1,000 Conversations - Comments

Pasqua: Your Conversation: A step-by-step guide

nospam@example.com (Pasqua) — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 06:11:52 -0400

Thanks for this. It really helped me out!

Stella: Your Conversation: A step-by-step guide

nospam@example.com (Stella) — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 06:19:24 -0400

Very useful information

David T. Mair: The Point in a Nutshell

nospam@example.com (David T. Mair) — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 23:52:21 -0400

We canbnot have second-class citizens in the church. Therefore, all members of a congregation should be elligible for the office of Deacon, Elder and Minister of the Word and Sacraments

Bob McQuilkin: Your Conversation: A step-by-step guide

nospam@example.com (Bob McQuilkin) — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 20:37:51 -0500

I am working within our presbytery (Mackinac) to bring together active elders for Elder Assemblies, and my aim is to encourage healthy, helpful conversations related to the proposed amendment. We are planning two events on February 21 - and I hope we may have others. I appreciate your effort, and will be recommending your web-site to the elders in promoting our events.

Lisa: Telling the Stories

nospam@example.com (Lisa) — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 15:48:44 -0500

I'm amazed at how humbling these conversations are. It is so moving to hear another's story, and so refreshing to talk about faith and things that matter at the deepest level. Even in the church we don't often sit down and talk to one another about what God is doing in our lives, about the stories that shaped our faith, our convictions and our core values. But what I also realized after this conversation is how difficult it is to work through our differences on ordination; it seems so intractable. Makes me wonder what would happen if the whole church did nothing but pray and sought the way through that God has for us.

Alice: Telling the Stories

nospam@example.com (Alice) — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 15:46:47 -0500

I have had one real conversation - with a friend - at my church. My church is a "mixed bag" on issues such as this but with much variety of opinion.

The friend is a southern woman much younger than I. We recently shared an amazing trip to Africa exploring a partnership for our congregation. When the leader of the partnership workshop challenged us to confront honestly some of the issues that may raise concerns for each group, I became the designated spokesperson on this issue - as a mother of a gay man who could not "legally" be ordained by our church and continue his open family ties - with partner and children.

As you may imagine, if you have been following the saga of the Episcopalian Church within the worldwide Anglican communion, our African partners were far more conservative about issues of sexuality than we Americans. However, our conversations with each other were forthright and candid - with real listening on both sides.

Coming home I realized that the nine of us who shared this experience were quite bound together yet had still never been open with each other about this or a number of other issues. So I asked my friend to be my "practice conversation", explaining the context of our service and my charge. She graciously agreed and It was a good conversation. She had very little information about what has happened historically and what may come to pass now in the denomination despite being a lifelong Presbyterian.

She was quite forthcoming, however, about her own feelings that we - as forgiven folk - had no business judging and/or excluding others.

I'm now looking to my next conversation.

Jane: Telling the Stories

nospam@example.com (Jane) — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 14:35:31 -0500

My friends, Don and Shirley have long been members of a large, conservative church in SC. Shirley has attended a few PFLAG meetings with me, but her husband has not been able to even discuss the fact that their 30 year old son is gay. Upon returning from a western trip in our recent retirement to the southwest US, we saw a large Obama sign in the yard of these friends. We were shocked, because of Don's long standing Republican support. When we asked how Shirley "had the nerve", she said her husband Don, had placed the sign there in time for folks "going to church". He could not "vote for anyone who was against his son." I was moved to tears of joy and saw the same dampness on my husband's face. How courageous Don was to make this statement in a neighborhood who assumed he felt as they did because of their religious and political beliefs.