Leslie Scanlon, Author at The Presbyterian Outlook

Moving Forward Implementation Commission tackles pressing issues, broader questions

March 25, 2019 by Leslie Scanlon Leave a Comment

LOUISVILLE – The Moving Forward Implementation Commission is considering making an interim report to the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) on the progress it’s making – possibly at Big Tent in August. Marco Grimaldo, who is co-moderator with Larryetta Ellis of the commission and a ruling elder from Washington, D.C., said the commission is thinking of exploring ways to communicate to the church “this is what moving forward means to us.” The commission, meeting in Louisville March 25-26, is focusing both on specific tasks it’s trying to complete and also broader questions about what the General Assembly intended the commission to do. J. Herbert Nelson, stated clerk of the PC(USA), met with the commission via conference call and urged the members to “hold us accountable” for what the Way Forward Commission instructed the PC(USA) to do, and also to recognize and communicate that “there is hope in this denomination.” The commission also spoke by video conference with Vilmarie … [Read more...]

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Will Stony Point Center become a mission arm of the Presbyterian Mission Agency? A look ahead at this week’s PMA board meeting

March 25, 2019 by Leslie Scanlon Leave a Comment

The leadership of the Presbyterian Mission Agency is proposing a new focus for Stony Point Center— moving from the current emphasis particularly on “radical hospitality” to a broader ministry offering programs and mission experiences that would align with the Matthew 25 focus of the Presbyterian Mission Agency. The Presbyterian Mission Agency Board, meeting in Louisville March 27-29, will consider a recommendation (A.104 An Integrated Vision for PMA and Stony Point Center) from Diane Moffett, president and executive director of the Presbyterian Mission Agency, to hire a consultant to help develop a vision for how Stony Point can be developed as a mission arm of PMA. If the board approves that recommendation, the report from the consultant, Run River Enterprises, would be presented when the board meets again Sept. 26-28. The cost for retaining the consultant is estimated at $38,000, plus about $3,200 in travel expenses. This is a busy week for national Presbyterian … [Read more...]

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New committee will evaluate per capita and financial sustainability

March 20, 2019 by Leslie Scanlon Leave a Comment

How well does the per capita system of funding serve the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)? Is a per-member apportionment a viable approach for a denomination that’s continuing to lose members (down 43 percent over the past two decades)? If per capita reserves are depleted by 2020, as is expected to happen, what are the implications of that for the Office of the General Assembly? And what’s the financial sustainability of the denomination overall? Those are among the questions that a new special committee will be discussing in the months to come – the outgrowth of questions about national church funding bubbling up at the 2018 General Assembly. Assembly co-moderators Vilmarie Cintrón-Olivieri and Cindy Kohlmann announced this week that they had appointed 15 members to a combined Special Committee on Per-Capita Based Funding and National Church Financial Sustainability, led by committee co-moderators Valerie Young, synod leader and stated clerk of the Synod of … [Read more...]

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Continuing the dance of faith and service: A small congregation keeps step with their community

March 20, 2019 by Leslie Scanlon Leave a Comment

SAN ANTONIO - It’s a question many small congregations face. The neighborhood is economically challenged, the congregation growing older. What’s the future for ministry in this place? At Divine Redeemer Presbyterian Church in San Antonio, a predominantly Hispanic congregation, the answer has come in part from seeds planted at the very beginning: a century of connection with House of Neighborly Service, a social service nonprofit founded as a Presbyterian mission in 1917. Divine Redeemer and House of Neighborly Service have danced together for decades — both begun by Presbyterians to meet the needs of Mexican immigrants coming to San Antonio, many of them with limited incomes and educations, but with the highest hopes for their children. The congregation was founded in 1914 by Harry Phillips, a Presbyterian missionary who had served in Mexico, but headed north to San Antonio fleeing the disruption of the Mexican Revolution, as did Mexican immigrants who came to the neighborhood as … [Read more...]

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Who are your people? Jennifer Harvey connects race and social connection at Next Church

March 14, 2019 by Leslie Scanlon Leave a Comment

SEATTLE – “Who are your people?” That’s the question that Jennifer Harvey, a professor of religion and ethics at Drake University and the author of “Dear White Christians: For Those Still Longing for Racial Reconciliation” and “Raising White Kids: Bringing Up Children in a Racially Unjust America,” put to Presbyterians at the NEXT Church 2019 national gathering March 13. Harvey contends that it’s “who we name and claim as our people that determines how we understand what the path towards liberation is.” In other words, it matters who we see (or do not see) as part of the family — who it’s worth taking risks for and worth journeying out with into the shark-infested waters. And she says white Christians have much to account for – including a history that favors racial reconciliation over lament or reparations for wrongs inflicted. “If there was ever a time to be praying and agitating and creating on the question of what it means to be church, this is it,” Harvey … [Read more...]

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The story of God’s people: Tali Hairston speaks to Next Church

March 11, 2019 by Leslie Scanlon Leave a Comment

SEATTLE – “The way the story is told matters,” W. Tali Hairston told the NEXT Church 2019 national gathering during its opening plenary March 11. Meaning: who is given voice and who is not. Who is left out. Who controls the narrative. A Seattle native, Hairston is senior advisor for community engagement for Seattle Presbytery. He spoke to this gathering about the elements of transformation and reconciliation – warning the crowd of about 575 at First Presbyterian Church in downtown Seattle that he would not be afraid to speak uncomfortable truths. “I was going to wear tennis shoes so that when I was done I could run out and you couldn’t catch me,” Hairston said near the beginning. He decided to stay put and speak his mind. Hairston makes the argument that transformational change needs to make people uncomfortable; that it involves advocating for the disenfranchised and marginalized; that it involves a sense of mutuality, not charity; and that transformational relationships … [Read more...]