New Pastor at Mr. Rogers' Church

Sunday was an exciting day at the Sixth Presbyterian Church. It was the first day for our new pastor, Rev. Mary Louise McCullough. The church had a pastor for many years who retired, then they had an interim minister for a long time. Mary Louise wasted no time reminding us that we are a More Light congregation. She even addressed the fact that all of us, at some point, are going to feel uncomfortable with someone in the congregation. It’s hard for me to believe this could happen to me personally, since a very activist transgender minister is the person who found this church for me! Mary Louise paid homage to the Jewish neighborhood in which Sixth is located, praising the efforts of the congregation to reach out to the Jewish community. In her sermon, she treated us to a story of forgiveness between two families, one Israeli and one Palestinian, in which the Palestinian extremist son had shot the rabbi father of the Israeli family. Many of the Jewish immigrants living in the Squirrel Hill neighborhood speak Russian. I will have to tell Mary Louise that I speak Russian in case any Russian immigrants would express interest in the church. But I was too busy speaking French with the French-speaking members of the church on Sunday!

A strong message was sent at the social after the service. A table was set up with many pieces of literature, pamphlets of community interest and youth interest among them. Since this is Mr. Rogers’ church, of course it has to be a great place for youth. I was impressed with a leaflet from the Persad Center, which offers services to the LGBT community, a pamphlet from the organization That All May Freely Serve, and forms to fill out to join More Light Presbyterians, along with envelopes to mail them in!

I picked up a pamphlet from The Presbyterian Peace Fellowship. I already receive the Buddhist Peace Fellowship’s e-newsletter. It was appropriate that this pamphlet be on display, because this organization once awarded its annual Peaceseeker Award to a member of the congregation, Mister Fred Rogers. According to the pamphlet, the organization was started in 1944 by Presbyterian conscientious objectors. It is a "national community of Presbyterians who trust in the nonviolent Jesus Christ." Some of the issues they address are "gun control, land mines, …nuclear weapons, …globalization, the war on terrorism, the nuclearization of space and the need to reduce militarism in our society." Current projects include working toward preventing the US from making the same mistakes in Colombia which were made in El Salvador. Also, they work toward a peaceful resolution of the situation in the Middle East, including seeking peace between the Israelis and Palestinians, as well as resolving the situation with North Korea peacefully. They are also working to close down the infamous School of the Americas, which trains Latin American militaries in repressive counterinsurgency techniques which they then use against their own populations.