Brian Ellison and an Authoritative Interpretation, the true crisis in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)

Brian Ellison, Executive Director of the Covenant Network, believes the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) is in a crisis and the way to solve the crisis is to pass an authoritative interpretation of the Book of Order which would declare that teaching elders may perform same sex weddings. But Ellison, with his posting, “Why an Authoritative Interpretation Matters” is wrong.

Such an authoritative interpretation would throw the church into a far deeper crisis than its present crisis. And the present crisis is not about the inability of teaching elders to perform same gender weddings for those in their congregations, rather it is a crisis of rebellion against the authority of the living word of God and the written word of God.

Because of the rebellion the denomination is suffering painful losses. And the constant theological quirks which keep rising to the surface of our theological dreams will continue coming and multiply in number and nonsense, because a people who reject both their Lord and the authority of the word are without a solid foundation.

Further, this constant push to align with culture and civil authority will cause the denomination to eventually let go of any true form of justice and righteousness. 

When the original AI, the 1991, occurred, it was simply to affirm what both the Bible and the constitution of the denomination already stated. It was an interpretation of what was already held. And that would include the Book of Confessions which is extremely clear:

“For marriage (which is the medicine of incontinecncy and continency itself) was instituted by the Lord God himself, who blessed it most bountifully, and willed man and woman to cleave one to the other inseparably, and live together in complete love and concord. (Matt. 19:4ff). …” (The Second Helvetic Confession 5.246a)

Ellison is holding up a AI which adds to polity from a cultural context rather than a real interpretation of what is already there. He has stated that, “The Directory for Worship as currently crafted reflects a reality much different from our current context. We as a church can address our practice of marriage without changing our fundamental understanding of it, and an AI allows us to move forward in a faithful way.”

He also states “An AI at this summer’s General Assembly would resolve this crisis. It would allow for weddings in states where same-sex marriage is legal.” What he is actually saying is that as the law changes, so must the denomination. And he is basing that on what can only be seen as unbiblical views of love, and unbiblical sexual acts.

A church so involved with the world is truly a lost church, an empty shell that may be called a denomination, but not the Church. Furthermore, a denomination which embraces the dictates of civil government when those dictates collide with biblical teaching is preparing to stand against some of it on members who still hold to the authority of Scripture.

Ellison insists that his evangelical friend is wrong, that neither the PC (U.S.A.) nor his own organization the Covenant Network of the PC (U.S.A.) would think of insisting that orthodox TE would have to marry same sex couples and yet it is the Covenant Network itself which has laid down guidelines that will eventually, if adopted by the whole denomination force out orthodox TEs over ordination. Ellison insists:

This is not the goal, it is not the language proposed in any AI before the assembly, and it is not something the Covenant Network would ever support—in fact, the proposed AIs explicitly preserve conscience for those who do not approve of same-sex marriage. What we stand for is pastoral discretion and freedom—the ability of ministers to do what they always do with marriages, discerning the appropriateness of a marriage, offering counseling and prayer, and officiating at those weddings they feel are God-honoring and wise. No church would ever be required to host any wedding. No minister would be forced to perform one. On the contrary, this authoritative interpretation would best preserve our traditional affirmation that “God alone is Lord of the conscience,” trusting the Spirit to lead our ministers and councils, on a case-by-case basis, to know what is best.

But the Covenant Network guidelines insists that a TE must ordain whoever a session or presbytery chooses. That it is not “a discretionary one” but a requirement. The TE may not “substitute their own judgment.”[1]

Still, when one turns to the force of a denomination aligned with government laws the scenario is far more potent.  If a baker, or a photographer, or a florist who does not want to participate in a same gender wedding can be fined, forced out of their business, even jailed, what will happen to a pastor who is a member of a denomination which allows same gender marriage, when someone files a discrimination suit against her? She will not be able to state that her denomination does not allow same gender weddings.

For all of Ellison’s assurances, if a trap has been placed within their guidelines on ordination, and it was not there until the change on ordination was passed by the Presbyteries, how can anyone be sure of the future decisions of the progressive community within the PC (U.S.A.)? Ellison cannot guarantee and he stands, with his promises, on a very flimsy foundation. If the AI passes, the crisis, the true crisis, will surely tear the PC (U.S.A.) apart in so many ways.

The Lordship of Jesus Christ, the authority of his word, the standards of the confessions will disappear. The PC (U.S.A.) undoubtedly will last many years—but hopefully not as an empty shell waiting for the darkness.

---

[1] For more information see The "Ordination Guidelines" of the Covenant Network of Presbyterians: changed? Update at http://naminghisgrace.blogspot.com/2013/11/the-ordination-guidelines-of-covenant.html

Weaving a deceitful web: Neturei Karta a Jewish sect & the freedom of Iranian Jews

Recently as though to enlarge on their deception in the booklet Zionism Unsettled, the Israel/Palestine Mission Network of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), re-tweeted a link to this video which asserts that it is “Jews protesting IDF [Israel Defense Force] dinner in NYC:

There are several things to notice in the video. First the protesters are all male. Secondly there are few protesters. Thirdly they appear, slightly, to be a part of the Hasidic movement although they are not. If you listen to the very end of the video, (and it is rather boring because the main speaker keeps repeating himself) you will find that they are of the Neturei Karta sect, a group of probably no more than 5000 who believe that the Jews should not have a state at all until the coming of the Messiah.

Now there are other ultra-religious Jews who also do not believe that there should be a Jewish state, but they have rejected the Neturei Karta for several reasons including their activism. Probably the main reason is their friendship with several terrorist and anti-Semites. The full story can be found at Discoverthenetworks.org where the list includes Louis Farrakhan, Yasser Arafat and Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. They are the sect which attended Ahmadinejad’s conference meant to deny the Holocaust. As the author Discoverthenetworks states:

In December 2006, eight Neturei Karta rabbis traveled to Tehran to meet with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, a Holocaust denier, embracing him and endorsing his stance that Israel has no right to exist. "We tried to appease them [the Iranians]," Rabbi Dovid Weiss told the New York Daily News. "We explained how the Holocaust is used to intimidate people who want to speak against the unjust Zionist regime."

This was not Neturei Karta's first visit to Tehran. In March 2006 the organization had also sent a delegation to meet with senior Iranian officials and express support for Ahmadinejad's calls to eliminate Israel. In a statement to Iran's official IRIB radio, the group called for "the disintegration of the Zionist regime" and said that it "is a dangerous deviation to pretend that the Iranian president is an anti-Jewish or anti-Semitic personality." Neturei Karta added that it was "upset about the recent ploys, propaganda and tensions which have been created by the West regarding the statements of the Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad about a world free of Zionism, since this is nothing more than wishing for a better world dominated by peace and calm."

This is not the first time that the IPMN has linked to the pronouncements of the Neturei Karta sect. And to add to this travesty in their book Zionism Unsettled they imply that the Jews of Iran live a relative free existence and that any destabilization was caused by the inroads of Zionism. This combination of promoting the anti-Zionism of a small Jewish sect and informing readers that all is well for the Jews living in Iran is deceptive.

An Iranian Jewish journalist, Karmel Melamed, has written an excellent piece concerning the lies told about the Iranian Jewish community in the IPMN publication. The title is, “Presbyterian Church USA’s guide is dead wrong about Iranian Jewry,”

Some of Melamed’s information includes:

If the Presbyterian Church (USA) thinks “Jewish life is alive and well in Iran” today, then why have Iranian Jews faced more executions, more imprisonments, more torture and been driven out of Iran in large numbers by the current Iranian regime since 1979? According to a 2004 report prepared by Frank Nikbakht, an Iranian Jewish activist who heads the Committee for Minority Rights in Iran, based in Los Angeles, the Jewish community in Iran lives in constant fear for its security amid threats from terrorist Islamic factions. Since 1979, at least 14 Jews have been murdered or assassinated by the regime’s agents, at least two Jews have died while in custody and 11 Jews have been officially executed by the regime. According to the report, Fayzollah Mekhubabt, a 78-year-old cantor in a Tehran synagogue was the last Jew to be executed by the Iranian regime in 1995. He was imprisoned, tortured and his eyes were gouged out before he was executed. Mekhubabt was buried in a Muslim cemetery and his family was forced to disinter his remains in order to bury him in a Jewish cemetery.

Additionally Melamed writes:

 

 

According to Nikbakht’s research of Iran’s Islamic based laws, not only does the current Iranian Constitution clearly indicate that all non-Muslims have inferior status to Muslims, but all non-Muslims must be humiliated and confined to prevent them from gaining any advantage over Muslims. A Jew’s life is worth half of that of a Muslim according to Iran’s current Shari’a law. According to a recent U.S. State Department report, the “Islamization” of Iran has brought about strict control over Jewish educational institutions. Nikbakht’s 2004 report indicates that before the Iranian revolution, there were some 20 Jewish schools functioning throughout Iran, but in recent years most of these have been closed down. In the remaining schools, Jewish principals have been replaced by Muslims. In Tehran there are still three schools in which Jewish pupils constitute a majority, but the curriculum is Islamic and Persian is forbidden as the language of instruction for Jewish studies. Again how on earth can the Presbyterian Church (USA) or anyone in their right mind consider living under such an unjust system of laws for Jews in Iran as humane and fair environments to live in?

The truth is that since the rise of Islam, there have been times of relative peace for Persian Jews and there have been times of great persecution. One extremely interesting article and video (it is just a fragment) is about the “Jews of Iran” filmed by a Muslim, Ramin Farahani who lives in the Netherlands.

The article, “Jewish Eye Film Festival / Truths, half-truths and documentaries,” is a well done review and the video is just right for ending this posting. Farahani who lives as a minority in a western country wanted to investigate the lives of minorities in Iran. He intended to look at Jews, Christians and Zoroastrians. The difficulties of filming a documentary on the Jews caused him to forgo the latter minorities. He states that he was dealing with a minority that was afraid to always speak the truth except for one:

  In the film, the only person who dares to speak directly about anti-Semitism is a girl named Farandis. Once, when she still attended public school, she left class for a drink of water, she relates. When she returned, she felt the students were looking at her strangely. Later, a friend told her that when she had stepped out, the teacher told the other students that because it was raining outside, Farandis had gotten wet and had therefore been contaminated. The teacher told them that anyone who touched her would also be infected, because the girl was now impure. As a result of this incident, Farandis transferred to a Jewish school and eventually left Iran. This, of course, made it easier for her to tell her story.

Farahani says he met other Jews who described problems, insults and discrimination at the hands of Muslims, but says they were unwilling to repeat their stories for the camera. He says he realized there was no point in pressuring them to talk. Even though he could have narrated their attacks himself, he chose instead to conceal this information from his viewers. Perhaps his subjects' fear infected him as well. Instead, he says, he tried to find ways to convey this message indirectly.

Farahani, who is Iranian, in the end says that the Jewish community has equality in the Iranian constitution. But his words and his film do not portray that equality in the personal lives of the Jewish community.

 

A renewed Syria-Lebanon network, why should we be concerned?

There is a great need for ministry among Presbyterian churches in Lebanon and Syria. One reads with both joy and tears the updates on the Syrian churches on the Outreach Foundation site. Reading Syria Relief Update - February 2014 by Marilyn Borst, Associate Director for Partnership Development, one feels and sees the Christian care, need and love that is so very evident. But another ministry, undoubtedly of a more political type, is redoing itself in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) as a means to help the National Evangelical Synod of Syria and Lebanon, our partner churches. An announcement on the Chicago Presbytery site states:

An Organizing Group mainly from the Middle East Task Force of Chicago Presbytery has called a meeting for April 3 – 5, 2014 at Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary to re-start the Syrian Lebanon Mission Network (SLMN). The Christians from Syria and Lebanon are greatly affected by the Syrian conflict and have asked for the support of their Ecumenical Partners.

Pauline Coffman attended a Consultation called by the National Evangelical Synod of Syria and Lebanon in Lebanon, January 12 – 22, 2014 and heard from Syrian and Lebanese pastors and Synod leaders of their current reality. Several churches have been destroyed in Syria. Lebanon, a country of about 4 million people, is dealing with another 1 million refugees now. Syrian Christians are scattered and meeting in homes where possible.

There is a similar news article on the Presbyterian News Service site, “A Church No Longer Subdued: Be a Voice for Peace: Syria-Lebanon Network Meeting.”  And there are several links to information about the meeting.

So why should this be a concern to members of the PC (U.S.A.)? Because the person one is to contact in the Presbytery of Chicago is Pauline Coffman. Because Coffman is the Temporary Convener for the working group for the renewed network. And because Coffman through her contributions to the soon to be published book, Zionism and the Quest for Justice in the Holy Land, became one of the main contributors to Zionism Unsettled the publication of the Israel/Palestine Mission Network.

In ZU one can read in the chapters attributed to her that, “As expected, war broke out between Jewish and Arab forces when Israel declared independence in May 1948.” Nothing about five Arab nations attacking Israel. In another section rather than commiserating with the Jews forced out of neighboring Arab countries she uses them to emphasize what she calls ethnic cleansing by the new Jewish nation. Coffman writes of the Holocaust, suggesting that all Israeli governments have used it to manipulate the, “fear for political advantage both in domestic and foreign policy.”

Another reason to be concerned with this new formation is because one of the working members is Rob Worley leader of a group of Presbyterians who, while visiting in the Middle East in 2005, met with a member of the terrorist group Hezbollah.  The New York Times reported that “Mr. Worley described it [Hezbollah] as "the group that's brought peace to that region of the world.”

Indeed, all of the working members of the group to re-form a new Syria/Lebanese network have, in the past focused on the Israel and Palestine issues.  And part of the aims of the meeting to re-form the group is to possibly “Draft a Commissioner’s Resolution for General Assembly.” Hopefully this General Assembly will put accountability to the General Assembly and other restrictions within any draft that seeks to form a new Middle East network such as the Israel Palestine Mission Network.

One hopes for a network that will be concerned with human suffering on all sides and not use the word peace as a means to play politics to the determent of real peace. One hopes for a network that will seek to uphold the biblical goal of making Christian disciples in all nations. One hopes that Jesus Christ and his redemption will be foremost in their minds. Certainly the churches of Lebanon and Syria deserve more than a political advocacy group.

My thoughts in song on my 73rd birthday ...

I’m one year older today well, it will be yesterday when you read this. It has been a quiet day and tonight I am reminiscing listening to some songs on YouTube and remembering days gone by, mainly Warehouse Ministries’ times when we all, friends and family, attended Saturday Night concerts.  So here are some of my favorite songs from those days. But not the loud ones instead soft and melancholy and prophetic, but full of the gospel.

This one is by Chuck Girard. His concert was one of the very first we attended as a family. He sat at the piano playing, singing on and on, it was one of those times the Holy Spirit could be felt in all of his reality and so Jesus seemed very near. There were some fun songs like "Old Dan Cotton," but "Hear the Angels Sing" is beautiful, like the final curtain coming down except eternity is in the wings.

)

A fun song, "Sidney the Pirate" is certainly full of the gospel. By Mustard Seed Faith:
)

I think I have posted this before--"Fool's Wisdom," but it is just right, simple but true:

)

And one more by these two English musicians. I believe one is a pastor in England now. This last video has three songs from their record "Wildwall." It might be because I'm reading Jeremiah during Lent, and the last two songs remind me of Jeremiah.  This has a song for England, it should be for the United States now also:
)
So my thoughts in song on my 73rd birthday.

Will Spotts and his friend Jon Haber's blog: good reading Update

I apologize, the blog Divest This, and it is a very good blog, belongs to Jon Haber and the articles I linked to, PCUSA and BDS: The Israel Palestine Mission Network (IPMN) and PCUSA – Zionism Unsettled are his. So I will rewrite some of this:

Will Spotts, a friend and a member of the original ‘Consistory’ bloggers, who are now quite scattered, (and you can take that any way you want to) has a new blog. The new blog is A Time for Every Purpose. Among some very contemplative posts Spotts includes some of his very good poetry.

Spotts’ friend, Jon Haber's blog on the PCUSA and Israel is Divest This. His posting of March 10^th is on the Israel/Palestine Mission Network with some thoughts on their latest misdeed, the publication of Zionism Unsettled. Haber begins “PCUSA and BDS: The Israel Palestine Mission Network (IPMN)” with this:

Whenever some story emerges having to do with PCUSA’s obsession with Israel, with the relentless drive to get divestment back on organization’s agenda (no matter how many times it’s rejected), with attempts to denigrate and even demonize the Jewish state, its inhabitants and supporters, all roads seem to lead to the Israel-Palestine Mission Network (IPMN).

We saw this most recently when the organization decided the most important way to promote their (real) agenda was to drop all pretenses of peace-making and instead invest their time and resources into creating “Zionism Unsettled,” a “study document” designed to educate the flock regarding Zionism as the font of all evil (making it clear that the sooner an entity built on such a hateful ideology ceases to be, the better).

There is much more in other postings. For example, PCUSA BDS: What to do?, contains this:

A commenter asked when I started this series the obvious question of what he and others can do.  And short of converting to Presbyterianism and moving up the ranks of the organization, there are few ways to directly impact denominational politics, other than throwing support behind groups like Presbyterians for Middle East Peace or local church leaders who have made it a point to take a stand against BDS when they attend the upcoming General Assembly.

The organized Jewish community has relied on dialog for most of the last decade in the hope that honest discussion might tamp down the endless Israel bashing that has become liturgy at Presbyterian GAs.  And while I’m all in favor of dialog (especially in the form of honest and frank conversations with those with whom we disagree), there comes a point where the number of broken promises turns such dialog sessions into the equivalent of Lucy’s annual pulling away of the football with the Jewish community continually asked to return to the role of Charlie Brown.

And there are more words about Zionism Unsettled, in PCUSA – Zionism Unsettled. So,
both for wisdom and information, read, A Time for Every Purpose and Divest This.

I will now add that I am going to place these two blogs on my side where I have blogs I like to read.

The ER, the human condition & church

The experience happened before I read Carol Howard Merritt's blog posting, “The Menlo Park Difference,” but I was reminded of the event. The ER was kind of like church, a place for broken people: only there wasn’t enough beds so most of us sat in the waiting room, between tests. And this was the place where the homeless gathered because it was warm, or they were sick, or lonely. Over seven hours of waiting produced various views of the human condition.

One lady became angry when a man, large and boney, accidently stepped on her toe. The hospital policemen quickly gathered and the loud name calling subsided. One man, generous and kind, nevertheless spoke aloud every thought that entered his mind. He rambled on, talking to himself for several hours, offered someone a cigarette, and continually left to buy coffee or food. And then he decided to pull off all of his top clothing, shake it out and put it back on.

Another went to the rest room and when he returned he brought out a whole roll of paper which he left on a chair. No one sat there again. One lady troubled by anxiety talked on the phone to the nurse on the other side of the window. After she began screaming and falling, her husband and a nurse half carried and half pulled her to the other side.

A kind of camaraderie develops under such conditions.  When someone was called in for a test all others clapped. One young man with his foot in a temporary cast, after having too many people stumble over it, was relieved when someone else placed a 'wet floor' sign over his poor injured foot. Several ladies, two in a wheel chair, sat toward the back chatting, laughing and making good use of what seemed to many of us almost imprisonment. Every so often a nurse would come to the waiting room and administer pain medication to those who needed it.

But here’s the important part: there were nurses and doctors on the other side. There was medicine and beds for those who would finally need them. (The hospital is rebuilding so eventually there will be more beds in ER.) There was the potential for healing and wholeness.  No one was turned away until they were tested and hopefully treated or at least given advice. Church is supposed to be like that.  No one tells the sinner to go away. No one tells the sinner, he is not a sinner. Instead they tell the sinner that Jesus loves them, and died for them.

This is what happened to my husband and me many years ago. We saw a young hippy couple being snubbed at our home church and prayed that God would bring us to a place where those in the hippy culture would be loved and given the gospel. And He did for fifteen years. Several years later, a friend I shared a Greek class with at Fuller Theological Seminary, in Sacramento, told me how she and her husband would load their car up with young people and head to Saturday night concerts at Warehouse Ministries. They heard great music and they heard about Jesus, his death and resurrection. Drug pushers, prostitutes, the self-righteous, the addicted and pagans, they came and as they were discipled Jesus changed them.

As I said, I thought of this commenting on Carol Howard Merritt’s blog posting, “The Menlo Park Difference.”

Surely this is what church is about, bringing the sinner home to Jesus, teaching them and us, also sinners, to grow and be transformed in Christ. We should be rejoicing when anyone, pastor, ruling elder, layperson hungers to reach out and minister to the unbeliever in our communities. We should jump for joy whenever and wherever the gospel, the good news of redemption is proclaimed.  

The unity is not rubbed out by changing  denominational lines, rather it is torn apart when our love for Christ grows cold.

One Great Hour of Sharing, New Age and the divine feminine

I was quite comfortable in bed, going to sleep, when I felt a bit of a nudge about this posting which I have already had up for half a day. I was not serious enough about what I was writing. God’s purposes and name are dishonored with the actions of the National Committee on the Self Development of People of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), and it is his cause and his glory that they have defamed. I am doing a partial rewrite.

I hope for the sake of Christ, your church does not contribute to One Great Hour of Sharing. If you do contribute you are helping the New Age community propagate their eastern forms of religion, and uplifting the divine feminine at the same time.

The Critical Mass Dance Company of Los Angeles received $15, 000 to supposedly seek “to change the structures that perpetuate poverty, oppression and injustice by empowering women though the healing power of dance and mutual community.” Anyway that is what the National Committee on the Self Development of People of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) stated on the PNS site. However, the Critical Mass Dance Company, in their educational dance classes, according to their web site, teach you how to balance your “chakra,” a decidedly Hindu and/or New Age activity.

Actually Christians don’t “normally” believe in chakras which have to do with connecting to the one reality which is impersonal. Names for this New Age concept are, “psychic energy, consciousness, color, mind, light, vibration, vital energy, life force. ch’I, prana, or an aura.” [1]
The information on the workshop page speaks further to the use of the dances:

It reminds us we have the power to create the lives and world we wish to see through our intention. The workshops take place around a spiral or labyrinth. The spiral is used to energize and amplify our collective intentions for our lives and world.

When we declare our intentions, our word becomes our world. When we embody our word, we can be the change we want to see.

There is nothing biblical in that statement. The human is made to be the creator of their own world in place of submission to Christ and his word.
On a page for 0ne of the performances,[2] “Ama Terra,” that the company is involved in, a particular dance is featured, “Moving into Grace: Sacred Dance Performance of the Divine Feminine.” And there is a link to more information.  Here is some of the information:

Celebrate the beginning of a new era of consciousness birthing within YOU in 2014.

Inhale the beauty, mystery and love of the Divine Feminine as you watch dances designed to uplift, inspire and bless you with unconditional love.

This show is part of an emerging new form of performance where we inspire you… and you inspire us.  Enjoy beautiful, sensual performances by local women…and watch them invoke and embody the Goddess.  Be transported by belly dancers into the realm of Shakti – divine feminine energy.   If you choose to, spiral dance with us and set your intentions for the coming year.

And, this night is set to delight, with all that inspiration leading to an Ecstatic Dance Party right after the performance!  Merge with the wild beauty of womens’ sacred dance where the past and future dissolve and leave us in the NOW, where all intentions are empowered to manifest.

Feel the sparkle of the show ignite YOUR sacred expression.  Stay and play with us afterwards!

It would be an understatement to suggest that the PCUSA is not spending your money well. It is in fact, not your money, nor is it the National Committee on the Self Development of People's money, it is God's.  It is sad that money that has been given to help the poor and those who are oppressed will instead be given to help others preform ritual dances in honor of false deities. It is no less an issue of apostasy then the acts of those ancient Israelites who the prophet Jeremiah rebuked.

The Prophet Malachi rebuked the priests who refused to turn back the blemished sacrifices the people brought to the temple. But this contemporary gift brought to the Lord who has fulfilled the ancient sacrifices with his death is dishonored by the committee because it is given away for false worship. The offense is worse and without excuse. Malachi pleads for the priests to honor the Lord rather than corrupting the people. We must plead also.

(There is another grant recipient,  Women’s Press Collective, in Brooklyn, New York which is a member of the National Labor Federation, which has a connection to the Provisional Communist Party of the United States. The last entity is a secretive organization.  There is a web site which hosts a collection of articles about the National Labor Federation and Women's Press Collective is included. The group evidently has cultic leanings.
See http://www.culteducation.com/groups/natlfed.html)

 

---

[1] The Illustrated Guide to World Religions, Dean Halverson, general editor, (International Students, Inc. 2003 edition)176.

[2]  On the Critical Mass Dance site under performances, Immanuel Presbyterian Church is noted as hosting a 2011 & 2013 performance.