First openly gay mister to be ordaed by Prbyterian Church (USA) tomorrow - Natnal LGBTQ Task Force

Contents:

• FIRST OPENLY GAY MISTER TO BE ORDAED BY PRBYTERIAN CHURCH (USA) TOMORROW
• PRBYTERIAN CHURCH USA TO ORDA FIRST GAY MISTER
• NORTH TEXAS CONFERENCE ORDAS OPENLY GAY PASTOR
• US PRBYTERIAN CHURCH ORDAS OPENLY GAY MISTER

FIRST OPENLY GAY MISTER TO BE ORDAED BY PRBYTERIAN CHURCH (USA) TOMORROW

Kimberly Stt about last week's meetg of the Uned Methodist Church's Council of Bishops and s impedg vote on whether to orda gay pastors. The Uned Methodist nomatn has over 6 ln members the Uned Stat, and they're divid over the qutn of ordag gay misters. She left the church for seven years and me back to be s first Black, female, openly gay pastor, and she jos now om Phoenix.

KIMBERLY SCOTT: Thank you, So this bate over ordag gay clergy has been gog on for a while, sce the late '60s. And then the other part was always send-gusg myself - whether or not I was supposed to be open about my sexual orientatn, whether or not I was supposed to play the game of don't ask, don't Jt so that I'm clear, is the church's official stance on homosexualy today ambiguo or is pretty clearly fed and you'd like to see changed? It clearly stat that you nnot be an openly-practicg homosexual and be ordaed the Uned Methodist Church.

It also stat that although all human begs are of sacred worth, homosexualy is patible wh Christian teachg. S., church have gone beyond what the Book of Disciple says to make the church open and accsible to gay and lbian clergy like Do you know other pastors who aren't as open as you or haven't been able to be as open as you - have ma this choice to keep this important si of their liv quiet or secret om their ngregatns? The bate around homosexualy is not somethg that most Ain and third-world untri are - really re about.

PRBYTERIAN CHURCH USA TO ORDA FIRST GAY MISTER

The Natnal Gay and Lbian Task Force applds the historic ordatn of Stt Anrson set for tomorrow Madison, Wis.

He will bee the first openly gay mister ordaed by the Prbyterian Church (USA) sce the nomatn amend s nstutn this year to elimate official barriers to the ordatn of people based on their sexual orientatn.

NORTH TEXAS CONFERENCE ORDAS OPENLY GAY PASTOR

“So much of my work wh the Shower of Stol Project volv holdg my hands every day symbols of loss — loss of mistry, loss of votn, loss of llg, ” says David Lohman, fah work ordator at the Natnal Gay and Lbian Task Force. But before leavg the church, she wanted to do somethg symbolic to show that she was only one of untls lbian, gay, bisexual and transgenr (LGBT) people servg the church silence bee the st of livg thentic, open liv was too high. In 1989, he was the first to orda an openly gay man.

You were ordaed a gay man shortly after the Epispal Church said that was OK to orda non-celibate homosexuals. JOHN SHELBY SPONG: The first homosexual person that I ordaed knowgly was a man named Robert Williams.

US PRBYTERIAN CHURCH ORDAS OPENLY GAY MISTER

And this me after I had wrten a book lled "Livg In S" on the whole gay issue as well as some other patterns human sexual life that I thk we need to look at and reasss om a different perspective than the tradnal one.

We had opened a mistry to gay and lbian people out of Hoboken, N. J., which has a very strong and very large homosexual populatn. And he began to work among the people, most of whom are eply alienated om the church bee the only msage they've ever heard om the church is that God hat homosexual people and that they ought to eher be nverted to beg heterosexuals or be thrown out of the church or even executed, as the Book of Levic You end up - We wound up ordag him to the prithood 1989 December.

And he blew his ol and began to say thgs that ma his mistry and the Dce of Newark - we were right far out on a le to support him - almost impossible to said that monogamy was a heterosexual practice and should never be imposed upon homosexual people.