going on! Pray that this continues on the floor of the General Assembly tomorrow, when the entire body meets to consider these recommendations.