Update Regarding Errors in the Advertisement in the Indianapolis Star on Friday, April 18, 2008

On Friday, April 18, the Indianapolis Star ran a half-page ad that St. Peter's purchased to support the on-going identity campaign of the United Church of Christ. Many of you offered financial support to make this ad a reality. The ad appeared on page 9 of the first section of the paper.

Recognizing the impact of the ad that had run in the New York Times in early April, we gave the Indianapolis Star a high-resolution electronic copy of the ad provided by our national UCC office. This was exactly the same ad copy as had been used to publish the New York Times ad. We also asked that our name and congregational information be included at the bottom of the ad. Without explanation, the Star altered the ad from the correct electronic version. As a result some of the language conveyed strongly offensive sentiments.

There were three disturbing mistakes within it. First, the name of our denomination was cited as the "United States Church of Christ" in the first line of the ad. Second, the word "ordain" was changed to "obtain" with reference to African-American, gay, and female ministers. Finally, the word "congregation" was misspelled.

While the Indianapolis Star still has not explained why or how these changes were made, they have agreed to run a corrected version of our ad, at no cost to us, in the Saturday, April 19, edition.

We are happy to share that we have already received positive response to this ad from our parishioners and people outside of St. Peter's congregation, despite the mistakes. We will hope that a second run of the ad, with corrected information, will continue to impact the wider Indianapolis community.

With Hope,
Larry Kleiman, Senior Pastor
Lori Bievenour, Associate Pastor

3106 East Carmel Drive

Carmel, IN 46033

Telephone: (317) 846-6882

Preschool: (317) 846-6860

Fax: (317) 844-0984

Email: stpeters@stpeterscarmel.org