Christian Web News - Lisa Larges, a deacon at Noe Valley Ministry Presbyterian Church in San Francisco, has been blocked from ordination for more than 20 years and may get blocked again.
That is, if the Synod of the Pacific's Permanent Judicial Commission rule that the San Francisco Presbytery was wrong in deciding that Larges could move forward in the ordination process.
On Januray 15, the San Francisco Presbytery deemed Lisa ready for examination by a narrow 167 to 151 vote despite the PC(USA)’s ban on clergy that do not practice “fidelity within the covenant of marriage between a man and a woman or chastity in singleness.”
According to a controversial policy adopted by the PC(USA)’s 217th General Assembly in 2006, ordaining bodies were given greater leeway to ordain candidates who declare conscientious objections to specific Presbyterian teachings, as long as the ordaining body does not consider them “essentials” of church belief.
In her written objection, Lisa stated that she would not concur with the church’s requirement that she be married to a man or be chaste in order to become a minister.
She called the provision a “mar upon the church and a stumbling block to its mission” and said it did not express essentials of Presbyterian faith, according to the PC(USA)’s news service.
On Friday, Lisa, blind from birth, appeared during a meeting in Oakland of the Synod of the Pacific's Permanent Judicial Commission to ask church officials to let her application proceed.
Christian Web News - Jesus has a way of getting right to the point, doesn't He? There was certainly no mincing of words, He came right out and said, "why are you fearful?" and then went on to say, "O you of little faith." You don't have to read between the lines to see what He was saying, they had little faith.
Christian Web News - Galatians 3:13-14. Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us (for it is written, "Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree''), that the blessing of Abraham might come upon the Gentiles in Christ Jesus, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.
