Regarding an unbylined item in today's L.A. Times about a lesbian Presbyterian seeking to be ordained as a minister (or priest, as the Times put it), an LA Observed reader emails:

Astonishing error on A5 of the LA Times today: they refer repeatedly to "Presbyterian priests." There are not, and never have been, priests in the Presbyterian Church. Ministers are called ministers or pastors. Indeed, not having priests was one of the fundamental changes of the Reformation. An article which refers to "Presbyterian priests" can only have been written by someone with absolutely no knowledge of the subject they were writing about. No one with the slightest familiarity with the Presbyterian Church could write such a thing. In the more than 300-year history of the church, it has never had priests. Until today in the LA Times.

Actually, the error has popped up elsewhere too. But half of the first six uses reported in a Google search point back to...the recent Los Angeles Times. Kinda think it wouldn't have happened when the paper had an award-winning religion writer who was an ordained Presbyterian.

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