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Sausalito Presbyterian Church welcomes first openly gay pastor
Marinij.com ^ | 29 Jan 2012 | Rob Rogers

Posted on 02/04/2012 12:10:32 AM PST by Cronos

When he was 18 years old, Paul Mowry came out as a gay man.

"She said, 'I love you and support you — but two things pain me," Mowry said. "One is that I think you would make a great dad, and I'd hate to have you not have that experience. The other is that Presbyterians don't ordain gay people."

Mowry's mother mentioned ordination because Mowry — whose father, grandfather and great-grandfather had all served as Presbyterian ministers — had felt called to the cloth "ever since I was a really small child," he said.

On Sunday, Mowry's long-held dream came true, as the Sausalito Presbyterian Church ordained the Pittsburgh native as its newest pastor, the first openly gay pastor in the church's history.

For the ministers and parishioners of the hillside church, the arrival of Mowry — a highly-regarded graduate of New York's Union Theological Seminary — was cause for celebration. ..

For the Rev. Mowry, the event marked the latest stage in a long journey that had taken him through careers in the film industry and in corporate banking,..to an acceptance of his "I've always been the person who was most likely to get into a conversation with someone who was trying to understand their place in the universe," said Mowry, who recently moved to Sausalito with his partner and their 5-year-old daughter.

"My father, grandfather and great-grandfather were Presbyterian ministers. I still have some of the handwritten sermons my great-great-grandfather wrote in the 1790s," Mowry said. "I'm proud of all the denominations that have moved forward on this issue, but I guess I've always felt bonded to the Presbyterians."

Spurred by his friends, his partner and his mother, Mowry decided to take the risk of entering the seminary, knowing there was little chance he would ever be ordained as a Presbyterian minister.

(Excerpt) Read more at marinij.com ...


TOPICS: Current Events; Mainline Protestant
KEYWORDS: presbyterian
Mowry, who recently moved to Sausalito with his partner and their 5-year-old daughter.

Man, these Presbyterians are going downhill and fast...

1 posted on 02/04/2012 12:10:40 AM PST by Cronos
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To: Cronos

Looks like Satan took over that congregation......Such sick, mentally ill people.


2 posted on 02/04/2012 12:56:06 AM PST by savagesusie (Right Reason According to Nature = Just LawD)
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To: Cronos

I remember when churches preached in accordance with the Bible. Does that mean I am old?


3 posted on 02/04/2012 2:08:28 AM PST by Pollster1 (Natural born citizen of the USA, with the birth certificate to prove it)
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To: Cronos

Sausalito can have him, Just don’t bring them to my Church.


4 posted on 02/04/2012 4:45:33 AM PST by Venturer
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To: Cronos
"This is a church that's VERY DIVERSE politically, socially and theologically."

Theologically???

Leni

5 posted on 02/04/2012 4:58:17 AM PST by MinuteGal
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To: Cronos

This church is dead to Christ, they are no longer a christian church, they are a church of Satan.


6 posted on 02/04/2012 5:12:15 AM PST by stockpirate (Romney, Ann Coulter & our ruling republican SOCIALISTelites, are Big Government socialists,)
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To: Pollster1

This gaggle would have a tough time finding a Bible in the building they refer to as a church.


7 posted on 02/04/2012 5:36:56 AM PST by IbJensen (Sic semper tyrannis)
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To: Pollster1

The apostasy continues.


8 posted on 02/04/2012 6:33:10 AM PST by wordsofwisdom
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To: MinuteGal; stockpirate

Well, this is a Presbyterian group like the “Orthodox” Presbyterian OPC etc. which vote on theological decisions and change their dogma by vote....


9 posted on 02/04/2012 11:52:46 PM PST by Cronos (Party like it's 12 20, 2012)
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To: Cronos

Well, I reported a rumor just two days ago that our church in Seattle was exiting Presbyterian Churches USA and joining the newly formed ‘Enangelical Covenant Order of Presbyerians Churches’ (www.fellowship-pres.org) I talked this morning to one of elders about this rumor. He said it wasn’t a rumor, -it was a reality. It seems all the largest major Presbyterian Churches in Seattle and in the whole state of Washington, California and across the nation have done the same.
When the Presybterian Churches USA voted to allow gay and lesbians into the ministry, they just killed themselves as a viable denomination. The main body of the church is leaving or has already left.
I didn’t ask the elder why they formed a new order though. Seems they could have joined the Evangelical Prysbyterian Churches or Prysbyterian Churches America. Seems ether one of them would have been a worthy choice.


10 posted on 02/05/2012 4:47:55 PM PST by Vinylly
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To: Vinylly

I don’t understand that logic either to not join with the EPC or PCA. Though the EPC recently voted to have pastoresses, hence the difference between them and the PCA (the PCA had a vote on deaconesses two years ago). Perhaps this ECOPC is more liberal than the EPC?


11 posted on 02/05/2012 9:32:37 PM PST by Cronos (Party like it's 12 20, 2012)
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