Welcome from
Eric O. Ledermann
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Thanks for stopping in. Pour yourself a cup o' jo, take a load off your feet, and check out what's here. You are looking at my ramblings about issues of faith, life and culture—they are my own and are not necessarily shared by those with whom I work, live or otherwise engage.
Feel free to share your comments and engage in any conversation that may be happening here, but just know that I do reserve the right to delete any spam or anything I deem inappropriate or offensive. I look forward to dialoguing with anyone who cares to dialogue!
Peace and blessings,
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As many are aware, my denomination, the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A), is embroiled in an ongoing division over ordination standards and biblical interpretation as it pertains to LGBT (lesbian, gay, bi-sexual, transgendered) people and their place (or lack of) in the life of the Church. With the recent passage of Amendment 10-A, which amended our denomination’s constitution to removed the last roadblock to our LGBT sisters and brothers who are called into ministry to be ordained as deacons, ruling elders and teaching elders (ministers), a number of congregations have discerned a need to leave our denomination.
Though their decision to leave and break covenant with us pains me deeply, I feel Christ calls me to respect their decision and seek paths toward reconciliation in the years and decades to come. I know such reconciliation may not happen in my lifetime, and may not come at all. [...]
I can be no one other than who I am. I’m afraid for some it is not enough.
I thrive being with people, but I need my down time too. I love to laugh with people. But, when I am tired, I get cranky. When I am excited, I get loud. I can be funny and kind and sweet. I can be empathetic and understanding. But I can also be fierce and stubborn. Try as I might to be gentle, sometimes I am not. I am a lover of God, my family, people in general, and all of Creation (though mosquitoes and flies still “bug” me). I am a husband, a father, a son, a pastor, a man, a European-American, but none of those things really describes who I am. When people criticize me, I get hurt and I take it personally, no matter how hard I try to receive [...]
I am excited that the folks at SparkHouse are coming out with a cool new adult curriculum to “spark” new life into our Christian lives with awesome content and some pretty funny and goofy cartoon videos.
I’ve been using SparkHouse’s re:Form youth confirmation curriculum for a few years now, and I love it (it’s actually part of the overall curriculum I use for youth confirmation). The material invites questions and is not “preachy.” In fact, they don’t give a lot of answers, and leave room to wrestle with stuff. They raise some great questions that have sparked some awesome conversation with the youth I’ve taught.
In this new adult/young adult curriculum their also using some voices that I have come to trust and appreciate in the ongoing dialogue about what the Church is becoming, namely my friends Bruce Reyes Chow and
This just in from the Covenant Network, reporting on a case that reached the highest commission in my denomination, the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) (the General Assembly Permanent Judicial Commission, or GAPJC), involving the ordination of an openly gay woman who, in keeping with our tradition, declared a scruple (conscientious objection) to several parts of the former version of our Constitution that precluded those in same-sex relationships from being ordained as deacons, elders, or teaching elders (ministers of Word and Sacrament).
Here’s what came through the Covenant Network:
Friends, the following message is from the co-moderators of the board:
The Board of Covenant Network is deeply gratified that the General Assembly Permanent Judicial Commission today upheld the decision of the Presbytery of San Francisco to ordain Lisa Larges as a Teaching Elder in the church. This decision brings to a final conclusion roughly four years [...]
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