wfn.org | [PCUSANEWS] No Subject

[PCUSA NEWS <PCUSA.NEWS@ECUNET.ORG>]

Note #8690 from PCUSA NEWS to PRESBYNEWS:

05172
March 31, 2005

Oasis

Presbyterian 'misfits' launch new fellowship in California desert

by Jerry L. Van Marter

PALM SPRINGS, CA - From the time she moved to the desert from Philadelphia in
1987, longtime Presbyterian Anne Smith says, the nagging question came up
every Sunday: Where am I going to go to church?

	None of the four Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) congregations in the
Coachella Valley appealed to the open-minded, mission-minded Smith, and she
doesn't think she could ever feel "at home" in a church of another
denomination.

	Smith's friend Ginni Rassieur, a desert émigré from the Twin Cities
area of Minnesota, was in the same predicament. "Anne and I shared the same
pain," she says, "and it kept coming up every Sunday."

	Rassieur goes on: "We were reluctantly attending another Presbyterian
church in the valley when I heard about Anne Smith, who'd just been elected
moderator of (Riverside) presbytery. So I went to a presbytery meeting and
shared my concern with Anne, and we agreed to talk after her moderatorial
year was finished."

	In the meantime, Rassieur and her PC(USA) minister husband, Chuck, 
spoke to a Methodist congregation about being Christian parents of a gay son.
There they met lifelong Presbyterian Jane Mead, a former communications
director for the Synod of the Northeast, and her husband, Jim, who also had
been prospecting for a like-minded Presbyterian church in the valley.

	"We tried all four Presbyterian churches here, and then the
Methodists, Episcopalians and Lutherans," Jane Mead says. "We were told by
one Presbyterian pastor that we just wouldn't fit in there - and we didn't
feel like we fit in anywhere else, either."

	About three years ago this small but doughty band of self-described
misfits started a church of their own: Spirit of the Desert Presbyterian
Fellowship, which was formally recognized by Riverside Presbytery last month.

	The new group coalesced over three years, with Smith serving as what
Rassieur calls "the connecting person." It began with worship monthly, then
moved to every other Sunday and, in the last year, to a weekly program.

	"We cast no aspersions on any other Presbyterian churches," says
Chuck Rassieur. "We just hope people will appreciate that we're another
option for the 42 new people who move to this area each day."

	Because Spirit of the Desert bills itself as "inclusive" and counts
several openly gay Presbyterians as participants, some in the desert fear
that the group will declare itself a "More Light" congregation - joining a
group of congregations that have been openly defiant of the PC(USA)'s ban on
the ordination of sexually active gays and lesbians.

	"For us, inclusiveness is not tied to any one issue," says Jerri
Rodewald, who with her husband, Bill, divides her time between the desert and
Newport Beach on the southern California coast. "For us it means, 'Come as
you are.'" 

	Some in the valley are skeptical. When the presbytery voted to
recognize Spirit of the Desert, one pastor voted "No" and at least one
presbyter abstained. "Some pastors are hurt that there's this many people out
here who don't feel comfortable in their churches," Jerri Rodewald says.

	Nevertheless, the fellowship is "well-accepted by most," says the
Rev. Ken McCullen, interim pastor at nearby Desert Hills Presbyterian Church,
who is active in Spirit of the Desert with his wife, Donna. "Some can't
figure out how we fit structurally, but we just plan to ... get on with our
ministry and not be bothered with all that."

	That ministry defies categorization, says Chuck Rassieur: "We don't
like labels. We're conservative when it comes to Reformed liturgy (Communion
is celebrated every week) and mission orientation." 

	Fully 60 percent of the fellowship's income goes to mission projects,
including the Mary Magdalene Project in West Hollywood, which helps women to
escape prostitution; Riverside Presbytery's Home of Neighborly Service, which
reaches out to the Hispanic community; the denomination's New Church
Development efforts and special offerings; Hidden Harvest, a gleaning and
feeding project in the Coachella Valley; and Bell House Academy, a
Presbyterian school in Kenya.

	For the moment, the group has no intention of becoming an organized  
  Presbyterian congregation, according to the Rev. Carl Nelson, who came to
the desert in 1990 from New York City. "It would be great to grow into a
200-member fellowship," he says, "but we have no staff, no building, no
organizational requirements."

	Spirit of the Desert, which now has about 35 participants, worships
at 5 p.m. every Sunday in a United Church of Christ building in Palm Desert.
Worship is preceded by a book discussion group and followed by a meal. The
fellowship includes five Presbyterian ministers, who share the preaching load
with occasional guest preachers.

	"We wondered if preachers would preach for nothing," Jim Mead says.
"It has been no problem. They all say it enables them and the fellowship to
be more involved in mission ... and we've got the best preaching in the
valley."

	"We (the five ministers) are very different in style, so there's
enough variety that people here have a much broader exposure," Nelson says.

	All five use the common lectionary, "which seems to establish
continuity," says Jerri Rodewald.

	In the end, "we're all about mission," Ken McCullen says. "The last
thing we cut is mission." 

	Adds Jerri Rodewald: "We want to reach those folk who've gotten out
of the habit of going to church and those who've stopped because they
couldn't find a place like ours ¾ open to the Holy Spirit and committed to
mission in the world."

	For more information about Spirit of the Desert Presbyterian
Fellowship, visit its Web site at www.spiritofthedesertpresbyterian.org.

To subscribe or unsubscribe, please send an email to
pcusanews-subscribe-request@halak.pcusa.org or
pcusanews-unsubscribe-request@halak.pcusa.org

To contact the owner of the list, please send an email to
pcusanews-request@halak.pcusa.org