4 - 6 PM
3 February 2002

First Presbyterian Church
Hartford Connecticut

Photo: Terry Davis

We were all affected by the events of September 11th as we recognized the frailty of human life – but not of the human spirit. People were generous with their time and with their financial resources. People of faith prayed together and dreamed of the day when pain will be no more.

The events of September 11th provided Presbyterian Promise with a stronger commitment to do its work of justice making and prophetic teaching about the wondrous imagination of a God who created the world with its full diversity. God knew it would not be easy to live together as one, and still God created. Our task has been and will continue to be one of embodying God's imagination and hope as we create a welcoming place for all in the household of God.

The work of the Board continues on in such hope. Monthly gatherings reflect the strong commitment of a few, representing the many who support an inclusive church. We pray, share our passion, dream visions and make plans. 

We are grateful to those who have contributed their time in planning education opportunities, fund raising events, and the always needed strategy sessions. We are grateful, too, to those who opened their hearts and their wallets and presented us with financial gifts so that this ministry's good news might be shared with others.

This "queer" gathering of folk who meet month after month to encourage the churches to "do justice, love kindness, and walk humbly with God," looks forward to the day when all may freely serve.

That is our promise... the Presbyterian Promise of which we are a part. May God continue to bless this ministry and its faithful servants.
Maria LaSala, Co-Moderator

Reflections for the Annual Meeting of Presbyterian Promise

At this first annual meeting of Presbyterian Promise I thought it might be good to reflect on a central theme of our name and mission statement, namely, that our purpose is to “proclaim God’s promise of justice and love.”

Such a declaration is deeply rooted in the Gospel message of the good new of God’s love for all people. As the writer of Ephesians reminds us, how it is that God’s love extends beyond the limits of our own religious tradition is a mystery. Thus, in verses 5 and 6 of chapter 3, we hear:

In former generations this mystery was not make known to humankind, as it has now been revealed to [God’s] holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit: that is, the Gentiles have become fellow heirs, members of the same body, and sharers in the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel.

This promise has been unfolding in the history of Israel and the Christian church. It began as a promise that a small marginalized group of nobodies would be come a great nation. It moved on to be a promise that a small group of followers of One who had been crucified would find the Spirit of Christ’s resurrected presence in their lives of service. It has continued to move on in different times and places helping the church to understand more fully in each time the importance of sharing the promise, not as a means of exclusion and domination, but as an invitation to become ever more inclusive.

Commenting on our Historic Principles of Church Order in the Constitution the 195th. General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church, U.S.A. stated that

controversy, and the tension inevitably produced by diversity, may be the arena where – in the struggling and grappling with ideas – the Spirit is most lively to speak to the church [Cited in the “Affirmation — 2001"].

God’s promise is just that: a promise that keeps unfolding through the presence of the Spirit in communities of faith and struggle. It is not a guarantee or a particular doctrine to which everyone must agree. In fact, when the promise becomes a guarantee of salvation for some and exclusion for others, it is no longer a promise at all.

In her book, Standing Again at Sinai: Judaism from a Feminist Perspective, Judith Plaskow emphasizes the promise as a gift of distinctiveness and not one of privilege and exclusion. She says: 

It is not in the chosenness that cuts off, but in the distinctiveness that opens itself to difference that we find the God of Israel and of each and every people [p.107].

The constitutional statues of G-6.0106b are directed at persons, as well as judicatories in an effort to use polity to control God’s promise. They certainly were directed at me. I grew up in the Presbyterian church and was ordained shortly after the ordination of women was allowed. Since 1951 I have served 17 years in a parish and 32 years as a professor of theology. Yet because my partner of 25 years is a woman, I am no longer considered fit to serve a parish in our denomination.

SO, WHAT ABOUT JUSTICE AND LOVE?

What do we do with the justice and love of God’s Promise? Certainly amendment A is but a small step in the direction of the justice and love we seek to practice in our work of education and outreach. At least it will invite us all to honor freedom of conscience and mutual forbearance, as we agree to disagree and to respect those who interpret their faith in Jesus Christ in different ways.

By returning to our traditions up to 1978,  giving authority of ordination to the Presbytery, we at least allow those who know the candidates best and are in a position to discern the authenticity of their call from God, to make decisions in conformity with the standards of our Constitution. 

My own response to the passage of the passage of Amendment B was to retire early from the Presbytery, even though I continued to teach at Yale. In this way I refused to support the work of a church that has decided that, for me, there was neither justice nor love. At the same time I refused to leave the church, as so many of the Coalition would demand! I wanted to keep the contradiction of my life and ministry front and center in a church that has lost its way in the search for justice.

Many people think that justice and love should be deferred for a more propitious time. But they ignore the fact that what is going on is a struggle over polity and power that will not end because of one or another vote. New groups, besides those of women and queer folk, will become targets even if the present ones seem to disappear. The reason for this has been clearly stated by Martin Luther King:

Peace is the presence of justice, not the absence of conflict.
[Quoted by Gwen Baxton, New York City, Dec. 14, 01].

As long as we exclude groups of people from the community of faith we will continue to have injustice and continue to have conflicts. Only by finding a way that all can be welcomed in God’s name will the community be one where people have a voice, a vote, a face, and a neighbor who respects them!

I for one, long for this day and, meanwhile, live by faith in God’s promise for the mending of creation and the mending of the church. Amen.
Letty M. Russell, Co-Moderator

• On January 26, the State of Connecticut formally approved us as a corporation. Thank you Barbara Hager for all your legal efforts! 
• Wilton Presbyterian's Session became a member of Presbyterian Promise! Alleluia! 
• Hartford Presbyterian Church officially became a member in October! Alleluia 2!
• David Lewicki joined us as coordinator for three months beginning March 1st. His work included assisting Wayne Osborne in the fundraising concert, meeting with supportive people and churches and helping us organize for more effective work.
• In April, Wayne Osborne invited a great group of friends to join him for an inspiring evening of song and readings followed by a fine reception. Many thanks to the folks at Wilton Presbyterian Church -- especially David Graybill, Chris Delmar, Susan Friedl and Elaine Shields.
• Co-moderator Letty Russell was part of the team which drafted Affirmation – 2001, an important theological reflection which we hope you will consider signing. 
• We rejoiced in Westminster Presbyterian Church's planning a study program to help that congregation better understand human sexuality and faith.
• We elected Maria LaSala as co-moderator when Wayne found he could not devote the needed time. 
• After General Assembly, we contacted each of the churches in our presbytery offering to assist their process of discovery and discernment as the denomination debates proposed amendment 01-A.
• We responded to the President Bush's suggestion by inviting our friends and supporters to use their federal tax rebate to support the work of demonstrating God's inclusive love.
• We formed a committee to seek a minister of outreach.
• Other committees are working on improving financial support, engaging the churches and contacting the glbt community.
• Janie Spahr visited us twice, in April and October. In October she was invited to preach in Hartford -- part of that church's 150th Anniverasry celebration. 
• We journeyed to Dobbs Ferry NY to meet with people from New York City, Hudson River and TAMFS, National and formed "Sleepy Hollow" That's an agreement to work together to support passage of Proposed Amendment 01-A.
• Dick Hasbany accepted co-chairing the team planning the TAMFS national conference in Stony Point NY, April 4-7, 2002.
• In August, we received our letter from the Internal Revenue Service approving our request for tax exemption.
• And December ended with a FABulous Christmas gathering at John Merz!

Our mission statement commits us to a long term ministry as we work "to proclaim God's promise of justice and love in Jesus Christ by organizing inclusive and inquiring churches in the Presbytery of Southern New England into a community of mutual support for the empowerment of gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender persons, and for outreach, education, and Christian evangelism." We look forward to the challenges.
Ralph Jones

As a committee, we have laid the groundwork for any future work that a search committee might do, and perhaps we have done all we are commissioned to do until the organization decides to move forward with an actual search process. We have completed a profile of the kind of person we want to serve in the role of evangelist. We have completed a job description. With these tools in hand (always subject to revision) we can, at the appropriate time, begin to devise a search process.

The committee met on January 24, 2002 to discuss where we go from here as a committee and as an organization, keeping in mind Presbyterian Promise's mission statement: 

To proclaim God's promise of justice and love in Jesus Christ by organizing inclusive and inquiring churches in the Presbytery of Southern New England into a community of mutual support for the empowerment of Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgender persons, and for outreach, education, and Christian evangelism.

This cooperative venture prompted the search committee to brainstorm several alternative scenarios related to professional staffing.  At our recent search committee meeting, we articulated four scenarios and recognized that there may be others.

1. Hire a part-time or full-time evangelist who would be the primary person to carry out activities related to our mission in PSNE. This is the original goal of the organization and pattern in other TAMFS regions. The funding and activity would focus in the Presbytery of Southern New England.

2. Work cooperatively with Hudson River/Presbyterian Welcome to hire a part-time or full-time evangelist who would work in the sponsoring geographical areas. This model would be similar to the first in that a single evangelist would do a broad range of educational and pastoral kinds of tasks and would probably be a LGBT person seeking ordination or ordained.

3. Develop a "consultation" model of activity in which Presbyterian Promise, or Presbyterian  Promise in conjunction with Hudson River and/or /Presbyterian Welcome would seek and hire a person to do specific activities related to the mission statement, e.g., someone to do a workshop for churches on developing special and regular "inclusive" worship, or someone to visit churches to talk about the needs of LGBT youth, etc. This model is similar in some ways to what resulted from our Dobbs Ferry meeting, i.e., the hiring of John Rhodes to perform a specific, limited task. This model would require Presbyterian Promise to devise and coordinating an annual (?) program, that is, determine the kinds of activities we want to do during a year, find the appropriate people to lead the work, and coordinate dates, locations, etc.

4. Work with Presbyterian Welcome, which already has a professional staff person and administrative support, to hire an additional staff person, whose work would focus in the PSNE.

At this point, the search committee awaits further discernment and direction from Presbyterian Promise.
Dick Hasbany
 

The following were elected in the indicated classes: