A New More Light Church!

Congratulations to James Lees Memorial Presbyterian Church in Louisville, KY! They are the latest to affiliate with More Light Presbyterians. They also affiliated with Covenant Network of Presbyterians and That All May Freely Serve.

Read the news on the More Light website:

The Session of James Lees Memorial Presbyterian Church declared in their letter to their presbytery and the PCUSA:

"We believe that this policy of the Presbyterian Church (USA) actually gives implicit support to violence against our gay and lesbian brothers and sisters. This policy gives a subtle and not-so-subtle stamp of religious approval of different forms of discrimination toward gay and lesbian persons elsewhere in our society. It is a policy which denies some people their rights to full participation in the Church on the basis of the good gifts God has created and bestowed on them.

We have discerned that the time has arrived for us to lend our voice to inclusion and full participation of our gay and lesbian brothers and sisters within our Presbyterian family. We share the conviction that we are all diminished by this policy, all hurt, and made to be hypocritical – yes, we want you as members (and we will not refuse your resources), but we do not believe you have what it takes to be a leader. That “flaw” that we name is the basis of the violence, discrimination, hate, and fear which have witnessed and tacitly supported. We have the opportunity to change this and rather to become reconcilers.

We are seeking to be faithful to the leading of God’s spirit which is a reforming and restoring spirit. From Jesus and Pentecost onward the church has sought to discern and follow this oftentimes-disruptive yet life-giving force in the world that always seems to challenge our assumptions and attachments to certain forms and to lead us toward deeper lives of justice, compassion, and love.

We send you this letter in gratitude for the whole Church of whom we are a part, a Church who desires to cultivate a faithful discipleship of Jesus and to be a faithful channel of God’s grace however imperfectly and stumbling we do so. We also send you this letter with great humility and awareness before all those who have had to bear our actions and silence with great suffering, hardship, and even loss of life. And we write in gratitude to God who continues to expand our hearts and horizons, whose love makes possible our own, and from whom nothing can separate us."

Hopefully, now with the actions of the recent General Assembly more congregations will come out of the closet and support full equality for all people.