The presbytery of San Francisco voted 156-138 to ordain Lisa Larges. This means that for the first time in the history of the PC(USA), a presbytery is openly and willingly ordaining an individual they know to be gay now with the authority of the recent GAPJC decision.
This will have far reaching ramifications in the life of the denomination. Only God knows how all of this will shake itself out.
Perhaps this is not a bad thing. We know now without any shadow of doubt where some in our denomination are when it comes to human sexuality and more importantly the authority of scripture. We have been pretending that everything's hunky dory when we've known for a long time that there has been a chasm when it comes to the understanding of the authority of scripture. Maybe this will force us to decide what we really mean by connectionalism, by mutual accountability, and by being in communion with one another.
We've only been glossing over these issues hoping and pretending that things really weren't as bad as they seemed.
Well, the days of pretending are gone now.
We have to deal with these questions.
What does it mean for us to be a connectional church NOW?
What do we understand NOW about how the ordination of one presbytery is the action of the whole church?
How does what just took place in San Francisco Presbytery different any different than the actions of the Southern Baptist or the Episcopaleans?
Now we no longer have the luxury of pretense. We must begin grappling with these questions now.
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1 comment:
"Days of pretending..."
Nicely put...to a greater or lesser extent most of the Church has been hiding its head in the sand and pretending that all manner of problems don't exist...but the LORD must surely shake us so that only what is True remains...?! Where is the Unity that Jesus prayed for in JN 17...? Will teh Father NOT hear His High Priestly prayer and bring that Unity? Unity that can ONLY be brought by the Holy Spirit...the Unity of the Bride having made herself ready...?
In Christ
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