Montreat Youth Conference kicks off
MONTREAT — With whoops and hollers, waving arms and happy feet, more than 1,300 high schoolers from throughout the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) kicked off the Montreat Youth Conference here Sunday night (July 6).
The Presbyterian Outlook
Creating and curating trustworthy resources for the church, the Presbyterian Outlook connects disciples of Jesus Christ through compelling and committed conversation for the proclamation of the Gospel.
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The Great Awakening
The Great Awakening: Reviving Faith and Politics in a Post-Religious Right America, by Jim Wallis. HarperOne, 2008. Hb., 352 pp. $25.95.
Before you read the first word of Jim Wallis’ transformative new book, you know something is different. Lined up like a political and theological renewal of the old television show The Odd Couple are names we know separately as representatives of vastly different worldviews.
Who are “young adults,” anyway?
As mainline congregations grapple with the “graying” of their ranks — average age pushing into the mid-60s — many recognize they need to serve “young adults” more effectively.
Missions in the ’tweener times
Welcome to the ’tweener edition of The Presbyterian Outlook. We go to print too early to be able to report any news of the General Assembly (one exception: see p. 6). You receive the magazine about the time the Assembly is adjourning, so any pre-Assembly analysis we might offer is moot. Hence, we find ourselves caught in the middle — in between the times.
Cliff Kirkpatrick recipient of E.T. Thompson Award
The board of directors of The Presbyterian Outlook has awarded its 2008 Ernest Trice Thompson Award for church leadership to Clifton Kirkpatrick, an ecumenical leader who has served as stated clerk of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) for the past 12 years. Editor Jack Haberer and immediate past president of the Outlook board, Richard Ray, presented the award at the Outlook’s June 21 banquet that marked the opening of the General Assembly in San Jose, Calif.
Ecumenical group flounders as racism goes unaddressed
An ecumenical group of Christian denominations that was determined to address racism inside and outside the church is facing an uncertain future after two of its three historically black member-churches stopped attending its meetings.
Presbyterian churches display anti-torture banners; Effort coincides with ‘Torture Awareness Month’
LOUISVILLE — Southside Church in Tucson, Ariz., has erected a new sign in front of its rustic, southwestern-style, adobe building just like the one Nauraushaun Church has placed in front of its modern, red-brick edifice in Pearl River, N.Y.
Doing good, doing better: Short-term mission more than a trip
Transformative or tourism?
This is high season for short-term mission trips, with congregations all over the United States sending groups to paint and hammer, teach and worship, and fix teeth.
Los Ranchos, Kenyan presbyteries work together
About 15 years ago, Los Ranchos Presbytery in southern California and Limuru Presbytery in Kenya began a partnership journey together “with good intentions,” says Steven Toshio Yamaguchi, Los Ranchos’ executive presbyter.
Jorge Lara-Braud, pastor, theologian, fighter for the poor dies at 77
LOUISVILLE — Jorge Lara-Braud, 77, a Presbyterian lay pastor, theologian, and social activist who devoted his life to improving the lot of the marginalized and oppressed, died June 22 after a fall near his home in Austin, Texas.
Presbyterians part of bipartisan group urging president to ban torture: 200 petitioners want an end to inhuman interrogation
LOUISVILLE — The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) has joined a bipartisan group of some 200 religious leaders, former top government officials, and retired generals in calling on President George W. Bush to sign an executive order outlawing torture and cruel and inhuman treatment of detainees held in connection with the global war on terror.
Assembly seeks expanded coverage for children with congenital disabilities, Annual ‘relief of conscience’ report also sought from Board of Pensions
SAN JOSE — The 218th General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) has urged the denomination’s Board of Pensions [www.pensions.org] to expand its medical coverage for children with congenital developmental disabilities to include occupational, speech, and physical authority.
The expanded benefits would apply to children with such maladies as Down’s syndrome and autism.
Interfaith guests share perspectives on cooperation
SAN JOSE — In a dangerous world, interfaith dialogue is even more important because “a fire next door will consume your own house,” a leading U.S. Muslim told the 218th General Assembly’s Ecumenical Breakfast June 26.
Three winners in youth video contest announced, ymiLIVE victors each to receive $25,000 endowment
SAN JOSE — Youth groups in New Jersey, Indiana, and southern California have been chosen winners of the inaugural Youth Video Challenge sponsored by the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) Foundation on its social networking site, ymiLIVE.org [www.ymilive.org].
Assembly calls for tolerance in relations with Jews, Muslims
SAN JOSE — The 218th General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) approved with amendments a resolution “On Calling for Tolerance and Peaceful Relations Between the Christian and Muslim Communities.” The vote was 547-149.
Two church growth strategies, new sexuality curriculum approved
SAN JOSE — In two separate but related initiatives designed to address the persistent decline in Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) membership as well as the church’s commitment to grow in diversity, the 218th General Assembly wholeheartedly approved June 25 a Strategy for Church Growth for African American Congregations and a resolution to help Christ’s Church Grow Deep and Wide during the report of the Assembly Committee on Church Growth and Christian Education.
Equip future pastors to teach theology, Juengst says
SAN JOSE — Equipping seminary students “to go out to equip others” is critical, the Rev. Sara Covin Juengst told a group of Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) seminary leaders and others gathered for the Committee on Theological Education [www.pcusa.org/seminaries/cote.htm] (COTE) Breakfast on June 26.
Spirit makes evangelism easier, says Hoey
SAN JOSE — Reclaiming the power of the gospel will greatly help with one of the most difficult challenges Presbyterians face— evangelism, according to the Rev. Eric Hoey, director of evangelism and church growth [www.pcusa.org/goodnews], who spoke at the evangelism breakfast June 26 at the 218th General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.).
Who is that masked man? Calvin Jubilee 2009 to celebrate Reformer’s 500th birthday
Commissioners and guests arriving at the PC(USA)‚s 218th General Assembly in San Jose, Calif., encountered John Calvin —— lots and lots of John Calvins.
Sweet hour of prayer, Confronted with another G-6.0106b amendment, presbytery executives gather to seek wisdom, encouragement from God
SAN JOSE — When the 218th General Assembly voted to send out a proposed amendment to presbyteries to delete the “fidelity and chastity” ordination standard and replace it with a new version, a handful of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)‚s executive presbyters felt a need to gather for prayer.
The Incredible Hulk/Mongol/The Happening
All three are stories about irresistible force. One is historical, one is modern fiction, and the other is literally straight out of a comic book. In all three, there’s lots of random violence. In all three, the hero prevails, but what varies is whether the hero is himself the monster.
Genghis Khan didn’t grow up in palaces, even though his father was a local chieftain. They were nomads; they lived in tents and traveled with the herds. His father took him, at age nine, to be betrothed in a political alliance with a neighboring tribe, but Temudjin, even as a child, could do nothing other than be guided by his own lights. He picks a girl from another, less powerful tribe, which was a less honorable choice for his father, and, it turns out, also fatal.
GA News: Assembly calls for peacemaking in Israel/Palestine
SAN JOSE — Commissioners to the 218th General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) “stayed the course” of being peacemakers around the world.
General Assembly Summary Report, A popular service is available again!
Shaking and Moving The 218th General Assembly of the PC(USA)
In San Jose, California, close to the San Andreas fault, the 218th General Assembly, though resting on the solid rock of Jesus Christ, felt tremors of change and shifts in the denominational ground.
GA NEWS: Comfort My People: a new comprehensive statement on serious mental illness
SAN JOSE -- “There is hardly any family or congregation that is not touched by serious mental illness,” says the Rev. B. Gordon Edwards, who was instrumental in bringing “Comfort My People: A Policy Statement on Serious Mental Illness” to the 218th General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) for adoption on June 27.
GA NEWS: Assembly approves new social creed, the first in a century
SAN JOSE -- By a 5-to-1 margin, the 218th General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) on Friday (June 27) approved “A Social Creed for the 21st Century,” exactly 100 years after the “Social Creed” of 1908 spoke to the harshness of industrial life at the turn of the last century.