Denominational mission budget pared down
LOUISVILLE – With fewer resources, the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) in the next two years will be doing fewer things and focusing on..
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Proposed mission budget for discussion at PMAB meeting
The mission budget for the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) for the next two years would stand at $73.6 million for 2015 and $78.2..
Stony Point proposal to be presented at PMAB this week
After a long and somewhat contentious stretch of trying to figure out the future of Stony Point Center, here’s what the Presbyterian..
NEXT Church conferences inspires imagination and hope
MINNEAPOLIS –Imagination and hope. For the roughly 400 people who attended the NEXT Church national gathering in Minneapolis, that’s likely what they..
The river of God: Next Church conference contemplative worship
MINNEAPOLIS – The congregants sat during evening worship in the balcony, looking down over a river of blue fabric draped over the..
J. Herbert Nelson addresses Next Church Conference
MINNEAPOLIS – “No community of faith can be silent while people suffer.” J. Herbert Nelson II, who leads the Office of Public..
2014 NEXT Church conference kicks off by promoting questions and adaptive change
MINNEAPOLIS – “We stand in the rubble of the mainline church” – that’s how Jim Kitchens, a Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) minister and..
Philadelphia Presbytery breaks the mold
After two rejections, presbytery looked inward — and found a candidate who sensed God’s call. When Ruth Santana-Grace looked across the room..
Bolz-Weber asks, “What does it mean to be a public church?”
BLOOMINGTON, IND. – On Fat Tuesday, folks from the House for All Sinners and Saints in Denver go to the bars to..
Kelly Allen endorsed as third candidate to stand for moderator
A third candidate has emerged for moderator of the 2014 General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) – the first woman nominated..
Board of Pensions elects new president
The Board of Pensions of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A) has elected Frank C. Spencer, president of Habitat for Humanity in Charlotte, N.C.,..
Fossil Free PC(USA) divestment movement gains momentum
Hurricanes. Typhoons. Droughts. Temperature darting up and down. Concerned about the impact of climate change, Presbyterians are asking the 2014 General..
Living river: Learning laboratory
The short, saucy version is this: on November 20, 2012, an 81-year-old widow named Bette Wilson died in Birmingham, Ala. She had..
MRTI recommends divestment from Caterpillar, Hewlett-Packard and Motorola Solutions
LOUISVILLE – The Presbyterian Mission Agency Board voted Feb. 6 to send to the 2014 General Assembly a controversial recommendation that the..
Full-time called pastor as an endangered species
Responding to changing needs, churches play variations on VBS
General Assembly PJC rules in Capetz and Larges cases, avoids addressing “central questions”
The General Assembly Permanent Judicial Commission — the highest court in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) — has declined in two new rulings involving controversial cases to take on some of the central questions involving departures of conscience from the denomination’s ordination standards.
Church food pantries fighting critical “summer hunger,” jobless needs
At some schools serving low-income neighborhoods, nearly every student is eligible for free or reduced-price lunch.
Closed meeting policy changed as GAC considers budget, staff issues
LOUISVILLE — The General Assembly Council of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) has changed its policy regarding closed meetings to allow it to exclude “corresponding members” from such discussions.
GAPJC rules Twin Cities Presbytery did not err in restoring Capetz ordination
The Presbytery of the Twin Cities Area did not make a mistake when it voted in January 2008 to restore the ordination of Paul Capetz, an openly-gay theology professor who will not promise that he will live in celibacy, the General Assembly Permanent Judicial Commission has ruled.
Old tradition for New Year Watch Night Services
It’s a tradition that many Presbyterian churches don’t follow – but one with a strong theological vision.
While many folks celebrate New Year’s Eve with champagne and parties, or an evening around the TV with a bowl of popcorn, some Christians choose to wave in the New Year at church.
20 minutes with David Eicher
When do churches need a new hymnal -- not just new volumes, but new selections? Who decides how many hymns to include, which ones are "in" and which ones are "out"? Leslie Scanlon, Outlook national reporter, recently talked with David Eicher, the new hymnal editor for the Presbyterian Publishing Corp. to get more information on the new Presbyterian Hymnal now in the planning stages.
L.S.: Let's start with your background. Why don't you introduce yourself to the church a little bit?
D.E.: I've been involved in music in the Presbyterian Church for almost 30 years. My background was not Presbyterian; I was raised the son of a Church of the Brethren and grew up in a real hymn-singing tradition. My parents both sang. And my sister and I, when we got old enough -- the great excitement was when finally my voice changed and I could sing tenor, and then we had a soprano, alto, tenor and bass. The whole family would sing. One of our games in the car when we were traveling was to see how many stanzas of hymns we could sing through, without any books.
Clergy retirement: Options and opportunities available
David McFarlane remembers the first Board of Pensions retirement seminar he attended. He was chairing the Committee on Ministry for Western New York Presbytery, and one of his responsibilities was to encourage pastors nearing retirement age to attend the seminars.
So it was suggested that he go himself -- the argument being something like, "You'll never convince anybody to go unless you go yourself."
McFarlane, then in his 40s, did go. He and his wife, Ann, walked into the room, sat down next to an older couple and struck up a conversation. The older man said he was intending to retire in about three weeks. He had not said a word to his session. The couple was living in a manse, owned no home and had no idea where they would live. They had made no plans.
"We were just stunned," McFarlane said. "My glory, three weeks away ... I said, 'No matter what else we do, we won't do that.' "
Now, after many years and after retiring themselves, the McFarlanes are among a number of "consultant couples" who speak at retirement seminars sponsored by the Board of Pensions. They don't offer advice; in other words, they don't tell people what to do. But they do walk people through questions they're likely to encounter as they consider retirement -- questions such as where to live and how to use their time when they step aside from the pulpit. They try to help them envision what, for them, retirement might be like.
Canons of convenience: Churches face choices for worship on Christmas Eve, Christmas Day
Last year, some megachurches got tongues flapping fast when they decided to cancel worship services on Christmas Day -- which happened to be Sunday morning.
This year, churches face another Christmas "what to do" decision, because Dec. 24 lands on a Sunday. So congregations big and small must decide whether to offer both Sunday morning worship and a full lineup of Christmas Eve services -- or whether that's just too much.
Some people want a traditional late-night Christmas Eve service, with a choir and communion and candlelight.
LPTS women’s ordination anniversary celebration
LOUISVILLE -- In some ways, the anniversaries of women's ordination that the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) is in the midst of celebrating this year -- 100 years for deacons, 75 years for elders, 50 years for ministers -- are momentous, historic events.
And in other ways they are like a panorama of smaller stories -- layers of personal remembrances, snippets of impressions, allegories laden with history and meaning and politics.
Some are funny stories -- such as when a class of five women arrived at Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary in 1980 and found urinals in the women's restrooms and potted plants in the urinals.
Some are painful -- the stories of women who felt called by God to serve at a time when the church said, "Absolutely not."
And some tell folks that as far as the church has come, there are still young women, and women of color, and lesbians who want to be ordained, and mature women scarred by the fighting, who would say the Presbyterian church hasn't come nearly far enough.