Honored to be in your prayers

As stated in my previous blog, I have received a ton of mail regarding the General Assembly. Most of the mail contains information about different groups agendas and opinions. I don't have any problem or complaints about this type of mail, it effectively informs me of the issues and arguments for or against certain points.

In this blog, I wanted to share information about another type of mail I have received. A couple of mailings that express no opinion, just notes from people that tell me they are praying for me. A couple days ago, I received a hand written letter from a woman, Dorthy Kirpatrick from Sarasota Florida. Below is what the letter stated:

Dear Gregg,
A short note to tell you I will be praying for our safe travel to the General Assembly. May you seek God's will in making decisions in all discernments. God Bless You, Your prayer partner - Dorthy Kirpatrick.

The note made my day. Thank you Dorthy and thank all of you for your continued prayers. It means a lot to me. It is such an honor to serve as commissioner to GA and even more of an honor for people like Dorthy to be praying for me.

Civil Marriage and Holy Unions

Outlook magazine (http://www.pres-outlook.org/) has sponsored webinars every Tuesday to present some of the major issues coming up before GA. It has done an excellent job at getting speakers to represent both sides of the issues. The webinar yesterday was presenting the "Report On Civil Marriage and Holy Unions". I see this issue and any issue regarding same-sex couples, Civil Unions, LBGT ordination, homosexuality as one of the most contentious issues and in many ways it baffles me. First of all, I do not believe homosexuality is a sin or a choice. I am sure that last sentence offends many but I would challenge you to walk a mile in my shoes. I have a 24 year old son that is gay. He is extremely helpful, generous, and compassionate. As a child, he was very involved in the church and because he feels the church does not accept or condone his life style, I don't know if I will ever get him back to church. This breaks my heart for the church means so much to me.

Getting back to why the contentious nature of this issue baffles me. If homosexuality is a sin, why is more of a sin then materialism, coveting, divorce, lying, ignoring people in need. If homosexuality is a sin and all sins are the same then I suppose then only God can be ordained. I have heard several that are against same-sex anything say that we want to welcome everyone into our church and want to be inclusive and welcome and invite the LGBT community into our flock. We invite them to ride on the bus but they have to sit in the back. My wife would never belong to a church that did not ordain women, why would we expect the gay community to flock to come to a church that considers them less worthy then others. We are missing out on an opportunity to evangelize and grow within this segment of the population. It is not only the LGBT people that we are discouraging to come in our doors, it is their families, friends & sympathizers. Perhaps this is one of the contributing factors why the church is shrinking.

I love my church and love being a Presbyterian, I will never abandon the church. The church is flawed as I know I am. I pray that the people of the world including me can see past the flaws, disagreements and intolerance and see the church for what it is meant to be, a place to find God and a vehicle to show gratitude for what God has given us by ministering to the rest of the world.

Not more mail!

We the commissioners were warned early that there would be mountains of information to read and process. I think as of today I finally have a little insight on the truth of that statement. There is much information provided from the GA that we have access to on the web site. Every issue that the local presbytery's or Synods want GA to consider is communicated in what they call overtures. So the GA provides us with a site with all the overtures we are to consider at the upcoming GA. This is tremendous amount of information. But this only scratches the surface of the information we receive at home.

There are 'Affinity' or 'Special Purpose' organizations that have their own passions and agendas. Some of these organizations include: Presbyterian Peace Fellowship, Presbyterian Voices for Justice, Pro-Life Presbyterians, Presbyterian Lay committee and others. So these organizations testify before assembly committees and try to help inform, educate and sway GA members. All of these organizations have agendas and causes that they want to effect during the GA so they send out mailings. They send mailings promoting their points of view and agendas. Some I agree with, and some I don't. I have received many mailings from various groups.

It is amazing how involved we Presbyterians are in social, economic and political causes. I would think the average Presbyterian has no idea. I know I didn't. For instance, there is an overture that has been sent to the GA to suspend military aid to Columbia. The US has certified that Columbia is Okay in regards to human rights even though there are reports of youth killings by the army and there is significant illegal surveillance done by the government. The US is planning to lease 7 military bases from Columbia (contributing to funds for the Colombian government). The overture wants us to protest the US governments support of Columbia. I had no idea we are providing military aid to Columbia and why we should or shouldn't.