Good News! Holy Innocents Parish Accepted into Margaretville Interfaith Council

The issue that I blogged about earlier has now been resolved and the Holy Innocents Parish has been accepted into the Margaretville Interfaith Council.

More info can be found at this article on Diversity Rules!

More Info on Margaretville Interfaith Council and The Holy Innocents Church

A church's struggle for interfaith inclusion goes viral via The Watershed Post

A public outcry has erupted in a tight-knit Catskills community over a local interfaith council's reluctance to allow an independent Catholic church to join as a member. The dispute has prompted the council's pro bono lawyer to resign in protest, and stirred up local tensions about same-sex marriage and religion.

Bishop Francisco Betancourt, a founding pastor of the independent Catholic Holy Innocents church in Halcottsville, said that his church has been trying to join the Margaretville Interfaith Council for 12 years, ever since the church was established. Throughout that time, Betancourt said, his efforts have been met with a resounding silence -- a response that was never quite clear enough to be 'no,' but never a welcoming 'yes.'

The reason his church has not been welcomed, Betancourt says, is Holy Innocents' willingness to perform same-sex marriage, an issue that Interfaith Council leaders acknowledge is deeply controversial among their members.

Read the whole article here

Local Issue: Shame on Margaretville Interfaith Council!

Sharing because of the shortage of local pro-queer media:

From Diversity Rules Magazine: Shame on Margaretville Interfaith Council! by Jim Kouri

The Margaretville Interfaith Council is not allowing membership to Holy Innocents Catholic Church, an Apostolic Catholic Church independent from Papal Authority, primarily because of its acceptance of queer folks and marrying them. The council is concerned that other churches will leave the council if “the gay church” is allowed to join. Holy Innocents Church does a lot of good things in the greater Margaretville area and it's a real travesty that the Interfaith Council sees fit to discriminate against this church, a fellow Christian Church helping people in need and ministering to them.

Here's a link to Holy Innocents and check out for yourself what great church they are:

http://www.holyinnocentscacina.org

If you want to help in battling discrimination in this small Delaware County village, contact Francisco J. Betancourt, Co-Pastor, at 845.586.2201. Tell him you heard about his plight from Diversity Rules Magazine and you want to know how you can help!

If you want to express your outrage directly to the Interfaith Council the contact person is, Rev. Richard Dykstra, Secretary/Treasurer. His contact information is as follows:

Rev. Richard Dykstra
PO Box 702
Margaretville, NY 12455
607.326.7101