Erin Swenson reports

Atlanta, 7-29-03

Moderator Susan Andrews is in Atlanta this week combining a recording session with the Protestant Hour with a number of engagements across the city. One of these was an open Bible Study at Druid Hills Presbyterian Church yesterday morning, July 28. The text for the study was the same as the GA Bible study, Isaiah 56:1-8. It seemed that, being the resident eunuch in my Presbytery (Isaiah 56 mentions eunuchs), it was important for me to attend and contribute what I could.

There were about 35 people there representing a fair cross-section of our Presbytery, with perhaps more seniors, which would be expected in a 10:00 AM Monday event. Both the Vice-moderator Charles Easley and former Moderator Fahed Abu-Akel were also present. The Moderator used Grace Yeuell's study guide (published for the 215th GA meeting), providing graceful and thought-provoking reflections on the passage.

Inclusion was the overarching theme, and Susan minced no words reflecting on Isaiah's call for inclusion of both foreigners and eunuchs who kept God's covenant, groups who had before been excluded under Levitical law. She drew clear lines between God's call for inclusiveness in Isaiah and God's call for inclusion in the PCUSA. All of this was uplifting to me, but it was not the best. In her reflections the Moderator had challenged us on opening the PCUSA to the influences brought to us by other cultures, especially our growing Korean and Latino/a communities. As one would anticipate, she also challenged us about the clear need for inclusion of people in the GLBT community.

I screwed up my courage and responded to her by reflecting on my confusion and concern over my perception of the tension between multi-cultural inclusion and GLBT inclusion. It seems to me that many Asian and Hispanic critiques of the American church include sharp rejection of GLBT inclusion, and this reality buffers my enthusiasm for an open embrace of multi-cultural perspectives. This is a painful perception for me because I would normally be highly supportive of opening our communion to other cultures and viewpoints.

The Moderator's response was deeply reassuring to me. She reflected on her resignation from the Covenant Network of Presbyterians Board, and her change from that outlook, which only used the "G" and "L" in GLBT, to a clear need to be also inclusive of both "B" and "T." She described an encounter with a transgender individual who had lost a lifelong job as organist/choirmaster at a PCUSA church because of her gender transition from male to female. The pastor of that church, a colleague of Susan's, had expressed sharp anger, hostility, and ridicule at the musician when recounting the experience to Susan. It left her clear that the church bears a responsibility to understand and open itself to its bisexual and transgender members. She was clear that the PCUSA is called to meet the challenge of Third Isaiah, and she is not under any illusion over the difficulty of this call.

I will now know that when our Moderator uses the term, "GLBT," that it is no casual mix of overused and little understood letters, but an intentional act of knowledge, inclusion, and compassion.

Erin Swenson is a minister member of the Presbytery of Greater Atlanta, a pastoral counselor at Morningside Presbyterian Church in midtown Atlanta, and parish associate of the Ormewood Park Presbyterian Church. She also serves on the Board of Directors of More Light Presbyterians. Erin successfully defended her ordination with her Presbytery following her 1996 gender transition from male to female.