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Reconciling In Christ Congregation:
After several years of educational programs about human
sexuality issues, offered in a variety of forms--culminating in a
six weeks series coordinated by Pastor page and Merle Longwood
within the Adult Forum, we examined how the congregation might best
continue to explore appropriate ways in which to understand and
respond to persons within our communities who are gay, lesbian,
bisexual, or trans-gendered, and families and others closely related
to them. The congregation affirmed its commitment to full
acceptance of persons without regard to sexual orientation by making
a decision to become a Reconciling in Christ Congregation (RIC).
A Motion was
passed at the 2002 Congregational Annual Meeting to direct the
Congregational Council to develop a plan to enable the congregation
to make a decision about becoming a Reconciling in Christ
Congregation. The Congregational Council arranged opportunities
for members of the congregation to discuss the implications of this
decision, concluding with a Sunday after-worship pot-luck lunch and
discussion leading to a congregational vote in April 2000, in which
the congregation voted overwhelmingly (with only two nay votes) to
become a Reconciling in Christ Congregation--the first
congregation in the Upstate New York Synod to make this commitment.
Extraordinary Candidacy Project:
In 1993, the
Extraordinary Candidacy Project (ECP) was formed to promote the
full participation of sexual minority persons in the professional
life of the Lutheran Church. The Social Ministries Committee
organized several educational events to provide more information
about the ECP to the entire congregation. On June 8, 2004,
Merle Longwood was invited to give a presentation about the ECP
to church council. The council approved a motion to assign the
Social Ministries Committee the task of starting an education
process within the congregation.
In December
2004, the congregation council approved the Social Ministries
Committee's proposal to invite Lura Groen to be a guest presenter in
the Adult Forum and to preach at grace in early 2005. Lura Groen is
a student at the Lutheran Theological Seminary in Philadelphia. Her
candidacy committee is the Northeast Panel of the ECP.
Click here to read
Lura Groen's sermon |
