#PRIDE in the archives
A reintroduction to the Pam Byers Memorial Collection at the Presbyterian Historical Society, where LGBTQIA+ history is preserved with #PRIDE
The Presbyterian Historical Society has been collecting records in memory of Pam Byers for a decade now.
The Pam Byers Memorial Collection (PBMC) and Collecting Initiative were borne of a dual desire to honor the life and work of its namesake as well as to document all sides and perspectives on the 40-year movement for ordination and marriage rites for LGBTQIA+ folks in the church. This initiative includes more than 25 sets of personal papers, organizational records, oral histories, audio-visual materials, and websites, many of which offer insights into the life, ministry and witness of LGBTQIA+ Presbyterians in the church and in society.
PHS began this endeavor in 2016, two years after the death of Pam McLucas Byers, a ruling elder at Old First Presbyterian Church in San Francisco and the first executive director of Covenant Network of Presbyterians. During the quiet phase of the project, PHS leadership began collecting materials and raising funds to establish a researcher-focused memorial to Byers. They worked closely with friends and family of Byers, including her husband Jeff Byers, Deborah Block, Tricia Dykers Koenig, and Barbara Wheeler.
The public phase of the initiative was announced in October of 2018 — right around the time that PHS welcomed contract archivist Elizabeth Wittrig to the team. After a year of work, Wittrig reported having processed 11 collections.
The Patricia Dykers Koenig Papers was at the top of the list. The collection includes correspondence, overture drafts, and videocassettes that document the work of More Light Presbyterians and the Covenant Network, beginning in the early 1990s. After leaving a discussion at the 1991 gathering of the 203rd General Assembly, her ears full of derogatory language other commissioners had used to speak of the LGBTQIA+ community, Dykers Koenig began advocating for gay and queer rights within the denomination. She led Noble Road Presbyterian Church in a 12-week study of the Human Sexuality report, which initiated a year of discussion over whether the congregation should join the More Light Churches Network — which it did, in 1994.
Koenig's efforts for More Light Presbyterians overlapped with the work of the Covenant Network, which Byers served as the first executive director. The Covenant Network hired Koenig as a national organizer following the 212th General Assembly in 2000; she ended her time with the Covenant Network in February 2017, after 16 years of service.
One of the more recently processed collections is Record Group 543: The Ralph Carter Papers. This collection was originally curated and processed by Barry Smith, the historian at Lincoln Park Presbyterian Church in Chicago. Smith then donated the collection to PHS; it was accessioned and incorporated into the Pam Byers Memorial Collection in the fall of 2023. The collection's scope covers the life and LGBTQIA+ activism work of Ralph Campbell Carter, who became a member of Third Presbyterian Church in Rochester, New York, in 1979. There, he listened to fellow congregants express their frustration and upset over a decision made the year before.
The 1978 meeting of the General Assembly of the United Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A. (UPCUSA) had denied the recommendation of its Task Force to Study Homosexuality. Formed two years earlier, the Task Force had one openly gay member: Chris Glaser, founder of the Gay/Lesbian/Straight Coalition in Yale Divinity School (1974) and founding director of the Lazarus Project (1977).
The majority report’s suggestion to reaffirm the historic power of sessions and presbyteries to decide who to ordain was rejected, the GA voting instead to approve the minority statement, which refused the ordination of homosexuals into any office of the church. As a result, Glaser was denied ordination — though he remained employed by the church as director of the Lazarus Project, a ministry that worked for reconciliation between the church and the LGBTQIA+ community of Los Angeles.
In response to the actions taken at the 1978 meeting, the West-Park Presbyterian Church in New York City adopted a statement opposing the Assembly’s decision and specifically welcomed LGBTQIA+ people to full membership. Other churches followed suit. In 1979, these congregations were labeled as More Light Churches.
Carter’s home church in Rochester declared itself a More Light Church in 1987. Five years later, More Light churches formally joined together to create the More Light Churches Network, which would then merge with Presbyterians for Lesbian/Gay Concerns (PLGC) in 1999 to become a single organization called More Light Presbyterians.
In the spring of 2024, PHS received 48 cubic feet of original More Light Presbyterians (MLP) records, which have since been processed as Record Group 548 and made accessible to the public. More Light Presbyterians traces its creation to the activism and ministry of queer Presbyterians who fought for full inclusion in ordination and membership rights within the Presbyterian Church. One of the most influential figures in the creation and lifecycle of this grassroots advocacy group was David Bailey Sindt.
Sindt was born into a family saturated with Presbyterianism. His uncle, grandfather, and great-grandfather had all been ordained ministers within the Presbyterian tradition, and David chose to follow in his forebears' footsteps. In 1965, he was ordained in St. Paul, Minnesota, after obtaining his Master of Divinity degree. In early 1974, Sindt sent out letters in search of advocates and allies for gay and queer concerns within the church.
While attending the General Assembly of the UPCUSA in Louisville, Kentucky, later that year, Sindt hoisted himself onto a chair and stuck a hand-made sign in the air that asked, "Is anyone else out there gay?" Sindt's bravery triggered the commencement of a movement toward LGBTQIA+ Presbyterian inclusion and the formation of the Presbyterian Gay Caucus (PGC), which would then be renamed the PLGC, and further down the line would be incorporated into More Light Presbyterians (MLP). Glaser, the Lazarus Program director, was an active member of PLGC, before and after its name change; he served as treasurer and as editor of its newsletters. These kinds of associations and connections between materials is a unique and indelible characteristic of the Pam Byers Memorial Collection.
As of 2026, PHS has added 21 collections of personal papers and eight collections of organizational records to the Pam Byers Memorial Collection. These records include the personal papers of folks such as Ralph Carter, Tricia Dykers Koenig, Mary Ann Lundy, and David Sindt, as well as the records of the Covenant Network of Presbyterians, More Light Presbyterians, the PCUSA Special Committee to Study Human Sexuality, Voices of Sophia, and more. The overall scope of the PBMC reveals how LGBTQIA+ Presbyterians held together in the face of a series of defeats: the minority report of the Task Force to Study Homosexuality in 1978; the 1991 rejection of the open and affirming posture of the Special Committee on Human Sexuality; the 1996 passage of Amendment B; and the 1998 fall of Amendment A.
Thanks to the generosity of donors and the willingness of Presbyterians to participate in the project, PHS has been able to add a substantial amount of material to its collections that document LGBTQIA+ history from the late 1960s until today. The LGBTQIA+ History Digital Collection in Pearl includes oral histories, a study packet created by the 1978 United Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A. Task Force to Study Homosexuality, the very first newsletter published by That All May Freely Serve, which includes a column written by Janie Spahr titled “News and Views from Your Lesbian Evangelist,” and so much more.
This work is continuous — previously unheard narratives are discovered, lost moments and movements are unearthed, and new possibilities are encountered every day in the archive. The Presbyterian Historical Society remains committed to documenting all sides and perspectives of the 40-year movement for gay ordination and LGBTQIA+ marriage rites in the church and is honored to do so in the memory of Pam Byers. To support this continuing work, donate to the PHS Annual Fund. Happy #PRIDE Month!
Learn more
LGBTQIA+ History Digital Collection
Journey to Inclusion Video Resource
"Is Anyone Else Out There Gay?" Heritage Sunday bulletin insert
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