lgbtqia+ Archives

The T-ball umpire as stated clerk?

Posted June 11th, 2021

While the Rev. Brian Ellison didn’t realize it at the time, umpiring T-ball games as a youth can be job training for work as a stated clerk, which Ellison does for both the Synod of Mid-America and Heartland Presbytery.

Pastor, former GA Moderator announce the founding of the Center for Jubilee Practice

Posted June 4th, 2021

The Rev. Ashley DeTar Birt and Ruling Elder Rick Ufford-Chase, Moderator of the 216th General Assembly (2004) and the former co-director of Stony Point Center are pleased to announce the founding of the Center for Jubilee Practice with the Presbytery of Utica and Johnson C. Smith Theological Seminary.

Challenging the ‘idolatry’ of the nuclear family

Posted May 20th, 2021

The first time the Rev. Lee Catoe heard the term “queer,” it was in the saying “queer as a $2 bill.” Sometimes it simply referred to something that was just odd, but other times it was referring to someone in the LGBTQIA+ community.

Breaking free from purity culture

Posted May 5th, 2021

The second Linda Kay Klein heard that the gunman in the March 16 shootings at three Atlanta spas considered his victims “stumbling blocks,” she knew he had been raised in purity culture.

If the land could speak, what stories would it tell?

Posted March 19th, 2021

After COVID-19 forced the cancelation of planned projects and in-person worship, Coastland Commons, a 1001 New Worshiping Community in Seattle Presbytery, moved to Zoom discussions about their city’s history of land use by Black, Indigenous and people of color communities. After about six months of Zoom gatherings, they figured out a safe way to see Seattle anew through socially distanced community walks. They reached out to the Museum of History and Industry (MOHAI), which organizes redlining tours in Seattle’s Capitol Hill and Central District neighborhoods.

Presbyterians impressed with UN leader in town hall meeting

Posted March 17th, 2021

The Rev. Dr. Dee Cooper has a certain expectation of how world leaders address large groups.

Covenant Network of Presbyterians offers up an online guest preacher for the Second Sunday of Easter

Posted March 15th, 2021

This Easter season, one of the ways Covenant Network of Presbyterians is furthering its mission is to offer Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) preachers a week off from filling their virtual pulpit on April 11, the Sunday after Easter.

Celebrating the gifts of people of diverse sexual orientations and gender identities

Posted March 2nd, 2021

To fulfill a mandate from the 223rd General Assembly (2018), Presbyterian World Mission is asking present and past employees of World Mission to participate in a survey about any experiences they may have had or witnessed with regards to sexual orientation, sexual identity, gender identity or gender expression.

Racial Equity & Women’s Intercultural Ministries funds grants to empower women, LGBTQIA communities

Posted January 14th, 2021

In an ongoing effort to build gender equity, the Women’s Leadership Development and Young Women’s Ministries of the Racial Equity & Women’s Intercultural Ministries has awarded women’s ministries leadership development grants to two congregations: St. Mark’s Presbyterian Church in Beechwood, Ohio, where the Rev. Carmen Harwell is pastor, and the Seigle Avenue Presbyterian Church in Charlotte, North Carolina, now known as The Avenue Presbyterian Church.

A roundup of action by committees of the Presbyterian Mission Agency Board

Posted October 7th, 2020

Some committees of the Presbyterian Mission Agency Board (PMAB) made more news than others during their Wednesday meetings. Here’s a roundup of some of the actions taken and input received from among the Board’s half-dozen committees.