[img]https://www.sermonindex.net/images/forum/2004/may/featured_news.gif[/img]BIRMINGHAM, Alabama (Reuters) - The largest U.S. Presbyterian Church body approved a measure on Tuesday that would open the way for the ordination of gays and lesbians under certain circumstances.The new policy was approved on a vote of 57-43 percent among 500 church representatives at the biennial meeting of the Presbyterian Church U.S.A. It gives local church organizations more leeway in deciding if gays can be ordained as lay deacons and elders as well as clergy, provided they are faithful to the church's core values."It permits local governing bodies to examine candidates on a wider criterion than sexual orientation ... it allows these bodies to look at the whole person and not categorize them," said Jon Walton, pastor of First Presbyterian Church in New York's Greenwich Village and a member of the "Covenant Network of Presbyterians" which backed the change.
_________________SI Moderator - Greg Gordon
oh well according to them it was predestined.....oooooh ok, but seriously that is a very sad result.....my head shakes, my heart trembles i am very saddened.
New US church leader says homosexuality is not sinNewly elected leader of the U.S. Episcopal Church Bishop KatharineJefferts Schori said on Monday she believed homosexuality was no sinand homosexuals were created by God to love people of the same gender.Jefferts Schori, bishop of the Diocese of Nevada, was elected onSunday as the first woman leader of the 2.3 million-member EpiscopalChurch. the U.S. branch of the worldwide Anglican Communion. Shewill formally take office later this year.Interviewed on CNN, Jefferts Schori was asked if it was a sin to behomosexual."I don't believe so. I believe that God creates us with differentgifts. Each one of us comes into this world with a differentcollection of things that challenge us and things that give us joyand allow us to bless the world around us," she said."Some people come into this world with affections ordered towardother people of the same gender and some people come into this worldwith affections directed at people of the other gender."Jefferts Schori's election seemed certain to exacerbate splitswithin a Episcopal Church that is already deeply divided overhomosexuality with several dioceses and parishes threatening tobreak away.It could also widen divisions with other Anglican communities,including the Church of England, which do not allow women bishops.In the worldwide Anglican church women are bishops only in Canada,the United States and New Zealand. The Robinson issue has beenparticularly criticized in Africa where the church has a growingmembership and where homosexuality is often taboo.Jefferts Schori, who was raised a Roman Catholic and graduated inmarine biology with a doctorate specialization in squids andoysters, supported the consecration of Gene Robinson of NewHampshire, the first openly gay bishop in more than 450 years ofAnglican history.Asked how she reconciled her position on homosexuality with specificpassages in the Bible declaring sexual relations between men anabomination, Jefferts Schori said the Bible was written in a verydifferent historical context by people asking different questions.
Isn't this simply rationalizing the sin which is the act, process, or result of rationalizing; especially : [b]the provision of plausible reasons to explain to oneself or others behavior for which one's real motives are different and unknown or unconscious[/b].I'm praying that the Holy Spirit will bring light to expose the darkness, which seems to be increasing in America every day.
_________________Ed Pugh