MLP declaration

More Light Presbyterians: "No turning back"

Michael J. Adee named as Executive Director & Field Organizer for More Light Presbyterians
[3-27-08]

News release from Vikki Dearing and Bear Ride, Co-Moderators, National Board of Directors, More Light Presbyterians

The National Board of Directors of More Light Presbyterians is pleased to announce that Dr. Michael J. Adee has been named as the Executive Director & Field Organizer for More Light Presbyterians. This decision was made at our recent national board meeting at Ghost Ranch Conference Center, Santa Fe, NM.

Michael has been serving as our National Field Organizer since May of 1999. He served as a volunteer with More Light Presbyterians from 1991 to 1999 before being hired in our first staff position. Michael was ordained as the first openly gay Elder at Mount Auburn Presbyterian Church, Cincinnati, Ohio, a More Light Church. He moved to Santa Fe, New Mexico in 1997.

"We are deeply grateful for the leadership and service Michael has offered for nine years in our first staff position as National Field Organizer. Because of the exponential growth of our educational program, outreach and advocacy work, it is necessary for MLP to update our operational structure. A major grant for organizational development allows us to promote Michael to this new position and to create a second staff position in the near future," said Vikki Dearing, Co-Moderator.

Michael became a human rights activist when he was fired for starting a Gay-Straight Alliance as an openly gay college teacher. He earned his Ph.D. in Rhetoric and Communication at Louisiana State University. He has been involved in the LGBT Equality Movement and HIV/AIDS Movement since 1988.

Having served as a college professor in Louisiana, Kentucky and Ohio, Michael has also been a hospital and hospice chaplain, bereavement counselor, campus minister, diversity consultant, tennis coach and a missionary/relief worker in Zimbabwe, Africa.

Michael served on the founding Board of Directors of Friends For Life, the Baton Rouge AIDS Task Force and as their first communications director. He served as a buddy and volunteer trainer for AIDS Volunteers of Cincinnati; program developer for Cincinnati PFLAG; and as Executive Director of Stonewall Cincinnati.

Upon moving to Santa Fe, Michael served on the boards of Equality New Mexico and the Santa Fe Human Rights Alliance. He is a founding board member of the Institute for Welcoming Resources of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force.

In addition to his community leadership and service, he has received numerous awards and recognitions. These include: Outstanding Young Men of America; Outstanding Instructor and Who's Who Among Colleges and Universities at Louisiana State University; Norse Leadership Society Award for Teacher of the Year, Northern Kentucky University; National Community Service Award, Vitas Hospice, for his work as a hospice chaplain and bereavement counselor.

While Michael is an educator and human rights activist serving now as Executive Director & Field Organizer for More Light Presbyterians, this is not all of who he is. He is also an out gay athlete competing in tennis in the last four international Gay Games, most recently in Chicago where he was a silver medalist and in the World OutGames in Montreal winning a bronze medal. He captured international attention in 2006 with his "Ain't No Mountain High Enough" Benefit Climb of Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania by raising over $20,000 for LGBT Equality.

Bear Ride, Co-Moderator, adds: "MLP will continue to be a national grassroots organization with our wonderful network of members, churches and local chapters. Ending discrimination against lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender Presbyterians in our denomination and securing equal rights in civil society requires all hands on deck. Because of the profoundly generous spiritual and financial support from our members, families and church mission gifts, in addition to this grant, we are able to keep Michael serving and working around the country and add a second staff position. Thanks be to God and to you for these wonderful opportunities."

On behalf of the National Board of Directors of More Light Presbyterians, we are grateful to announce this promotion for Michael and the ability to hire a second staff position to support the growth of More Light Presbyterians. We believe that this is a kairos moment: God's time for the end of discrimination and for the achievement of spiritual, ordination and marriage equality for LGBT Presbyterians. It's About Time!

MLP announces No Turning Back declaration and strategy statement [9-28-06]

The following message was released by MLP's board of directors on September 26, 2006, to announce their new No Turning Back statement and strategy declaration.

Dear friends of More Light Presbyterians,

The journey to equality continues.

We've just released No Turning Back, our declaration and strategy statement that will guide our journey starting immediately, all the way to General Assembly in San Jose in 2008. You can read this statement right now, below.

Consistent with our efforts at every General Assembly, we will again work with Presbyteries to bring overtures to delete the anti-LGBT G-6.0106b from the Book of Order. General Assembly will again have the opportunity to do the right thing and eliminate discrimination from our constitution.

But this time, we're not stopping there. As part of our commitment to work together, with all of you, for full equality in the PCUSA, we're expanding the scope of our work for justice.

In 2008, the More Light movement will be at General Assembly, and we'll be seeking marriage equality --the right of couples, regardless of gender, to have their relationships of love and commitment recognized for the marriages that they truly are.

In 2008, the More Light movement will be at General Assembly, and we'll be seeking representational equality -- we could see a watershed moment in history, with the first "More Light candidate" for moderator of the Presbyterian Church USA.

And starting immediately, we're taking back language that belongs to us: the language of marriage and family. We are and always have been a pro-family, pro-marriage, pro-equality movement, and it's time for all of us to proclaim it loudly and proudly in those terms.

We invite you to read the No Turning Back statement included below, and then to add your voice in support and tell your family and friends. We'll share your name and your voice with Presbyterian leaders as part of our work for justice from now through 2008. We also invite you to make a financial contribution to our efforts. Your voice, as well as your financial support, are critical to our continued efforts to bring equality to the PCUSA.

The journey to equality continues. And there can be No Turning Back.

Thanks for all that you do,
Bear Ride, co-moderator
Kim Smith King, co-moderator
and the entire board and staff of More Light Presbyterians

NO TURNING BACK
More Light Presbyterians declaration and strategy statement
September 26, 2006

The 217th General Assembly (2006), while offering no immediate progress toward God's realm of equals, clearly demonstrated that a majority of the commissioners wanted to move forward. More Light Presbyterians believes it is only a matter of time before the shame of injustice and discrimination will be lifted from our church. We have set our face toward God's home and ours. We believe God is calling us to this work.

There can be no turning back from
Peace with justice
Unity with equality
Purity with wholeness.

There can be no turning back from the goal of the full embrace of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people in the life, ministry and witness of the PCUSA.

To provide direction for this journey, MLP is committed to:

1. Ordination equality.
We will encourage presbyteries to overture the 218th G.A. (2008) to delete G-6.0106b. It is this discriminatory policy that is dividing our church. We must stop rejecting our LGBT sisters and brothers and affirm as equals all baptized children of God.

2. Marriage equality.
For years, those opposed to equality for LGBT Presbyterians have submitted overtures and resolutions to deny them the right to marry. MLP reaffirms its continued support for both religious and civil marriage equality. Scripture teaches us that the heart of marriage is the love and commitment between partners. Experience has shown us that LGBT couples fully display the love and commitment known by all as marriage.

It is time to send General Assembly an equal marriage overture, which includes transgender persons. MLP will provide a model for such an overture and encourage presbyteries to submit it to the 218th G.A.

3. Representational equality.
We will encourage those who support full LGBT equality right now to stand for the office of Moderator of the 218th G.A. It is past time for our denomination's slate of moderatorial candidates to include a voice that advocates for an immediate end to all discrimination.

4. Reclaiming our language.
For too long, those who oppose acceptance and equality of LGBT people and their families have misappropriated the terms pro-marriage and pro-family in the service of an anti-gay agenda. Right now we reclaim the language of marriage and family as our own.

Pro-marriage legislation and overtures seek to extend the rights, responsibilities and values of religious or civil marriage to all adults regardless of biological sex, sexual orientation or gender identity. Pro-family legislation and overtures seek to sustain, uphold and protect the diversity of human families throughout God's creation. We call on all those who support justice and equality in church and civil society to reclaim the true meaning and values of marriage and family.

The journey to peace, unity and purity through the full equality of all believers has begun. Jesus calls to us from the future and is with us in the present. No turning back. No turning back!

More Light Presbyterians
September 26, 2006

To sign the petition in support of this statement go to http://www.mlp.org/noturningback

For more information go to http://www.mlp.org