Gay activists conduct worship service/rally By John H. Adams The Layman Online Sunday, June 10, 2001 LOUISVILLE, Ky. -- Homosexuals, bisexuals and people who have had sex-change operations, as well as their allies, held their own worship service/rally June 10 in a public park across the street from the Kentucky International Convention Center. Michael Adee of More Light Presbyterians estimated nearly 300 people -- including several commissioners -- attended the service titled "Celebrating Our Faith, Awaiting Our Welcome." The gathering ended minutes before the opening worship of the 2001 General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (USA) in the downtown Louisville convention center. Adee, who is a homosexual elder, says his allies want to leave Louisville with the assurance that the denomination will allow presbyteries and sessions to ordain practicing homosexuals. He said they support the proposal that a commission conduct a four-year study on sexuality, but only if that strategy includes an immediate step to dismantle the constitutional prohibition against ordaining gay deacons, elders and ministers of Word and Sacrament and a definitive interpretation by the denomination's highest court that affirms the prohibition. In a demonstration of their diversity, the group sang songs with English lyrics and tunes common to South Africa, Cameroon, the Caribbean and Peru. One song reflected the tenor of the civil rights movement in the United States during the 1960s: We shall not give up more light, we have only started. We have only started, we have only started. We shall not give up more light, we have only started, We have only started, we have only started.

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