Hope prevails for Virginia Tech students

For the Presbyterian students at Virginia Tech, hope has found a voice that has quieted the lingering echoes of gunshots. Several of them -- survivors of last April's mass murder on their campus -- testified to their harrowing search for and discovery of hope with 800 fellow students at the College Conference at the Montreat Conference Center on January 3. 

Shane Claiborne, Ishmael Beah bring hope to college students

MONTREAT, N.C. --  "We're just ordinary radicals," Shane Claiborne told 800 young adults gathered at the College Conference at Montreat Conference Center in western North Carolina on January 4. With unassuming anecdotes and lots of humor, he told the students that the world could use a few more ordinary radicals.

Homeless ministry founder is third candidate for GA moderator

LOUISVILLE -- Carl Mazza, the founder and leader of "Meeting Ground," a community-based ministry with the homeless and other marginalized people in Elkton, Md., is the third announced candidate to stand for moderator of the 218th General Assembly (2008), next summer in San Jose, Calif.

Mazza was endorsed on Jan. 18 by New Castle Presbytery, based in Newark, Del.

He joins Bill Teng of National Capital Presbytery and Bruce Reyes-Chow of San Francisco Presbytery as candidates to succeed Joan Gray of Atlanta, moderator of the 217th General Assembly (2006).

A Tribute: Jack Leven Stotts (1932-2008)

Jack Leven Stotts, professor of Christian ethics, president of McCormick Theological Seminary and, later, Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary, and chair of the committee that wrote the Brief Statement of Faith that was added to the Book of Confessions in 1991, died of natural causes January 24, 2008 in Austin, Texas. He was 75 years old. Survivors include his wife of 54 years, Virginia, and their three children, Stuart, Anna, and Nancy.

         A native of Dallas, Texas, Stotts earned his B.A. from Trinity University in 1954. He received his B.D. from McCormick Seminary in 1957, and his Ph.D. from Yale Divinity School in 1965. Stotts' ministry included serving as the first chaplain of the Sharpe Chapel at the University of Tulsa, a three-year pastorate in San Angelo, Texas, professor and president at McCormick Seminary, and president of Austin Seminary.

Gaza Strip in crisis

An update that Victor Makari sent from the Middle East Council of Churches:

Dear All,

            I was on the phone this morning with our colleague in Gaza Mr. Constantine Dabbagh, Executive Director of Near East Council of Churches and we exchanged for some time over the situation in the Gaza Strip.

            From the description of the conditions in the Gaza Strip at the moment, I gather the following:

·         It is very difficult for people to get bread. Bakeries that used to distribute bread regularly and fairly easily are unable to do so because of fuel shortage. Queues stand around a couple of blocks from bakeries in order to have a chance to get the daily bread staple which Palestinians cannot exist without it.

Holy Land church leaders denounce Israel’s blockade as ‘immoral’ (ENI)

Jerusalem, 22 January (ENI)--Christian leaders in Jerusalem have condemned Israel's blockade of Gaza as an immoral act that violates international law.

         'To deny children and civilians their necessary basic commodities are not the ways to security,' the heads of churches in Jerusalem and the Holy Land warned in a 22 January statement.

         On the same day, Israel allowed a temporary easing of its blockade which has left large parts of the Palestinian territory, which also borders Egypt and the Mediterranean Sea, without access to electricity. The closure by Israel of its border crossings with Gaza was intended to put pressure on Palestinian militants to stop firing rockets into southern Israel.

         But, said the Christian leaders, 'This siege will not guarantee the end to rocket firing, but will only increase the bitterness and suffering and invite more revenge, while the innocents keep dying,'

Mission consultation: Time for change

DALLAS -- It's not reasonable to expect a three-day meeting in Texas to spit out all the answers to how the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) ought to approach world mission. But the folks gathered here for a consultation on world mission Jan. 16-18 did have some pretty clear ideas about what's happening in the world that Presbyterians can't ignore -- changes sweeping the land, whether people have figured it out yet or not.

The bottom line: this is a time of tremendous change, in the PC(USA) and in the world. As Paul Pierson, a former missionary in Brazil and Portugal and senior professor of the history of mission and Latin American studies at Fuller Theological Seminary has written: "The changes in the worldwide church today are probably greater than those that took place during the sixteenth century Reformation. The transition today is analogous to the shift from the Jewish to the Gentile church in the first century."

Bruce Reyes-Chow endorsed to stand for moderator

Bruce Reyes-Chow, the founding pastor of Mission Bay Community Church in San Francisco, is the second person to step forward as a candidate for moderator of the 218^th General Assembly, having been endorsed by San Francisco Presbytery on Jan. 15.

            Reyes-Chow, a California native and a graduate of San Francisco Theological Seminary, is the grandson of Filipino and Chinese immigrants. He describes himself on his blog -- and Reyes-Chow is an inveterate online guy -- as "pastor/geek/dad/follower of Christ."

Pope and WCC head Kobia to pray together for Christian unity

GENEVA(ENI)-- Pope Benedict XVI and the Rev. Samuel Kobia, the general secretary of the World Council of Churches, will meet in Rome on 25 January, at a ceremony to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity.

         The WCC said in a statement on 21 January that Kobia will meet the Pope in a private audience along with members of the Joint Working Group of the Roman Catholic Church and the WCC, during a yearly working group meeting in Rome from 21-26 January.

Oklahoma immigration law: First step in wrong direction?

The issue of immigration reform continues to stymie politicians at the national level, and to be a matter of honest disagreement at the grassroots.

But in Oklahoma, the legislature has pushed through some of the toughest rules in the nation opposing illegal immigration, and some religious leaders are concerned about the impact the new law could have on their ministry with the poor and dispossessed. And even stricter legislation will be up for consideration in the state early in 2008.

Christians worldwide mark 100 years of prayers for unity

Geneva, 17 January (ENI)--Believers in many parts of the world are preparing for the annual Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, which this year marks the 100th anniversary of an initiative to promote unity between Christians of different traditions. The week of prayer for 2008 is using the theme 'Pray without ceasing', a Biblical verse from St Paul's First Letter to the Thessalonians (1 Thess. 5:17).

         The week offers local churches and congregations belonging to different Christian traditions, an opportunity to exchange prayers, or to join together for prayer for prayer and worship. In many parts of the world the week is marked from 18 to 25 January, but in some places in the southern hemisphere, another time is used, such as the period of Pentecost.

Taizé urges young people to promote church unity

(ENI) Geneva -- The leader of the Taizé community urged tens of thousands of young Christians from Europe, who gathered in Geneva at the New Year to organize "vigils of reconciliation," for unity between churches that are divided from each other.

"How can we be credible in speaking of a God of love if we remain separate?"

Brother Alois, prior of the ecumenical Taizé community said in his meditation at a televised prayer service on December 30 at Geneva's Palexpo exhibition center:

Wheeler, Mouw decry ‘bumper sticker’ theology: Auburn, Fuller presidents model mutual respect despite theological disagreement

PASADENA, CA -- "How will we draw anyone else to us if we don't show them that there is some extraordinary power in Jesus Christ?" asked Barbara Wheeler, president of New York's Auburn Theological Seminary, at a public forum here sponsored in conjunction with Fuller Theological Seminary and hosted by Pasadena Presbyterian Church. 

         The forum -- entitled "Repairers of the Breach" -- was the latest in a series of public dialogs that Wheeler and Fuller President Richard Mouw have shared over the past seven years, coming together to discuss their differences, but perhaps more importantly to model the ability to come together in the midst of theological disagreement.

         "I hope that both sides can build enough trust to learn and to do some good things together," Mouw said. "This mutual learning and cooperative doing requires both sides, or more accurately, all sides, since we don't divide evenly into two, to cultivate some important sensitivities."