Of course I was disappointed and saddened that our community here in Pittsburgh voted No on Amendment 08-B, the proposal to revise the ordination requirements in a way that will open ordained office to the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender faithful in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.).That outcome is not what grieves and perplexes me. It is the repeated votes to limit the discussion, to prevent any meaningful dialogue among us that brings me close to despair for our church.

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Every morning I confess “I have sinned in thought, word and deed, by what I have done and by what I have left undone,” and I ponder for a bit how that is true in the past stretch of my life. I have been thinking a lot of all that happened at the Pittsburgh Presbytery special meeting to vote on 0-B, an amendment that would allow our GLBT sisters and brothers in faith to heed God’s call to ordination in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) if they follow Jesus life and teachings.Continue

In the special meeting on March 14, 2009, Pittsburgh Presbytery voted 206 to 105 against Amendment 08-B to revise the ordination requirements to emphasize obedience to Jesus’s teaching and example as illustrated for us in Scripture.  This would open the door to gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender (GLBT) people to ordination in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.).Continue