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04-June-1997 
97239 
 
       More Light Churches Network Supports Local Dissent  
   Instead of a National Strategy on Gay and Lesbian Ordination 
 
                          by Alexa Smith 
 
PORTLAND, Ore.--Leaders of the Presbyterian Church's 
gay-and-lesbian-affirming More Light Churches Network (MLCN) are not 
pursuing a national strategy for resisting Amendment B, the commonly called 
"fidelity and chastity" amendment, MLCN leaders told approximately 250 
representatives to the network's annual conference here, May 23-25. 
 
     Instead the 80-member-congregation MLCN will focus its efforts on 
supporting congregations and presbyteries that are dissenting from the 
constitutional amendment passed this spring by a majority vote of the 
Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)'s 172 presbyteries.  The amendment excludes 
gays and lesbians and sexually active but unmarried heterosexuals from 
church office. 
 
     "That [dissenting actions] is all happening from the bottom up.  It's 
not being directed by national gay/lesbian organizations.  It's spontaneous 
local organizing," Presbyterians for Lesbian and Gay Concerns (PLGC) 
co-moderator Scott Anderson told the Presbyterian News Service.   
 
     So national organizations like PLGC and the MLCN will be looking for 
ways to back local initiatives -- such as increasing support for inclusive 
churches in presbyteries where the Amendment B vote was close and creating 
a legal fund to defray costs and to help locate attorneys for those who 
many face judicial action.  
 
     "General Assembly work over the next three to five years will be 
minimal.  We're not going to see any progress [in reversing the Amendment B 
vote]; we don't have the votes," said Anderson, acknowledging that he 
believes building support for votes "further down the road" is what is 
needed now. 
 
     Though most MLCN and PLGC spokespersons don't soft-pedal the fact that 
Amendment B would probably have passed by a wider margin if it had 
addressed the question of gay/lesbian ordination only, they point quickly 
to what MLCN co-moderator the Rev. Richard Lundy calls "ferment" that is 
emerging after the Amendment B vote.   
 
     "We don't have a long-term strategy -- our leadership is trying to 
catch up with the Spirit," he said, alluding to at least two covenants of 
dissent that are circulating throughout the PC(USA). According to one 
version of the covenant, dissenting sessions and indviduals  "cannot agree 
to abide by the recently passed amendment."   Twenty-eight sessions had 
filed dissents, which were written in San Francisco and Washington, D.C., 
with the Office of the General Assembly (OGA) at press time -- an action 
that the OGA is warning may subject ordaining bodies to legal action in 
church courts.  MLCN spokespersons are estimating roughly 40 signatories 
and expect that number to grow.  
 
     Milwaukee Presbytery is the only middle governing body to approve a 
covenant of dissent, voting to do so by a 2-1 margin May 27.  New York City 
Presbytery passed a resolution pledging to support and work with sessions 
who must "in good conscience" dissent from Amendment B, and a similar 
resolution was strongly passed by Genesee Valley Presbytery. 
 
     At press time, other on-record protests of the Amendment B passage 
included an ecumenical statement by Christians attending the fourth Fosdick 
Convocation on Preaching and Worship at The Riverside Church in New York 
City and a remedial case  reportedly filed by National Capital Presbytery 
seeking a stay of enforcement of the amendment until the Assembly's 
Permanent Judicial Commission rules on its constitutionality. 
 
     What isn't clear is what consequences dissenters may face once 
Amendment B has become a part of the denomination's constitution on June 21 
at the close of the Syracuse General Assembly.  Some expect that previously 
tolerant presbyteries may be pushed to discipline dissenting churches. 
Others speculate the real pressure will be applied to candidates for 
ministry and to already ordained gay clergy when they pursue subsequent 
calls. 
 
     The Rev. Jack Haberer of the Amendment B-supporting Presbyterian 
Coalition told the Presbyterian News Service that "words of dissent and 
protest are appropriate," particularly for those who are grieving because 
of the amendment's passage.  However, he continued, "determined 
disobedience to the constitution is problematic" because "defiance of 
governing bodies dismantles church government and church unity."  He said 
he is urging dissenters to "at least live within the constitution while 
trying to change it" and urging supporters to demonstrate forbearance. 
 
     "More Light churches have always known there's some cost for what we 
believe is faithfulness," said Lundy, adding that at least 10 churches have 
joined the network since all the hubbub surrounding the amendment's 
passage.  Network leaders are concluding, according to Lundy, that "being 
quietly inclusive" is not the way to proceed.  "That cost might be higher 
now. ... What are the chances of us being found irregular, inappropriate? 
What are the chances of charges being brought? 
 
     "I don't know," he added, "but we have the structures in place to 
provide legal support and counsel." 
 
     Though formal dissents have actually been filed by a minuscule 
percentage of the denomination's churches to date,  those going public vary 
from the 141-member Jan Hus Presbyterian Church in New York City, which 
reaffirmed the ordination of its openly gay and lesbian elders in a service 
that was open to media coverage, according to Cliff Frasier, the church's 
soon-to-be-ordained associate, to the traditional 290-member Old First 
Presbyterian Church in San Francisco, California's oldest Protestant 
church.  Its minister, the Rev. Timothy Hart-Anderson, said the Old First 
session just finds this particular amendment, as the covenant says, 
"inconsistent with Reformed faith and polity."  
 
     Elder Barry Smith of Lincoln Park Presbyterian Church in Chicago said 
the session's decision to dissent was a "pastoral act as much as a 
political one," hoping to persuade gay members wondering whether to leave 
to remain in the church. 
 
      For Hart-Anderson,  who is the principal author of the San 
Francisco-generated covenant of dissent the strategy to not strategize 
nationally makes good sense.  "The only place Amendment B is going to have 
any impact is locally.  The General Assembly does not enforce ordination 
standards. Congregations and presbyteries do," he said, pointing out that 
some congregations will choose to dissent and others may just quietly 
decide to not raise questions about the sexual lives of potential church 
officers. 
 
     In brief remarks to the predominantly white MLCN gathering, PC(USA) 
stated clerk the Rev.  Clifton Kirkpatrick said,   "I'm not quite sure how 
this will work out.  But I'm grateful you are part of this church."  He 
acknowledged that he "never dreamed" the amendment would pass, but that he 
intends to be stated clerk to the whole denomination, including its gay 
community. 
 
     On the fringes of the conference and in panel presentations, MLCN and 
PLGC members tossed around other dissent possilibities, with longtime 
activist Chris Glaser pushing for gay Presbyterians to withhold mission 
dollars and to invest them in MLCN/PLGC projects, as well as joining him in 
a Eucharist fast until the amendment is rescinded.  Clergy activist the 
Rev. Howard Warren proposed looking at the creation of a nongeographic 
gay/lesbian presbytery. 
 
     PLGC co-moderator the Rev. Laurene Lafontaine told conference 
attendees that the strategy to "very much let [the issue] percolate" has 
caused "some tension as well" in the MLCN/PLGC leadership. She insisted, 
however, that the inclusive nature of the movement itself resists top-down 
management.  
 
 
     Anderson agreed, adding, "This movement is a messy, disjointed ... 
wonderful effort."  He described the current mood to the Presbyterian News 
Service as a "collective mulling.  There's not," Anderson said, "a clear 
direction ... but there are things happening." 

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