Northside Presbyterian Church in Ann Arbor, MI (NPC) has long been seeking full inclusion for all members in the leadership of their denomination, the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) [ PC(USA)].  They have pursued this as a matter of justice, through prayer, witness, and attempts to change the denomination’s polity.  In 1985 NPC joined the More Light Presbyterian network, a national PC(USA) group, with the goal of inclusion for gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender church members.  In 2010 the NPC Session of elders sent an overture to the denomination’s General Assembly via the Presbytery of Detroit in yet another attempt to make the rules more inclusive.

The General Assembly adopted a similar overture from Western Reserve Presbytery (Cleveland, OH) and, since late last year, PC(USA) representatives in Presbyteries around the nation have been voting on the change.  On May 10 of this year the deciding vote was cast in Minneapolis, removing the final official barrier to lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender Presbyterians called to ordained service in the PC(USA).

This change in the church’s stance goes into effect on July 10^th.  In observance of this important milestone in the life of the denomination, NPC will hold a special worship service at 10 am Sunday morning, July 10, 2011, in the upper sanctuary at 1679 Broadway Street in Ann Arbor.  The guest preacher will be Jenny Howard, an ordained elder in the PC(USA), and an NPC member. As an Inquirer under the care of the Presbytery of Detroit, she is in the ordination process for Presbyterian ministry. She left a 35-year computer systems career when she discerned her call to ministry, entering Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary’s Master of Divinity program in 2008.

Since confronting her own gender identity issues in her early 50s, Jenny has been an out-loud advocate for full inclusion of LGBTQ people, not only in the church, but in the larger culture as well. She has been an active volunteer in numerous advocacy, education, and justice efforts. She was the first openly transsexual person to be admitted to a Presbyterian seminary.

Jenny’s faith is grounded in her confession of Jesus Christ as her Lord and Savior. This claim on her life leads her to witness to the power of God, to work for justice for all, and to alleviate suffering wherever it may be. Her spiritual background includes the Methodist and Unitarian traditions, as well as personal study of medieval Catholic mystics, ancient mythologies, and Asian religions. A relative newcomer to Presbyterianism, she was blessed to wash up on the shores of the PC(USA) during a stormy period in her life in 2005. It feels, she says, like home, in a way that no other faith tradition ever has.

NPC members recognize that the change in the church’s official stance does not mean there will be no more resistance within the denomination, and they intend to continue working for the full inclusion of all persons within religious communities. 

At the same time they want to give grateful recognition to the many persons who have worked hard to make changes, in the PC(USA), in other Christian denominations, and in other religious traditions, which have helped make their own step forward possible.  And of course, they give thanks to God for the grace and strength to persevere in acting on their beliefs about justice.

They invite the community to join them for this special worship service.  Information about the congregation, their other social justice work in the areas of homelessness, hunger, and peacemaking, and directions for finding the NPC worship space can be found at www.northsidepres.org.