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The diminutive songstress who played a high school dropout on “Glee” and originated the role of Glinda in “Wicked” is just as comfortable talking about her Christian faith as she is her support for gay rights. In a recent interview with The Advocate, she explained how she can hold both dear to her heart. “I read my Bible and I pray and all of that. I really do,” she told the gay-interest publication. “But at the same time, I don’t think being gay is a sin. Period.”Chenoweth, 43, who grew up in Oklahoma’s Bible belt, cited her grandmother as inspiration.....Asked...

Three months after allowing the ordination of openly gay clergy, the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) seems headed for a split as nearly 2,000 conservative Presbyterians are gathering in Minneapolis on Thursday and Friday with creation of a “new Reformed body” as an agenda. Making preparations for the conference is the Rev. Paul Detterman, executive director of Presbyterians for Renewal, an independent organization based in Louisville, Ky., where the denomination’s headquarters are. Detterman, administrative consultant for the new Fellowship of Presbyterians, the organizer, recently wrote in a communication to fellow conservatives that initially only a few hundred people were interested in new...

A North Carolina state university has put out a list of approved "gay-friendly" churches for faculty and students raising concerns by at least one professor that taxpayers are inadvertently involved in "telling people where to go to church." An office with the University of North Carolina's Wilmington campus began circulating the list late last month. It was compiled as part of a broader guide to gay-friendly businesses, nonprofits, health centers and other services in the area. The "lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, questioning, intersex and allied students, faculty, staff, and alumni" office described the document as a "local resource guide" for...

A Free Presbyterian Church minister who sparked protest at Belfast Pride on Saturday has defended his actions, calling the parade “a very unpleasant experience”. Rev David McIlveen, of Sandown Free Presbyterian Church, amassed a crowd of protesters at the corner of Waring Street and North Street on the parade route. He criticized the Pride event claiming: “I certainly do not see it as an asset to Belfast in any way. It is something that is grieving to a good number of people”. The Irish Times report that McIlveen, who organizes an annual anti-Pride protest, did not see his actions as...

A new policy that opens the door to ordination of openly gay deacons, elders, and ministers in the Presbyterian Church ( USA ) took effect July 10, with prayer vigils and liturgical celebrations to mark the historic occasion held across the nation from Pittsburgh to Nashville to Denver and beyond.Closer to home, the landmark change means that Andersonville resident Jeannine Oakes' dream of becoming an ordained minister of word and sacrament—in a church she dearly loves—may very well come true after all. "I am still in the early stages of the process, with a lot of requirements to go," Oakes...

A gay elder in the Presbyterian Church (USA) says the recent rule change that removes any doubt over the legitimacy of her position makes the church more accepting, though intolerance still exists in many areas. Beth Van Sickle was ordained in her Ohio congregation in the 1980s and faced challenges to her post. But yesterday , the church’s constitution was changed to allow unmarried, noncelibate clergy. Van Sickle says it makes the church appear more accepting to young people, who may be questioning the conflict between their religion and their sexuality. “People will come to the church because they recognize...

.. "On this new day the church continues to live into its call to be a house of prayer for all people, seeking reconciliation, calling forth the gifts of all who seek to serve Christ in the world," .. "While we celebrate this day, we also know that minds and hearts need time and clarity to understand issues that divide us. We pray for God's guidance, humbly seeking to be united in our common purpose -- to live and proclaim the good news of the gospel."...He grew up in a home and church where sexuality was never discussed, he said....

The Presbyterian Church USA will quietly usher in gay ordination when an amendment on Sunday formally enters the Book of Order of the church’s Constitution. The change comes after 33 years of contentious discussion within the Presbyterian Church and as the gay-rights movement gains momentum in other Protestant Churches. “This is a very historic day,” said Rev. Daniel L. Martian, pastor of the Presbyterian Church of Livingston. The new policy makes it easier for the Presbyterian Church U.S.A. to ordain gays and lesbians as clergy if they chose by dropping a policy requiring unmarried clergy to remain celibate. “Now that...

It’s official. As of July 10, after a 15-year struggle, qualified gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people can be ordained as clergy and officers in the Presbyterian Church (USA). After 24 presbyteries flipped from previous “no” votes, a total of 97 approved amendment 10A; well over the 87 required for the change. This victory finally removed exclusionary language from the Book of Order, which required “fidelity within the covenant of marriage between a man and a woman, or chastity in singleness.” The old language also required prospective ministers and officers to repent of “any self-acknowledged practice which the confessions call...

Presbyterians who support gay rights are prepping sanctuaries this Sunday (July 10) to celebrate the passage of a new church policy that allows gay pastors to serve openly for the first time in the denomination's history. As the new policy for the Presbyterian Church (USA) becomes official that day, several left-leaning churches "will mark the moment with prayer and rejoicing" in their Sunday services, according to a press release from More Light Presbyterians, which advocates for gay rights in the church. "The Presbyterian Church enters a new era of equality on Sunday," said Michael Adee, the group's executive director. "It...

When Jeannine Oakes answered God's call to become a pastor, it was a moment of both clarity and confusion. Though her heart belonged to the Presbyterian Church, she also hoped one day to give her heart to a woman with whom she would share her life. The Presbyterian Church's ban on openly gay clergy did not allow for both. Eventually, she asked the leadership at Fourth Presbyterian Church to endorse her mission and enrolled at McCormick Theological Seminary to complete the necessary coursework."I need to be fully who I am, and the church needs to accept that," said Oakes, 32....

Stornoway High Church will remain part of the Church of Scotland for the time being.At a congregational meeting on Tuesday night, members were balloted on the question of whether or not to split from the denomination. This action was in response to the decisions taken by the 2011 General Assembly to allow openly gay ministers ordained before 2009 to remain in their posts and to establish a theological commision, due to report in 2013, to consider the implications of allowing gay ministers to train.74 per cent of the High Church members balloted (162) voted in principle to withdraw from the...

Brett Webb-Mitchell, a Presbyterian minister who is also gay, took to Salon today to share his experience preaching in Hnederson, North Carolina. It has not been easy:The bigotry, disgust and underlying fear of those of us who are different than the rest -- whoever "the rest" may be -- was breathtaking in its viciousness. And the place where so much of this prejudice found light was in the pages of "Home in Henderson." People from the town and county had free rein to insult and mock me. "Homo of Henderson" they dubbed me, but often they weren't nearly as eloquent:...

As an out Presbyterian preacher, I'd experienced prejudice before. But nothing like what I faced in North CarolinaI was reading "Home in Henderson" -- the unofficial city website for a small town in North Carolina where I had recently moved to preach -- when I came across the blog entry. It was posted under the pseudonym "Church Reporter." "A friend that attends the First Presbyterian Church told me to do a Google search on their new minister Brett Webb-Mitchell," the entry began. "Having done so, I have only three comments to make on the pastor selection: 1. Who is responsible...

The Evangelical Presbyterian (E.P) Church, Ghana, on Sunday joined the growing condemnation of homosexuality in Ghana, saying attempts to justify the abominable behaviour were unacceptable. The Reverend Joyce Kofi Kodade, Moderator of the West Volta Presbytery of the E.P. Church, said the explanation that homosexuality could be biological, psychological, or social behaviour is untenable. He said: “If you know you are sick, go for treatment, see a doctor, if you think it is psychological, see a counsellor. Don't justify homosexuality by the laws. “According to the law you may be right but according to the will of God, you are...

The mood Sunday morning at Fair Oaks Presbyterian Church Sunday was upbeat – the pews were packed and many nodded as the pastor preached his message of forgiveness...Next month, the Presbyterian Church begins allowing those who are openly gay to be ordained as ministers, elders and deacons. The new rules, which were approved in May and take effect July 10, have provoked a wide range of responses from local church leaders.They are holding town hall meetings with concerned members, sending letters explaining the rules and posting their opinions of the new ordination standards on their church websites. "It is the...

A small but fast-growing Presbyterian denomination meeting this week in Memphis resolved long-standing theological and constitutional conflicts over the ordination of women that have vexed and divided evangelical Christians for decades. A record-setting 460 delegates to the Evangelical Presbyterian Church's 31st General Assembly voted to allow congregations to call women to ordained ministry, even if their presbytery (governing body) objects for theological or doctrinal reasons....

......While Presbyterians have voted on many issues over the years, never have they been so brazen as to vote Scriptural standards out of vogue. Never have Presbyterians been so presumptuous as to "vote" that biblical standards do not apply to their denomination...... At issue is that this denomination has hit the mute button on 2,000 years of Christian belief and morality. Standards that have been honored for centuries have now been deleted, leaving Presbyterians with the following moral mandate: "whatever." Whatever a local church, or a presbytery, or some other bureaucratic subset chooses to do is now permitted. The group...

Unprecedented turmoil in recent months in local and regional Presbyterian circles — including five lay leaders in a Grand Forks congregation quitting the church after being charged with violating church rules as well as a top administrator being dismissed suddenly — was the main business at a meeting here Monday. About 50 clergy and ordained lay elders of the Presbytery of the Northern Plains gathered for the one-day “stated meeting,” one of about three held each year. Besides the leavings, the conflict also included a gag order put in place by a higher church panel that had been lifted, it...

Hallelujahs are sounding loudly from at least two local churches as members celebrate a long-sought change in the Presbyterian Church to fully include everyone regardless of their sexual or gender orientation.St. Mark's Presbyterian Church has worked to remove obstacles for openly lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender ordination for more than two decades..Newquist, 37, said she feels a "huge debt of gratitude" to the Presbyterians who changed their minds and made the change possible. "It's a hard thing for anyone, but particularly when you have had a strong conviction to say, 'I was wrong and I'm ready to make a different...