Today, February 21, at University of the Ozarks,
Clarksville, Arkansas, the Presbytery of Arkansas affirmed the
218th General Assembly's Ordination Amendment 08-B by a vote of 116 YES to 64
NO.
The Ordination Amendment vote in
2001-02 by Arkansas Presbytery was 92 Yes, 96
No. So, the Arkansas Presbytery is yet another presbytery in
this extraordinary trend of presbyteries "flipping" their votes from NO in 2001
to YES in 2009. The first presbytery to "flip" from opposition in 2001
to affirmation in 2009 was the Presbytery of Western North Carolina.
The
Presbytery of Arkansas is a governing body of the Presbyterian Church
(USA) with 91 congregations, one Korean fellowship, one Laotian ministry, and
two new church developments.
Word from the ground from Greg Adams, MLP Liaison for
Arkansas and Second Presbyterian Church, Little Rock from today's presbytery
meeting:
Great news from Arkansas Presbytery today on
08-B:
- Vote: 116 yes, 64 no
- Youth Advisory Vote: 19 yes, 8 no
- Number of speakers in favor of 08-B: 8 including the 5
who had been committed to speak as part of our planning group
- Number of speakers against 08-B: 4--points made were
concerns for divisiveness and splintering of church, loss of clarity of
standards and support of sin in ordination
- There was a motion to take "no action" on 08-B which
received a second, had one speak against it and the motion lost
overwhelmingly
We were very excited, encouraged and
inspired.
Also, our statewide paper, the Arkansas
Democrat-Gazette, ran a front page below the fold story this morning on
both this vote and the vote tomorrow at Second Presbyterian Church (my home
church) of an openly gay man as deacon. This same religion editor/reporter was
also present at the Presbytery today.
We are excited, grateful, encouraged and
inspired. Very glad to be part of what feels like a ground-shifting movement
within the church.
Great work out there and so good to keep hearing
good news! Peace, Greg
Adams
_______________________________________________________________________________
Special
thanks to all those working to end discrimination against LGBT
Presbyterians and their families now in Arkansas Presbytery. You are an
inspiration.
We are grateful for the witness, leadership and
service of Greg Adams, Michael Upson, Ruth
Shepherd and the many other allies and supporters in Arkansas
Presbytery. A special word of thanks to Arthur Fullerton,
native Arkansan who now serves at West Hollywood Presbyterian Church, West
Hollywood, CA, a More Light Church. Arthur Fullerton
had a dream of MLP doing a field outreach tour across the State of
Arkansas and he made it happen. With Greg
Adams, Leslie Belden, Ruth Shepherd
and Michael Upson, Arthur and
I had a great time doing that field outreach tour and covered the state doing
pro-LGBT education a couple years ago.
We want to offer
particular gratitude to Rev. Debra Peevey, Associate
for Outreach, MLP, and Rev. Tricia
Dykers-Koenig, CN, for providing outreach and serving as resource
persons with this presbytery.
We
want to alert all of you working in local presbyteries to pass 08-B to prepared
for any of the "No Action" efforts in your presbytery and be
ready to address them.
Thanks be to God for this stand for justice and call to
the end to discrimination in the Arkansas
Presbytery! Together We are building a Church for all God's
people.
with hope and grace,
Michael
PS -- Special thanks to Bruce
Hahne, recent National MLP Board Member and Elder, First Presbyterian
Church, Palo Alto, CA, a More Light Church for number-crunching and analysis of
trends so far for Amendment 08-B -- go to http://yeson08b.blogspot.com/
Michael J. Adee, M.Div., Ph.D., Executive
Director & Field Organizer
Answering God's Call to Serve!
For resources, stories, presbytery
vote tally, and news from More Light Presbyterians
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