James Lees Memorial Presbyterian Church

A Letter to You:

This note is for you if:
• You are looking for a welcoming faith community;
• You are a church member but not active;
• You are a new person at James Lees Church;
• You are looking for ways to grow spiritually and serve in some way in community, nation,
and world.

James Lees Church is a small congregation which is finding its niche in opening its doors to ALL. We are a “More Light” congregation, which means that gays, lesbians, bisexual, and transgendered persons are welcome to full participation and responsibility in this community.

For ten years James Lees Church has been a bilingual community, including Spanish- and English-speaking people in worship. We are learning from each other.

A portion of our income through offerings goes to others: this includes United Crescent Hill Ministries, flood and hurricane victims in the world and nation, mission action both national and global, and support for new ministries with Latinos and African-Americans in this area.

We helped create the annual “Children of Abraham, Sarah, and Hagar” worship service, a part of the Festival of Faiths, rotating between the Islamic Cultural Center, Temple Shalom, and James Lees.

Various persons in the church community engage in the work of peace, fair food legislation, Dare to Care, sexual justice, deep ecology, teaching, individual and family wholeness, interfaith issues, and spiritual transformation.

We recognize we are not a community for everybody, and we are not trying to be. We want to be focused on what we do. Our pastor and spiritual leader is Phil Lloyd-Sidle. We believe deeply that there are many paths to wholeness and communion with God. Although we are a Christian congregation, not all who attend are Christian. We do, however, all share a spirit and commitment to peace and the integrity of all.

“1741: A Collaboratory for Social Innovation”

Our building is being transformed into a cooperative: through an original vision of the congregation we are, along with others, creating “1741: A Collaboratory for Social Innovation.” This “collaboratory” is composed of the Latino fellowship group, Covenant Community Church, Looking for Lilith (a women’s theater company), Sowers of Justice Network (a coalition and voice of progressive church people and groups in Louisville), KITLAC (a Latin American solidarity group), Jewish Voice for Peace, the Mid-Kentucky Ecclesia Project, two therapists’ practices, and others. Our vision includes:

o respecting, celebrating, and engaging diversity of various kinds;
o deep listening – to ourselves and others;
o seeking communion with the divine;
o healing divisions that wound;
o waging peace;
o creating beauty, and
o fostering just and sustainable ways of living together with the universe and one another.