wfn.org | Commissioner sees all justice issues as "seamless garment"

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

Note #6619 from PCUSA NEWS to PRESBYNEWS:

12-June-2001
GA01061

Commissioner sees all justice issues as "seamless garment"

by Midge Mack

LOUISVILLE, June 12 - The Rev. Don Stroud, ordained in Presbytery of
Mecklenberg (predecessor of Presbytery of Charlotte), has ministered there,
and in the Presbyterys of Palisades, Albany and Hudson River, before coming
to the Presbytery of Baltimore two years ago. This time he is not guiding a
congregation but represents That All May Freely Serve, one of three
Presbyterian organizations working for a more fully inclusive church.

	Stroud, one of six openly-gay commissioners to the 213th General Assembly,
works with consortiums of churches, as well as individual congregations and
persons in his advocacy position. He moved his presbytery membership as soon
as he came to the new presbytery. The fact of his acceptance is shown in his
election only two years later as one of Baltimore's two clergy
commissioners.

	Here he serves on the Bills and Overtures (B&O) committee, enjoying the
chance to work again with the Rev. Pete Peery, a Davison College friend. He
came to both the 211th and 212th General Assemblies as an overture advocate
for ordination standard overtures.

	Stroud describes the Presbytery of Baltimore as "racially mixed and
pluralistic, consisting of many communities struggling to be effective in
dealing with the issues those situations create."

He cites the fact that the presbytery is 60 per cent African-American, and
credits the several inter-racial congregations with providing leadership
for, and modeling ways of, dealing with such issues.

	"What I try to do is to weave together in everyone's minds that all justice
issues make up a single, seamless garment," he says. "We work on all of them
as one."

	When he's not involved with the B&O Committee, he's observing others and
served as overture advocate for Overture 33 at the Committee on Peace, Unity
and Purity of the Church.

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