Posted on 07/09/2011 6:32:12 PM PDT by Cronos
Its 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 sina list that includes transgressions as varied as usury, undue delay of marriage, and immoderate use of meat. (What now for patrons of Brazilian steakhouses?)
Of course, the struggle for full acceptance of LGBT people began way before efforts to repeal the so-called fidelity and chastity rule. Many folks mark the 1974 General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church as the beginning of the movement for LGBT equality in the denomination, when David Bailey Sindt held up a sign asking, Is anyone else out there gay?
(Excerpt) Read more at religiondispatches.org ...
-- I think they're making this up to show how homosexuality should be "accepted"....
Ultimately, Kirby says, organizing comes down to three basic things: Get Out The Vote, Get Out The Vote, Get Out The Vote. And every vote counts. As Pratt Keyes noted in an internal memo for Covenant Network: Last time the vote was 192-125 in our presbytery, and this time it was 152-152 [which counts as a no vote]. A huge and surprising difference I dont know about you, but if Id thought we could get that close, Id have beaten the bushes harder.The gays persistently hit the voting button, over and over again. And the Main-stream-Media (the same guys who distort the words of any Christian leader) played up with the "gay is normal" and slowly, the vote changed -- democracy has its limitations when it becomes mob-rule and controlled-mob-rule in particular
Get Out The Vote, Get Out The Vote, Get Out The Vote.
.
I had no idea that in the Presbyterian Church one can vote on what one wants to believe.
Wow, is there still need for a Bible?
Sounds like they voted that out a long time ago.
The real Presbyterian Churches in North America:
The Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church (ARPC)
The Canadian Reformed Churches (CanRC)
The Reformed Church of Quebec (ERQ)
The Free Reformed Churches of North America (FRCNA)
The Heritage Reformed Congregations (HRC)
The Korean American Presbyterian Church (KAPC)
The Orthodox Presbyterian Church (OPC)
The Presbyterian Church in America (PCA)
The Presbyterian Reformed Church (PresRC)
The Reformed Church in the United States (RCUS)
The Reformed Presbyterian Church of North America (RPCNA)
The United Reformed Churches in North America (URCNA)
http://www.naparc.org/member-churches/
Notice that the PC(USA) is not on the list.
UH....MISLEADING title...I am SURE that the Presbyterian Church of America does NOT believe this, and will not change. PCUSA is a DIFFERENT story.
Whee. We're also seeing the evolution of the PCA and the OPC, as well as all the other Protestant mainstream groups. Seems that the Catholic Church is the only Church of Christ. As it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be; world without end. Amen.
True, this is not supported by the EPC either. Though I think the EPC made a mistake recently in passing a vote to allow pastoresses
Would the entire membership of your list even fill a small hockey arena?
And they wonder why so many people stay home and don't go to church...... Home churching cannot be far behind.
The Spartans had a strategy to deal with them: they staffed the the kamikaze storm troops with them.
Unfortunately the PCUSA is the largest contingent at 2 million, while those on your list are 30,000 17,000 3,000 4,500 2,000 20,000 350,000 etc for the ARPC, CANRC, ERQ, FRCNA, HRC, KAPC, OPC, PCA, PRESRC etc with the largest being the PCA at 350,000 —> together they come up to about half a million, less than 25% of the size of the Presbyterian Church in the USA
btw, what exactly is the difference between the Presbtyerian Reformed Church (PresRC), the Reformed Church in the US (RCUS) and the Reformed Presbyterian Church of North America (RPCNA)? They all sound like juggling of the same few words
You can add the Evangelical Presbyterian Church (EPC) to the list of those parting ways with PCUSA.
Pretty much any denomination that has congregational voting will eventually vote on what they want to believe in relationship to what is popular theology for their culture. It's movement toward liberal theology starts at a slow glacier speed but eventually speeds up till it runs over the denomination.
As far as numbers go, you also have to incorporate that about 25-33% of the PC(USA) is conservative. Also, liberal Presbyterians don't attend church as often, and church attendance is high (over 90% in many congregations) in conservative Presbyterian churches. So, there are probably more conservative evangelical Presbyterians at church on most Sundays than liberal Presbyterians.
They aren’t in NAPARC because they accept women’s ordination to the eldership. They are more generic evangelicals than Reformed.
Sign of the times.
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