Two other dates also stand out. On December 26, 2004, an underwater earthquake rumbled silently beneath the Indian Ocean, and soon it unleashed a tsunami killing nearly 230,000 people in eleven coastal countries. Eight months later, on August 29, 2005, Hurricane Katrina raced onto the U.S. gulf coast, driving more than one million from their homes. It caused more than 1,800 confirmed deaths and left more than 700 missing.
What of the rest of the decade?
We have prepared an overview of the most significant news stories of the decade for people of faith in general and for Presbyterians in particular (see pp. 12-15). We prepared these summaries with the help of an online survey of our readers. Yes, you were included if we have your e-mail address (if not, then e-mail it to: circulation@pres-outlook.org.)
We limited each summary to ten such events/movements. In so doing, many other important stories missed the cut.
On the national stage violence took its toll on the campus of Virginia Tech, leaving 32 dead. Presbyterian pastor and police chaplain, Alex Evans, along with campus ministries, extended to that community the grace and care on behalf of the rest of us. Violence hit a people especially known for their peaceable ways when a gunman took hostages and eventually shot five Amish schoolgirls, aged 6-13, before turning the gun on himself. The community stunned the nation by demonstrating the key to peace: bestowing forgiveness upon the perpetrator and pouring kindness upon his surviving family.
Churches stepped into the gap to protect against carnage and to advocate justice. The tragic violence, poverty, and starvation in the Darfur region of Sudan gave rise to many relief efforts, but the state of war there limited the missions of mercy. The exposure of a U.S. military practice of torturing captured military combatants in the war on terror unleashed waves of outrage among many Christian denominations and congregations. So, too, many Christian groups pushed for immigration reform while political leaders struggled to address Americans’ concerns for border security and job protection.
Mel Gibson’s movie-making skills merged with a grassroots marketing effort through churches, resulting in an account of The Passion of the Christ that became a blockbuster hit in the movie theatres.
The mega-church movement continued to put forth stellar demonstrations of church growth, but overall the non-denominational, independent church growth surge in the U.S. leveled off. Mainline churches continued to suffer membership losses. However, multicultural fellowships and immigrant congregations were planted widely and many are showing positive growth trends.
Financial belt-tightening and a movement away from centralized leadership generated a 30 per cent reduction in staff serving in the PC(USA) headquarters over the 10-year period. The stock market crash of 2008 overwhelmed seminaries and other institutions depending on endowment income to sustain them. Many of them had to lay off employees and cut back programs.
Some presbyteries also scaled back their operations, partly to redirect resources to strengthen missional ministry at the congregational level.
Theological controversies were addressed and mostly resolved via the publication and official reception of such papers as “Hope in the Lord Jesus Christ” and “The Trinity: God’s Love Overflowing.”
We said farewell to such leaders as Mother Theresa, Jerry Falwell, Ruth Bell Graham, David H. C. Read, Clayton Bell, Randy Taylor, William P. Thompson, Jack Stott, James E. Andrews, William Sloane Coffin, Lew Mudge, Ed Dowey, Dan Little, Virginia Davidson, and Isabel Rogers.
All in all, we rejoiced together, wept together, debated together, reconciled together, served together, learned together, and, on occasion, came apart. Yes, some defining dates have brought us anguish. Yet, through it all, we have testified that grace has brought us this far so far, and we proclaim that through the coming decade of the twenty-teens, grace will lead us through … and ultimately lead us home.
— JHH
