In Defense of Civility: How Religion can Unite America on Seven Moral Issues that Divide Us
by James Calvin Davis
Westminster John Knox Press, September 2010, 216 pages
reviewed by SHARON CORE
One has only to look to the last election to realize that civility has taken a back seat in our political process.
Whether you will enjoy this film depends a lot on your personal theology. It helps if you’re intrigued by the question of how human free will intersects and interacts with the divine plan.
Warsaw (ENInews) A senior Turkish Protestant has said his country's small Christian churches still face severe hardships, despite recent pledges by the government to improve protection of religious rights.
LOUISVILLE – The Rev. Gradye Parsons, General Assembly stated clerk of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), has written a letter to Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker, urging him to call off a plan to balance the state budget in part by de-unionizing state workers.
New York, 2 March (ENInews)--The Rev. Peter J. Gomes, best known as an imposing but beloved figure on the campus of Harvard University, where for many years he served as the minister of the university's Memorial Church, is being remembered as one of the era's great preachers. Gomes, 68, died 28 February in Boston of complications from a stroke he suffered in December.
I was graciously granted an interview that is on the Outlook web site. Please read that, and then this theological addition.
A PC(USA) program called For Such a Time as This matches new seminary graduates with small churches. For some pastors it means..
I truly wanted to vote for a more concise, less cumbersome new Form of Government (“nFOG”). One that would inspire and send the church fully empowered and engaged in what God is doing in the world. But the proposed new Form of Government actually moves our church backwards, distracts us from actually doing ministry, and further illustrates our denomination’s disconnect with our culture.
To the Editor:
Dear Sir:
Even if you are in favor of gay and lesbian ordination, you should vote against Amendment A, for three reasons. The same reasons pertain to battle-weary centrists eager to put the conflict to rest.
INDIANAPOLIS – What is next for the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A)? The 350-or-so folks who gathered in Indianapolis for the Next Church Conference, Feb. 28-March 1, know pretty much what it’s not going to be. Not a return to the 1950s … to rules and regulations and bickering …Click here to read full article.
INDIANAPOLIS – What is next for the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A)?
The 350-or-so folks who gathered in Indianapolis for the Next Church Conference, Feb. 28-March 1, know pretty much what it’s not going to be. Not a return to the 1950s. Not a groundswell of folks desperate to come to church because they can’t get enough of rules and regulations and bickering. Not a denomination that can be older and whiter than the rest of the nation and miraculously expect to thrive.
…Well, as a somewhat post-modernist, I signed it because of what I believe it says. (Is that a cop-out-in-advance, in case things go south at the August meeting, which I cannot attend? Maybe!) But here are some of the particulars that made me decide to throw my hat in with “the Fellowship”. Click here to read full article.
BILOXI, Miss. – The Presbyterian Committee on the Self-Development of People has approved grants totaling $261, 255 to 14 self-help projects in the United States. 
SAN DIEGO – Since he began serving as executive presbyter of the Presbytery of San Diego in 2007, the Rev. Clark Cowden said the presbytery has focused on being a missional church.
STATESVILLE, N.C. (PNS) Many ideas start with just one person, but it takes the work of many to make them a reality. In this case the one person is Catherine Gillette. Now a sophomore at the College of Wooster in Ohio, Gillette went on two mission trips to Honduras during her sophomore and junior years of high school that left a lasting impression on her.
“The Roommate”: Minka Kelly plays Sara, who goes off to college taking potluck for a roommate, and the one she gets turns out to be a psycho off her meds.
Lent Year A hymns
Price $9.95 per hymn or
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February 26, 2011
As of February 26, 2011, 95 presbyteries have voted. Thirteen of these presbyteries have reversed direction from their votes of 2008-09. Twelve have switched from opposing a change in ordination standards to supporting a change, whereas just one has switched from supporting to opposing.
By the Session of Faith Presbyterian Church, Austin, Texas
1February 20, 2011
On February 2, 2011 many members of our Presbytery received a letter circulating around the PC(USA) stating that the PC(USA) is "deathly ill" and inviting us to a conference to consider new structures for the future, including a new fellowship. This letter raises both important issues and some serious concerns, so the Council of the Presbytery of Greater Atlanta feels it is important to respond…
“A brief review of the discussions which have troubled our Church in the past throws a revealing light upon the path which we are now treading.
The decades-long conflict over ordaining gays and lesbians, now bleeding into endorsing same-sex marriage, has clearly reached an impasse for the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.).
[This essay is based on remarks I made to Foothills Presbytery on 7 November 2010, at the request of the Presbytery overture committee. The committee members came from the whole spectrum of the PCUSA—right, left, and center. The Presbytery voted to adopt Belhar by a vote of 54-42.]
February, 2011
This essay covers the debate over ordaining gays and lesbians in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) at three points: (A) the four stages of the argument to date, (B) where the debate leaves us theologically, and (C) where the debate leaves us as far as some kind of resolution.
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