Two young adults who have served as Integrity interns will be heading overseas in the months ahead. Alan Yarborough, who graduated from Clemson University with a degree in Economics last month, is off to Haiti with the Young Adult Service Corps. Jonathan York, a religion student at Duke University, is heading to Scotland in September to spend a semester at St. Andrew's University.
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| Alan Yarborough |
Yarborough,
who worked as an intern with us on various projects, also represented
Integrity at this year's Creating Change conference in Atlanta. He will
be doing economic and leadership development work in the area around
Cange, which has a special relationship with the Diocese of Upper South
Carolina. While at Clemson, Yarborough attended and worked as a campus
ministry peer at Holy Trinity Church, which has been doing missionary work in Haiti for over four decades.
"Alan
is a very bright, energetic and motivated young man who understands
both prophetic ministry and servant ministry. He sees the world and the
issues facing LGBT folks with new eyes that look for a vision of full
equality in both our church and society," said Province IV Coordinator Bruce Garner,
with whom Yarborough worked at Creating Change. "He is very clear about
who he is in the eyes of God and where he is being called to
participate in God’s ministry on earth. Giving of himself and his
talents is second nature to him. I see him in leadership positions in
the church in the near future and hopefully the church will have the
good sense to listen to his voice."
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| Jonathan York |
York attended General Convention 2012 as part of the Young Adult Festival (about which he wrote here),
and his eloquent testimony on several resolutions gained him national
attention. One woman, representing the opposing view on a particular
issue, began her rebuttal by calling York "a credit to your school." He
also served as an Integrity intern at Convention. He hopes to study
under the Right Rev. N. T. Wright, Ph.D., the former Bishop of Durham who is now Professor of New Testament and Early Christianity at St. Andrew's.
"I
was so impressed by Jonathan's courage and confidence as he spoke at
General Convention hearings," said Integrity's President, the Rev. Dr. Caroline Hall. "He always spoke from his heart, and with
passion. Jonathan is a great leader and I look forward to seeing how
God uses and blesses him in the future."
In
September of 2012, Yarborough and York both were among a leadership
retreat in Pasadena, where we laid the plans for what became Integrity's
new mission, vision and strategic plan for the future.
Both men will be blogging about their experiences. You can follow Jonathan and Alan at their blogs. Integrity is very proud of them and hopes you will join us in praying for their endeavors.
Changing Attitude Scotland welcomes the opportunity to respond to the recent Communiqué from the Anglican Primates issued in Tanzania.
In particular, we welcome:
- the news that the Listening Process is making progress in some provinces and we affirm the urgent need for a process of listening to the experience of lesbian and gay people, to begin in the Scottish Episcopal Church.
- the fact that the Primus of the Scottish Episcopal Church has gone on record as saying that our College of Bishops believes that the US based Episcopal Church has already made an adequate response to the requests made of it by the Windsor Report.
However, we are saddened that:
- notwithstanding their commitment to listen, the Primates did not take the opportunity to meet with any openly gay or lesbian people during their meeting, even though they were happy to meet with those who are opposed to the inclusion of gay and lesbian people in the church.
- the Anglican Communion has been broken by the actions of those Primates who refused to receive communion during the duration of the Primates' Meeting
- the final communiqué has presented an unreasonable ultimatum to the US based Episcopal Church.
- the communique has nothing to say to condemn the actions of the Church of Nigeria in its support of proposals to criminalize gay and lesbian people in Nigeria.
Click here to read it all.
