First Presbyterian Church
Baldwin Park, CA
March 1989

We of the First Presbyterian Church of Baldwin Park, in declaring ourselves a More Light Church, confess our belief that God's calling and receiving of a man or woman is revealed in that person's heart, and made manifest by the Holy Spirit in that person's life. Whom God has so received, we can and would do no less than to receive, celebrate, and embrace. We acknowledge that each of us is received into Christ's Church not by the merit of our lives, but wholly by God's great mercy and truly amazing grace. In the church and through the church we seek God's working in us toward the perfecting of our wills, our actions, and our relationships, in all aspects of our lives. Knowing that there is always a great distance between what we are and what, in Christ, we are choosing to be we rely all our lives on His love and mercy, and grace.

Believing that the church most of all should be the place where persons can live with openness and integrity to their conscience, we put no special requirement on anyone to maintain a hidden or a secret life within the church for fear of rejection. Also, we pledge ourselves to oppose by word and action injustices toward other persons, as we would oppose injustices toward ourselves.

We further confess that all whom God receives, He also calls to witness and to serve in Christ's name. We acknowledge that call in our lives and the lives of all who confess Christ as Lord. Therefore, all who share in our life together we seek to minister to, and with, and to receive their ministry toward us.

Acknowledging that, because of the reality in the Church, as well as in society at large, gay and lesbian persons may have justifiable reason for uncertainty as to their reception, we act here, in the Statement, to make clear, explicit, and real, our genuine welcome of all persons. This explicit welcome, we believe, is warranted and right.