wfn.org | Overflow crowd attends Covenant Network luncheon to hear Barrie

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

Note #6004 from PCUSA NEWS to PRESBYNEWS:

Shepherd
26-June-2000
GA00057

	Overflow crowd attends Covenant Network luncheon to hear Barrie Shepherd

	by Bill Lancaster
			
LONG BEACH, June 26 -- About 550 people overflowed a hotel ballroom to
attend the Covenant Network luncheon Monday at the 212th General Assembly of
the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.).  They heard network co-chair Laird Stuart
introduce many of the 16 of 22 living Assembly moderators who are members of
the network, and they heard the Rev. Barrie Shepherd, a poet and retired
pastor of the First Presbyterian Church of New York City, speak in support
of the network's efforts on behalf of homosexual persons.

	Stuart told a "parable" about a man driving at night who meets a woman in
an oncoming car who yells out the window at him, "PIG!"  Offended, the man
yells an angry epithet back at her, then rounds a curve and hits a pig in
the road.  The point -- "we've been passing each other and not listening to
each other," Stuart said.  He then told some examples of how they are trying
to listen to those on the other side of the debate.

	Shepherd said the Covenant Network goal is unchanged, the ordination of
practicing homosexuals.  "We're shooting for Louisville (213th Assembly)
next year," he said to the applause of those assembled.

	In a speech interspersed with poetry, Shepherd said the church is caught
"between a rock and a soft place."   He said, "For centuries, millennia,
we've been wedded to the image of the rock ...  upon which Christ's church
is founded."  He said it is a powerful, effective image, evoking stability,
solidity and changelessness.  But, he said, there is another image of God,
which Jesus Christ came to reveal, "powerfully portrayed in the parable of
the prodigal," where a forgiving, father God "ran from the house, down that
dusty farm road, and flung himself upon this boy, embraced him and welcomed
him home.  There is not a lot that is rock-like about that," he said.

	"We need a church that is willing to forsake it's place of authority and
power, to climb down from it's secure perch high upon that rocky run and
plunge right in, taking its place among the targets of the rapids, and
reaching out to those in peril and distress, " he said.

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