Our Friends Need Our Help
February 04, 2008

I wrote you recently about the situations in San Francisco and Minneapolis. Now I am writing to ask you to give financial support to our friends in San Francisco. As soon as information is available from Minneapolis, I will write to you about their needs.

The vote in San Francisco was very close. Nonetheless, that presbytery approved self-declared lesbian candidate Lisa Larges as certified ready for examination to become a minister of Word and Sacrament in the PC(USA). Ms. Larges asked the presbytery to grant an exception to the church constitution's ordination requirement of "fidelity in marriage between a man and a woman or chastity in singleness." A majority of the presbytery voted to grant her departure.
However, the sizeable minority that opposed her departure has sufficient votes for a stay of enforcement. That will prevent any action of the presbytery to proceed toward ordination while the judicial case runs its course.

Members of the presbytery are now organizing to mount a court challenge in this case. The presbytery has advised them that court cases can run to more than $100,000.

Those who want to see the constitution upheld need our help. They need our prayers. They need (and have) competent legal counsel. And they need our financial support. Community Presbyterian Church in Danville, CA has established a designated fund for this purpose. Checks should be made payable to "CPC Denominational Relations," with "Legal Fund/Complaint" on the memo line. The mailing address is Community Presbyterian Church, ATTN: Mike Miller, 222 W. El Pintado Road, Danville, CA 94526.

I you have any questions about this, contact Mary Naegeli, who is leading the effort, at revmary@mac.com.

We are now seeing the bad fruit of the Peace, Unity, and Purity Report, adopted by the 2006 General Assembly. The Coalition will be working at the 2008 General Assembly for the reversal of the negative effects of that report.

The church courts are important to establishing that presbyteries cannot grant exceptions to explicit requirements of the Book of Order, and that officers of the church are responsible to honor their vow to "be governed by our church's polity and abide by its discipline."

We need to help our friends with direct contributions. Please pray for God's blessing on these efforts to maintain the integrity of our constitution.

Terry Schlossberg
The Presbyterian Coalition

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