Developing More Light Ministry

• More Light on More Light ()
  Concise document on how and why to be and become a More Light congregation
  
  
• What We Wish We Had Known ()
  Extensive resource for congregational study, developed by the First Tuesday group at Mt. Kisco Presbyterian Church
  
  
• Developing More Light Ministry ()
  An Overview
  
  
• Mount Auburn Presbyterian Church, Cincinnati ()
  A chapter from Urban Churches Vital Signs: Beyond Charity Toward Justice, excerpted with  permission of the publisher, William B. Eerdmans, Grand Rapids, MI  (Harold Gordon Porter, Pastor Emeritus)
  
  
• New Possibilities Workshop ()
  A seminar outline with the goal: to move participants to understand how sexism and heterosexism limit possibilities for personal growth and interpersonal relationship for all individuals, regardless of sex or sexual orientation
  (Charles S. Collins, Rochester, NY)
  
  
• More Light: What Difference Does it Make?
  by Members of the Presbyterians for Lesbian and Gay Concerns Internet Mailing List
  
  
• How Churches Engage in More Light Ministry ()
  Education, Communication, Ministry
  More Light Churches Network

Sample Study Reports

Outline the thought process and conclusion of some congregations

• Report to Session from the Ad Hoc Task Force on Church and Homosexuality ()
  Downtown United Presbyterian Church, Rochester, NY
  
  
• A Letter to the Congregation from the Session ()
  Third Presbyterian Church, Rochester, NY
  
  
• The Church and Homosexuality: A Preliminary Study ()
  Presbyterian Church in the U.S. (PCUS), the former "Southern"church, which merged UPCUSA to become our current PC(USA) in 1983.

Sample "More Light" Declaration Statements

Show how sessions, presbyteries, and a synod have expressed their "More Light" support

• "Here We Stand -- We Can Do No Other" ()
  Sample Statement in Opposition to Amendment B, G-6.0106b (November 15, 1998) for consideration by any body
  
  
• Presbytery of Genesee Valley Motion ()
  The Presbytery (with offices in Rochester, NY) expresses its view of a higher call to openness and inclusiveness and says it will no condone efforts to discriminate unjustly against candidates for ordination.
  
  
• 1997 Rochester Declaration of Reformed faith
  This beautiful statement was written in Rochester, NY as Amendment B was passing in the presbyteries. Modeled after the Barmen Declaration, it affirms basic Presbyterian principles and proclaims that the present exclusion of GLBT people is a rejection of Trinitarian and Reformed theology.
  
  
• A History of the More Light Movement ()
  at Lincoln Park Presbyterian Church and in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)
  Two-page brochure including the David Sindt Story and a timeline from 1969 through 1998
  (Thanks to Barry Smith, Lincoln Park Church, for this f ile)
  
  
• Gays / Lesbians and the Church ()
  Report about one congregation's results from a questionnaire / focus group to help assess how to make the congreation more welcoming