GALE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH RESPONDS
In June of 2018 the General Assembly referred the document On the Question of Unity and Diversity to the church. It deals with the issue of inclusion of the LGBTQI community in the Presbyterian Church. The referral asked for a response from our Session by January 31st, 2019. Gale Session considered the document through the autumn, first by a small subcommittee and then Session as a whole through November to January. The process of arriving at a response was also addressed from the pulpit in sermons. Session considered one written response from a member received in January.
At a special meeting of Session our response was adopted and forwarded to the General Assembly for their consideration. Our response included three recommendations which were adopted by Session as follows:
Recommendation 1: That Gale Presbyterian Church, Elmira will welcome all people, regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity, to participate fully as members of our congregation including the right to be ordained to office and married in our church.
Recommendation 2: That we acknowledge not all members of the Presbyterian Church in Canada will be comfortable with such a decision and may decide to leave the denomination. If this happens, we will show those who choose to leave love and respect for their choice.
Recommendation 3: That this be the response of Gale Presbyterian Church to the General Assembly concerning the document “On the Question of Unity and Diversity.”
A special committee of the General Assembly will consider our response along with many others from Sessions, Presbyteries and Synods of the Presbyterian Church in Canada. The question of inclusion will be addressed by future General Assembly meetings and Gale will be kept informed of the progress of this issue.
On-the-Question-of-Unity-and-Diversity and the full text of our Unity diversity response are available online from our website and hard copies are available in our office.