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proud2BlibKansan

(96,793 posts)
Sat Aug 4, 2012, 05:43 PM Aug 2012

Pastor leaves pulpit, telling congregation he’s gay

Brian Ellison isn’t a pastor anymore.

The 39-year-old former minister of Parkville Presbyterian Church delivered sermons and spoke at funerals. He visited the sick and baptized babies. Once he dressed up in a plaid jacket and gaudy tie and pretended to be a game show host for children at vacation Bible school. He had been with the church for 13 years. It was his first church out of seminary.

So he hesitated for a moment in June before he handed over a box of letters at the Riverside post office. In the letters, Ellison told the members of his congregation that he would be leaving them in a month to take a new job.

A paragraph later, he told them that he was gay and had been in a committed relationship for nine years.

“I wanted to be finished with being ambiguous, less than transparent. I wanted to be honest and straightforward as much as possible,” Ellison says.


Read more here: http://www.kansascity.com/2012/07/29/3727392/parkville-pastor-leaves-his-pulpit.html#storylink=cpy

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Pastor leaves pulpit, telling congregation he’s gay (Original Post) proud2BlibKansan Aug 2012 OP
Heart wrenching, but hopeful. PDJane Aug 2012 #1

PDJane

(10,103 posts)
1. Heart wrenching, but hopeful.
Sat Aug 4, 2012, 06:04 PM
Aug 2012

I keep hoping that the church becomes less controlling. I'm not sure that will happen.

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