Some notes about the March 14th Pittsburgh Presbytery meeting and proposed amendment 08B

At the March 14th Pittsburgh Presbytery meeting, a motion was made to extend the time for those who wished to speak on behalf of or against passing amendment 08B beyond the 20 minutes allocated. The motion was voted down, and I did not get the chance to present what I had prepared to say that day. Below is what I would have said:

My name is Fred O’Leary, and I worship and serve at Sixth Presbyterian Church in Squirrel Hill.

I’ve had the good fortune over the past few years to study with folks who have researched much about the history of the Presbyterian Church. I’ve learned about the past 150 years, and our Church’s struggles to move beyond prior literal interpretation of the bible that excluded women and people of color from serving God in a meaningful way. I look around this sanctuary with pride and I see the very clear and wonderful results of having moved beyond those forms of discrimination that tarnished our denomination. One day my hope is that we’ll be able to look back on this issue with that same pride.

It’s been my observation that it’s very rare when someone actually hears the sometimes quiet whisper that is a call to serve God, and often even rarer when one responds to that call. We in this room can probably each remember the first time we recognized that call.

That call sometimes goes out to God’s followers who are excluded from serving by our current Book of Order.

That call sometimes goes out to beloved children of God like our own Reverend Brent Dugan of Ben Avon, who was so loved by his congregation there when his life was tragically cut short in November 2006. In my opinion, this sort of tragedy is precisely the sort of thing we all need to be seeking to eliminate by bringing dialog on these difficult issues forward, and working to end the exclusion of some from a call to serve. Never again should anyone have to feel so torn between their belief in and desire to serve God, and the person that God created them to be, that he or she should desire to end their own life.

I’d like to close by reading two short poems to you.

The first one is some words that may be familiar to many of you: ‘Those who are called to ordained service in the church, by their assent to the constitutional questions for ordination and installation, pledge themselves to live lives obedient to Jesus Christ the Head of the Church, striving to follow where he leads through the witness of the Scriptures, and to understand the Scriptures through the instruction of the Confessions. In so doing, they declare their fidelity to the standards of the Church.’ I share these poetic words with you today, and ask you to think of them on their own, and not with regard to what the words they are intended to
replace.

The second comes from the 40th Psalm. I’ve found it helpful in my contemplations in preparation for today’s meeting: ‘I waited patiently for the Lord; he inclined to me and heard my cry. He drew me up from the desolate pit, out of the miry bog, and set my feet upon a rock, making my steps secure. He put a new song in my mouth, a song of praise to our God. Many will see and fear, and put their trust in the Lord. Happy are those who make the Lord their trust, who do not turn to the proud, to those who go astray after false gods. You have multiplied, O Lord my God, your wondrous deeds and your thoughts towards us; none can compare with you. Were I to proclaim and tell of them, they would be more than can be counted.’

May God’s grace be with all of us today.