Central Presbyterian in Louisville
offers a caring example of a Whole Gospel Congregation
[6-21-01]
Witherspoon's Whole Gospel Congregation was presented
to Central Presbyterian Church of Louisville by Robb
Gwaltney, a former
member of the Witherspoon executive committee and an active member of
the congregation.
Carolyn M. Klinge, the Clerk of Session,
accepted the award, and spoke about the
congregation's life in a way that merits wider attention. As we seek to
develop the concept of the Whole Gospel Congregation, she offered us one
good example as a starting point for our explorations.
In her opening remarks she referred to Gwaltney's
presentation, which are on another
page.
It is an honor for me to represent the members and
friends of Central Presbyterian Church in receiving the Witherspoon
Society award.
Here we are - a community of faithful Presbyterian
people gathered together at a time when justice for all people and the
full inclusion of all God's people, including gay, lesbian, bisexual, or
transgendered people, in our church remains a goal and is not yet a
reality.
When I asked Robb Gwaltney what I should say here
today in accepting the Full Gospel congregational award on behalf of the
members & friends of Central Church , he told me that I should say
"IT'S ALL TRUE," which it IS, but of course as a scientist, I
like to back up statements with experimental PROOFand in fact, Robb has
already provided some facts and numbers about Central Church to support
the conclusion that Central reflects the Mission Statement of the
Witherspoon Society. I will just add a few more, so that there will be
no concern over investigator bias or unreproducible results
As a Session and as a congregation, we attempt to
discern and act upon the call of the Holy Spirit to live in wholeness,
in a community of faith that fully reflects the "wildly
inclusive" love of God. This aspect of the congregation is one of
the key components that attracted me to join Central in 1997.
We are a group of people of different faith
backgrounds, socio-economic groups, educational levels, ethnicities,
physical abilities or disabilities, and sexual orientations who worship
together. We have three active adult education classes in which we seek
to study, to learn, and to act out our faith based in the Gospel. We
have an active and growing youth program. The final, but by no means
least important hallmark of Central Church is that we are a caring
community, sharing our joys and concerns weekly in prayer during
worship and caring for each other through an active e-mail prayer list,
calls, cards, food, and visits.
Robb has shared with you the fact that Central has a
long history of advocacy for social justice including Central's becoming
a More Light Congregation in 1983. In fact, until this year when we were
joined by Central Presbyterian Church in Owensboro, KY. and University
Presb. Church in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, we were the only More Light church
in the Synod of Living Waters.
We are an unusual church: First, we are a relatively
small church with 177 members and 5 affiliate members, but we have two
full time pastors, Mark Baridon, our new pastor, and Associate Pastor
Ann Deibert, who has capably served the congregation for 5 years. That
gives a member:pastor ratio of 89:1. We are able to afford this ratio
because of the generosity of our Central Church ancestors and the
endowment that they left in our stewardship. We are also unusual in that
23 ordained Presbyterian ministers participate in the life of the
congregation as what we call Friends of Central.
I think one of the keys to the success of Central is
our intentionality around worship and the use of inclusive language for
God. Another essential core of worship at Central is wonderful music in
a variety of different styles - thanks to Guy Younce, Music Director,
and the dedicated musicians in our chancel choir.
In living our faith day-by-day, members of Central are
active in a variety of mission opportunities in Louisville and in the
PC(USA) including tutoring and mentoring school children and youth,
prison ministry, working to ban the death penalty, and working with
Habitat for Humanity. Many of our members are involved in the work of
Presbytery, in the Committee on Local Arrangements for this Assembly,
and in every aspect of preparation for GA. We, like each of you here
today, try to put our faith into action.
In summary, we are honored to be the recipient of the
Witherspoon congregational award and pray that together with the
faithful members of the Witherspoon Society we will continue to discern
the call of the holy spirit to justice for all of God's people in
Louisville, in the PC(USA), and in our world.
Thank you.
