wfn.org | Covenant Network renews call to repeal 'fidelity and chastity' law

[PCUSA NEWS <PCUSA.NEWS@ecunet.org>]

Note #6599 from PCUSA NEWS to PRESBYNEWS:

11-June-2001
GA01041

Covenant Network renews call to repeal 'fidelity and chastity' law

Group hails new moderator Jack Rogers: 'We won again!'

by Jerry Van Marter

LOUISVILLE, June 11 – Exultant over the election of one of their own
as moderator of the 213th General Assembly, 675 supporters of the Covenant
Network of Presbyterians (CNP) renewed their call for the repeal of
G-6.0106b – the commonly called "fidelity and chastity" provision
– from the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) Book of Order at the group's
annual Assembly luncheon today.

	"We've won again!" said CNP co-founder and former General Assembly
moderator Robert W. Bohl, introducing new moderator Jack Rogers.

	"My decision to stand for moderator was made in Pittsburgh last fall at the
annual gathering of the Covenant Network of Presbyterians," Rogers told the
ecstatic crowd. "And you gave me the courage, through your words of support,
to stand for moderator. You are responsible for my being here today.

	Every speaker a the luncheon backed efforts to repeal G-6.0106b, which
requires of church officers "fidelity within the covenant of marriage
between a man and a woman or chastity in singleness." Outgoing CNP
co-moderator Laird Stuart, pastor of Calvary Presbyterian Church in San
Francisco, called the measure a product of "homophobia – which is an
obscenity, an affront to the church and Jesus Christ, even if those behind
it did not intend it that way."

	Joanna Adams, pastor of Trinity Presbyterian Church in Atlanta and
soon-to-be co-moderator of the group with Eugene Bay, pastor of Bryn Mawr
(Pa.) Presbyterian Church, said, "The Covenant Network is unalterably
opposed to categorical exclusion." The future of the church, she said,
"belongs to those who embrace inclusion, justice and mercy."

	Adams framed the issue in very personal terms. I have two daughters," she
said, "and they are both bright, committed, highly ethical people. They both
want to serve the Presbyterian Church they love. One is straight, the other
is gay. One can lead, the other is not allowed to lead."

	She said she and her husband stay in the PC(USA) "because we believe one
day the church, by God's grace, will change – that it will reject
discrimination and exclusion, which, every time it happens, breaks the heart
of God."

_______________________________________________
pcusaNews mailing list
pcusaNews@pcusa.org

To unsubscribe, go to this web address:
http://pcusa01.pcusa.org/mailman/listinfo/pcusanews