With the images of Charlottesville seared in people’s hearts, around the country those who stand against racism and violence began organizing and speaking out. Preachers rewrote their sermons. Communities organized prayer vigils and rallies of solidarity with Charlottesville – with gatherings planned in cities large and small. Within hours of the violence in Charlottesville, people congregated in Boston and Portland and Minneapolis and elsewhere, to denounce hatred and racism. What’s going on in your city and your congregation? What response have you seen? What did you hear in church this morning – or not hear? What needs to happen next? … [Read more...]
Way Forward Commission discusses publishing, loans, feedback and more
The Way Forward Commission continues to plow through the work before it – including instructing Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) leaders to present a plan and timeline for consolidating publishing operations in the denomination by the commission’s meeting in Seattle January 17-19, 2018. The commission’s vote to do that, in a conference call meeting Aug. 9, adds more urgency to an issue that’s already under discussion: the possible consolidation of Congregational Ministries Publishing (which produces curriculum for the denomination and is currently housed in the Presbyterian Mission Agency) into the Presbyterian Publishing Corporation. That consolidation is already being considered – but the commission’s vote means “we are putting pressure on them to do this, not just encouraging,” said Mark Hostetter, a minister from New York who serves as the commission’s moderator. On July 18, following a closed-door discussion of more than two hours, the executive committee of the … [Read more...]
General Assembly Meeting Service responds to NAACP Missouri travel advisory
(OUTLOOK) The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) has a series of big meetings planned in Missouri – including the next General Assembly June 16-23 in St. Louis – all coming up as the NAACP has issuing a warning about the safety of African-Americans traveling in the state. In October the PC(USA) will hold a series of meetings in St. Louis for mid council leaders: the Association of Mid Council Leaders and Association of Stated Clerks and the Moderators’ Conference (all October 13-14) and the Mid Council Leaders Gathering (formerly the Fall Polity Conference), which is being held Oct. 15-17 and is co-sponsored by the Office of the General Assembly and the Board of Pensions. The PC(USA) also held Big Tent 2017 at Washington University in St. Louis – focused on the theme Race, Reconcilation, Reformation – from July 6-8. Now the Missouri chapter of the NAACP has issued a travel advisory for people of color traveling in Missouri, after Missouri’s governor Eric Greitens signed legislation … [Read more...]
Court of Appeals upholds dismissal of defamation lawsuit following the 1001 New Worshipping Communities investigation
A Kentucky Court of Appeals panel has upheld a state court ruling dismissing the defamation lawsuit that Roger Dermody brought against the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). In a July 28 decision, a three-judge appeals court ruled that the lower court was correct to apply the ecclesiastical abstention doctrine, saying that not to do so would involve “excessive government entanglement into an ecclesiastical controversy.” The three-judge panel upheld a 2015 summary judgment by Jefferson Circuit Judge Judith McDonald-Burkman dismissing Dermody’s lawsuit. Dermody, the PC(USA)’s former deputy executive director for mission, filed the defamation lawsuit in state court in May 2015 when he and three others – Eric Hoey, Philip Lotspeich and Craig S. Williams – lost their jobs following an investigation involving a $100,000 grant sent from the 1001 New Worshipping Communities program to a nonprofit corporation set up in California. An internal PC(USA) investigation determined that the … [Read more...]
Presbyterian Mission Agency Board Executive Committee discusses future: Possible publishing consolidation, Stony Point, staff survey
ST. PAUL, MINN. (Outlook) – The Presbyterian Mission Agency Board’s executive committee spent some time at its July meeting preparing for what lies ahead – including a closed-door session to discuss a potential consolidation of Congregational Ministries Publishing, which produces curriculum materials for the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), with the Presbyterian Publishing Corporation. Another issue on the horizon: consideration of the future and sustainability of the Stony Point Center, outside New York City. On the first day of its July 17-19 meeting, held at Central Presbyterian Church in St. Paul, Minnesota, the committee met with the moderators of the Way Forward Commission (Mark Hostetter, a minister from New York) and the All Agency Review Committee (Deborah Block, a pastor from Milwaukee). Hostetter reviewed for the committee some of the areas of focus listed in the commission’s mid-term report, and Block described the work her committee is doing to try to write an ethos … [Read more...]
Westminster Presbyterian Church in Minneapolis expands, lives into mission
MINNEAPOLIS (Outlook) Here’s a question – one raised by a big, exciting, expensive, forward-thinking renovation and expansion project now underway at Westminster Presbyterian Church in downtown Minneapolis. As Meghan Gage-Finn, the congregation’s executive associate pastor, put it: “How can our building be mission?” That’s one of many questions the Westminster congregation has considered as it’s taken on the “Open Doors Open Future” project that will basically transform half a block near Nicollet Mall in downtown Minneapolis. The vision is “to open our doors to the city,” said David Shinn, who serves on the Presbyterian Mission Agency Board and is associate pastor for congregational care at Westminster. This $81.5 million project: Began with demolition in May 2016 – including razing an office tower and an apartment building that the church bought when it came up for sale, purchases that made the church less land-locked and the expansion project possible. … [Read more...]
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