SAN JOSE — With a rousing rendition of “My Hope Is Built on Nothing Less,” Presbyterians for Renewal (PFR) opened their General Assembly breakfast on Wednesday (June 25), with PFR executive director Paul Detterman enthusiastically leading those gathered in song.
Lisa Wraith, liturgical artist and recent graduate of San Francisco Theological Seminary is the designer of the 218th General Assembly’s prayer chapel. “I went to seminary because of General Assembly,” Wraith says, admitting that it is perhaps a bit unusual to receive a call to ministry through committee participation at GA.
CORRECTION: The original version of this story, posted June 23, incorrectly quoted Ben Willis, a pastor from Lehigh Presbytery. The story quoted Willis as saying, "I'm not gay any more -- I used to be. It's the transforming power of the Holy Spirit," when Willis was actually recounting a conversation he'd had with a man who attends his church, and who made those remarks.
SAN JOSE — For Melva Costen the year leading up to the 1983 reunion was busy, demanding and deeply personal. Her husband, the Rev. James Costen, was the 1982 moderator of the United Presbyterian Church in the United States of America (UPCUSA).
SAN JOSE – “I come from a severely wounded land,” said Archbishop Avak Asadourian, the primate of the Armenian Apostolic Church of Iraq.
On the 25th anniversary of the reunion of the United Presbyterian Church in the United States of America (northern stream) and the Presbyterian Church in the United States (southern stream), people who were there look back.
SAN JOSE – If Presbyterians want to speak of the common ground in the faith of Christians, Muslims and Jews — perhaps as a way to build a bridge to deeper conversation — what’s the best way to do that?
“Let the needs of the world and not the failings of the church set our agenda,” said Mary Hunt, Catholic feminist theologian, to those gathered for the Voices of Sophia breakfast Tuesday (June24).
A Church Growth and Christian Education Committee recommendation to produce human development resources for adolescents was approved by the 218th General Assembly Wednesday (June 25) after deliberations that included passionate, personal arguments for and against the creation of what was expected to take form as a new curriculum.
SAN JOSE – They had to endure some scolding, but the General Assembly Council (GAC) and the Presbyterian Foundation seem to have found a path for resolving future disputes over the disbursement of funds – disagreements that, at this week’s meeting of the 218th General Assembly, slid messily out into public view.
SAN JOSE – Leadership is a big deal at this year’s General Assembly – with the election June 21 of Bruce Reyes-Chow, https://www.mod.reyes-chow.com/ the young, tech-savvy pastor of a multicultural church, as moderator, and with the assembly scheduled to pick a new stated clerk on June 27.
SAN JOSE -- The General Assembly Youth Committee meeting June 24, using an interactive visioning process to address Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) concerns about the nature of adolescents, youth ministry, and resources for faith development, hammered out a series of recommendations for the Assembly's consideration later this week.
SAN JOSE -- Using his own church as an example, the Rev. Jin Kim, pastor of the Church of All Nations in Minneapolis, Minn., called for Christians to “lay down their sword of power and privilege and to walk humbly with God.”
SAN JOSE -- All attempts to mandate changes in the ways per capita is spent at the General Assembly level were turned aside by a General Assembly committee meeting Tuesday (June 24).
SAN JOSE — One hundred years after “A Social Creed of the Churches” [www.pcusa.org/acswp/socialcreed] joined Christians together to work to ease the human costs of industrialization, General Assembly’s Social Justice Issues Committee passed a new social creed Tuesday June 24) to “meet the challenges of sustainability and globalization.”
SAN JOSE — The Committee on Ecumenical and Interfaith Relations has voted to recommend that the 218th General Assembly adopt four ecumenical agreements intended to move the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) toward greater unity with other denominations.
SAN JOSE — By a vote of 38-20 on Tuesday (June 24) the Assembly Committee on Church Polity rejected a proposal from Baltimore Presbytery that would have changed the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) constitutional definition of marriage from a man and a woman to “two people.”
“I am a walking contradiction,” began Archbishop Elias Chacour in his sermon to those gathered for the ecumenical service of worship held Wednesday morning (June 25) as part of the General Assembly week.. As a Palestinian, Arab, Christian, Israeli, Chacour said,
The 218th General Assembly Committee on the Revision of the Form of Government, charged to address the Report of the Form of Government Task Force, voted Tuesday (June 24) to refer the report to churches and presbyteries for a 19-month study process.
SAN JOSE — Being a minister of a growing church used to be about the “three Ps” said the Rev. Mark Lau Branson, speaking at the Congregational Transformation luncheon June 23, during the 218th General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). “Preaching, pastoral care, and program would be the basic job description.
In all the voting, unrest, and violence of Zimbabwe in recent weeks, a poll of a different type emerged from the deliberations of the peacemaking and International Issues committee Tuesday (June 24).
After more than 13 hours of deliberations, the Committee on Peacemaking and International Issues passed a number of commissioner resolutions expressing a wide spectrum of thought and belief within the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A). The committee had more than 70 requests to speak during its open hearings.
“It was good news that at least in this election, Mugabe got no votes,” said a Zimbabwean church leader who, for security reasons, cannot be named.
The National Middle Eastern Presbyterian Caucus presented Rev. Mehdi Abhari The Fahed Abu Akel Award in honor of the General Assembly’s 214th Moderator. Considered by Iranian Christians worldwide as their senior pastor, confidant, and scholar, Rev. Abhari was ordained as a minister of the Evangelical Church of Iran.
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