(OGA) Those who partner with God in the spiritual leadership of the church live between two important truths. The first of these we hear from Jesus on the occasion of his last gathering with his disciples: “Without me you can do nothing” (John 15:5). Nothing is a very hard word. It must have been hard for the first disciples to hear. First, Jesus talks about his going away from them and then they hear that without him they can do nothing. How was the work to go forward? How was God’s agenda going to be accomplished if Jesus was going away and if without him they could do nothing? Nothing is still a hard word for believers to hear today, yet Jesus also says to twenty-first century Christians: “Without me you can do nothing.” This sounds offensive because at the top of just about any American list of virtues is a can-do spirit. Most Christians today would agree that doing God’s work should somehow involve God, but in practice God can end up a distant or even absent partner in our … [Read more...]
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Outpost Blog 14 hours ago
The Elder Preaching Institute
Eastminster Presbytery’s interim general presbyter, Nancy Kahaian, had just started her service with the presbytery and was meeting with each pastor individually. I went to have a meal with her to bring up a particular concern in mind. In two Sundays I was going to be on vacation and I didn’t have pulpit supply. It wasn’t that I hadn’t tried. I already had called everyone on the presbytery’s very small pulpit supply list. I had tried further connections. No one was available. My last hope was that Nancy would be… continue reading... -
Outlook Features 2 days ago
A letter to watch over you
I was baptized as infant in a white clapboard church in the rural Canadian Rocky Mountains. The week before I received the sacrament, a dozen or so people in that tiny Moravian congregation painted the sanctuary. They painted the entire sanctuary. Monday morning, they lugged ladders inside and draped pews. They spent the rest of the week sloshing paint on the walls with rollers and brushes. When the sun set on Saturday afternoon, that holy room glowed in white like a baby in his baptismal gown. And these faithful folks… continue reading... -
Outlook Reporting 2 days ago
Concern returns over Stony Point finances
Finances at Stony Point Center again have emerged as a concern for the Presbyterian Mission Agency Board – with expenses at Stony Point outrunning revenue by more than $286,000 for the first seven months of this year. Kitty and Rick Ufford-Chase, co-executive directors of Stony Point Center outside New York City. In response, the Presbyterian Mission Agency is holding off on all but emergency or essential capital spending at Stony Point, hoping that guest occupancy rates at the conference and retreat center outside New York City can increase in the rest… continue reading...
Parties in Stamford case had tried to expedite process in order to get a ruling on the merits of the case January 1, 1995 Uncategorized60 views The General Assembly Permanent Judicial Commission -- in sidestepping the question of exactly how deeply a session should be required to probe into the private life of a gay elder who has acknowledged being in a committed, life-long relationship but has declined to say whether he is sexually active -- has put the question off but has not put it to rest.- Ministering with the Earth January 1, 1998 Book Reviews54 views By Mary Elizabeth MooreChalice. 1998. 226 pp. Pb. $19.99. ISBN 0-8272-2323-4 Ministering with the Earth is a quiltwork, both the on-the-ground activity and Moore's book about so ministering. Moore, professor of theology and Christian education at Claremont School of Theology, is fond of the metaphor, suitably pastoral and feminist.
- Remembered Voice: Reclaiming the Legacy of 'Neo-Orthodoxy' January 1, 1998 Book Reviews64 views By Douglas John HallWJKP. 1998. 145 pp. Pb. $18. ISBN 0-664-25772-0 It was in this order. I first read Tillich's Dynamics of Faith. Riveting. Next came The Courage to Be. Gripping. Then I went back and read the first volume of the Systematic Theology. Things began to make sense. Next came Biblical Religion and the Search for Ultimate Reality. Positive.
The 223rd GA – July 30, 2018 July 23, 2018 Digital Issues2 comments General Assembly: 538 commissioners from 170 presbyteries gathered for a week in the heat of St. Louis to work in 14 committees, worship, pray, march, discuss and debate. They voted on issues ranging from climate change to mental health, heard about mission around the globe, created task forces and restructured the denomination. The depth and breadth of their work is too big to be contained in these pages, nonetheless this issue gives you a sense of the scope of the decisions made by the 223rd General Assembly. Visit pres-outlook.org/223GA for more...
Stony Point to receive year-by-year funding from Presbyterian Mission Agency April 26, 2018 Outlook Reporting1 comment CINCINNATI – The Presbyterian Mission Agency Board voted April 26 to provide at least a year’s funding to Stony Point Center for capital improvements – and voiced its support of Stony Point as being an important ministry of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.).
The board’s Stony Point Sustainability Task Force had asked the board to approve spending $3 million over three years for deferred maintenance and capital improvements at Stony Point, a facility of more than 30 acres about an hour outside New York City.
That money, however, would have had to come from Presbyter...
Going home: Part two August 9, 2018 Outpost Blog1 comment
(Read Going home: Part One)
Yesterday, I rejected the premise of Dr. Seuss’ book “Oh, The Places You’ll Go” in favor of taking seriously the places from which we come. While the majority of that article was dedicated to my own personal, lived experiences (and thus too subjective to be rigorously scrutinized), even as I wrote it, I was aware of some of the potential negative implications of it.
My argument, removed from its subjective confines, is that where we come from is not coincidental to God’s providence ...
Regarding ruling elders: The creative tension of spiritual leadership
Organizers of GA 223 bail-out in St. Louis detention centers shift focus of campaign
(PNS) It has been described as one of the major highlights of the 223rd General Assembly (2018) in St. Louis. Hundreds of Presbyterians, including the Reverend J. Herbert Nelson, II, General Assembly Stated Clerk, Co-Moderators Vilmarie Cintrón-Olivieri and the Reverend Cindy Kohlmann, and Presbyterian Mission Agency Executive Director the Reverend Diane Moffett, walking to the City Justice Center. With a collection of more than $47,000 received at the assembly’s opening worship service, Nelson turned the money over to local organizations to begin bailing out individuals who had been prescreened for release because they could not afford their cash bail. In the weeks that have passed, local organizers like the Bail Project and the St. Louis Act Council have run into constant roadblocks as people who are released find themselves facing incarceration again at another local facility. Stated Clerk, the Rev. J. Herbert Nelson, II, speaks at the No Cash Bail March in St. Louis on June … [Read more...]
Report alleges decades of child sex abuse by Pennsylvania priests
(RNS) — Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro has released a more than 1,300-page grand jury report detailing allegations of widespread sexual abuse of more than 1,000 children by Catholic priests in the state, naming hundreds of clerics accused of misconduct over 70 years and accusing church officials of a “systemic” cover-up. Shapiro unveiled the report at a news conference Tuesday (Aug. 14) attended by many alleged abuse survivors that began with some of them painfully and sometimes tearfully recounting in a video the horrifying details of their abuse and accusing the church of protecting predators. The attorney general said the report exposes a “systematic cover-up by senior church officials in Pennsylvania and the Vatican.” The report is the result of an 18-month investigation spearheaded by Shapiro that examined six of the state’s eight dioceses. The release was delayed by a flurry of legal challenges from some of the more than 300 clergy named in the report, but … [Read more...]
Reflections on the celebration of the life of Katie Geneva Cannon
CONCORD, N.C. – There was something that felt perfectly right about the celebration of life of Dr. Katie Geneva Cannon at Bethpage United Presbyterian Church on August 14 in Concord, North Carolina. First, there was the community that gathered. It was like a reunion of reunions for African American Presbyterians and many others. We gathered, greeted each other, sang, praised God, read Scripture, remembered, celebrated, and renewed our faith, even at a time of death of a beloved sister, aunt, friend and educator. Dr. Diane Moffett, Executive Director and President of the Presbyterian Mission Agency, announced that a fund at the Presbyterian Mission Agency will provide scholarships for women of color to attend leadership development events. She asked for donations in honor of Katie Geneva Cannon, so that her name and legacy will continue. Those wishing to donate towards the fund should click here to donate online or include #E049991 on your check to designate the donation. Dr. … [Read more...]
The Elder Preaching Institute
Eastminster Presbytery’s interim general presbyter, Nancy Kahaian, had just started her service with the presbytery and was meeting with each pastor individually. I went to have a meal with her to bring up a particular concern in mind. In two Sundays I was going to be on vacation and I didn’t have pulpit supply. It wasn’t that I hadn’t tried. I already had called everyone on the presbytery’s very small pulpit supply list. I had tried further connections. No one was available. My last hope was that Nancy would be available to fill the pulpit for me. She did and I was able to take my vacation, but it revealed a larger problem within the presbytery. Pastors need to take vacations and avail themselves of continuing education opportunities. I was not the only pastor who struggled to take a Sunday off because there were not people available to preach. Little did I know that my meal with Nancy Kahaian would prompt a new opportunity in Eastminster Presbytery: the Elder Preaching … [Read more...]
Museum of the Bible returns medieval manuscript after discovering item’s theft
(RNS) — One year after the Green family — owners of the craft store chain Hobby Lobby and principal sponsors of the Museum of the Bible — agreed to pay a $3 million fine for illegally importing artifacts from Iraq, the museum is returning a medieval New Testament manuscript to the University of Athens after learning the document had been stolen from the Greek institution. The return follows an investigation the museum is conducting on the provenance, or origins, of more than 3,000 items in its collection. Late last week, the Washington, D.C., museum that opened in November 2017 announced it would return the medieval Greek manuscript of the four Gospel accounts of Jesus’ life to the University of Athens. It marked “the first return of an artifact because of a provenance issue,” spokeswoman Michelle Farmer of DeMoss told Religion News Service. The item, known as “Manuscript 18” and dating to the 1100s, had gone missing from the university’s library in 1991. It turned up … [Read more...]
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