September 9; 5:30 PM, Social Hall

October 14; 5:30 PM, Social Hall

November 11; 5:30 PM, Social Hall

December 2; 5:30 PM, Place TBA

If you attended the Peacemaking Conference, "Uncommon Ground", please join us at our September meeting to share what you learned with our chapter. For the potluck, A-H bring a main dish, I-Q a desert, and R-Z a salad.

Thank you to all who have responded to our call for contributions. Our financial resources are still running very thin, though, and we could really use donations to help us continue our mailings and cover our other expenses. Please make checks payable to "More Light Presbyterians", and mail them to Linda A. Malcor, P.O. Box 749, Laguna Beach, CA 92652.

Articles or opinion pieces written by group members are welcome. Please e-mail, send on disk, or hand write your article and get it to Linda Malcor.

Amendment O

By Linda A. Malcor

Amendment O, which will be going before our presbytery for approval in 2001, would add section W-4.9007 to the "Directory for Worship" in our Book of Order. The new section would read:

Scripture and our Confessions teach that God’s intention for all people is to live either in fidelity within the covenant of marriage between a man and a woman or in chastity in singleness. Church property shall not be used for, and church officers shall not take part in conducting any ceremony or event that pronounces blessing or gives approval of the church or invokes the blessing of God upon any relationship that is inconsistent with God’s intention as expressed in the preceding sentence.

GA 212 sent this proposed change to the presbyteries for approval with a vote of 268 to 251 (51 percent to 48 percent). In other words, the vote was so close that if just nine people had voted differently, the overture would not have passed.

Since the decision to refer the overture to the presbyteries as Amendment O was made in June, many discussions (face-to-face, in print and online) have taken place. Most of these discussions have been civil; some have not. Both sides argue with vehemence, rarely hearing let alone understanding what the other side is saying.

I urge you all to attend the October 14th meeting where we will be discussing this amendment. Prior to that meeting, please keep your eyes, ears, hearts and minds open to what people are saying and writing about this topic. Come ready to express your views, but, more importantly, come ready to talk about what you think the people who disagree with you are saying. There are many reasons that different people may vote in different ways on this issue. If your presbytery is going to make an informed decision on this matter, all views must be considered from all possible angles. Help us identify what those views are and consider the different ways we can look at them. How can we shed More Light on what promises to be a very dark time in our presbytery's history?