LOUISVILLE -- A non-profit organization related to the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) has launched a Fair Trade Web site aimed at helping disadvantaged Peruvian artisans find a new marketplace for their goods and earn a sustainable wage in return.
The Partners for Just Trade (PJT) Web site makes it easy to purchase Peruvian handcrafts and other products online and educates consumers about the meaning of fair and just trade.
Mainline church decline is so well known in contemporary American parlance as to border on the cliché. But awareness does not always lead to response. Christian A Schwarz's, Natural Church Development (Churchsmart Resources: Carol Stream, Illinois, 7th edition, 2006) is one place congregations have turned in order to begin to address these issues of decline and growth in a practical, tangible, and measurable way.
What makes a church grow? More than that, is it okay to admit that you might want to know the answer?
What we hope is the final update on this situation:
Pakistan has simmered for the last two days under a 'state of mourning'. Frankly, I preferred the State of Emergency! Stores that dare to open to sell niceties like food have to shield their windows, ready to roll down metal shutters in case roving mobs of PPP supporters come by to 'enforce' grief on their bazaar. Gas stations are nearly all closed for the same reason, and even the largest ambulance service has temporarily suspended operations due to a lack of petrol.
A story on one of the Pakistani news channels last night gave the final totals of grief on Thursday: something like 50 killed, hundreds seriously injured, more than 300 shops looted and then burned, an undetermined number of houses burned, 110 banks burned, 75 train cars burned, 15 petrol pumps, etc.
All was well until Thursday when this country was rocked to its core by Benazir's assassination. Our lives have since been dominated by watching TV, reading online, and pondering what will come next in this tumultuous environment. We have no wisdom to impart: we're watching the same news you are. Our Pakistani colleagues don't have a sense of what will happen either. We've tightened security on campus and closed the college offices until January 2.
Daylight has come to Pakistan, as has calm. Grief, shock and anger over Benazir Bhutto's assassination, however, are still with us. It appears that the wave of rage that washed over some areas in the night subsided fairly early. The three day mourning period for Benazir has begun, and with it, an uneasy truce. However, the potential for violence remains high, so high that the city of Karachi (a PPP stronghold) is under virtual lockdown today, with flights in and out of that city suspended for the day. Here in Lahore, there were small, but violent demonstrations.
As I am sure you are hearing, all of Pakistan's major cities are experiencing violent demonstrations right now. The 'good' news (if you can call it that) is that it is not pervasive, and seems to be limited to certain always-tense areas. The PPP - Benazir's party - has mobilized across the southern province of Sindh, and some cities, notably Hyderabad, are virtually cut-off from the rest of Pakistan by blocked roads, fires and marching mobs.
Worship should reflect the questions people are asking.
For example: After a national or local tragedy, it would be artificial to present worship that ignored the trauma that people are feeling. After a spate of deaths, or some high-profile bouts of illness, a healthy church will want to respond publicly, not just go about "business as usual."
A congregation with many young families will want to address issues common to young families, such as life-purpose, concern about public schools, time and money management.
If ever there were a year about which we might say, "Nothing's changed," 2007 at least comes close.
Kevin Eckstrom, editor of Religion News Service, has provided us a great lead story regarding the religious news of the year (p. 6). He says that 2007 may well be remembered as the year that set the stage for big news to follow. The powerful Religious Right grew ragged around the edges this year, although the big headlines await the election year to follow. Stay tuned.
History books are full of dates that mark seminal events: 1517, when Martin Luther nailed his 95 theses to the church door and launched the Protestant Reformation; or 1973, when the Supreme Court legalized abortion.
Those boldface dates are preceded by less prominent but nonetheless decisive times: 1516, when a Dominican named Johann Tetzel led the sale of indulgences that deeply angered Luther; and 1970, when a young Texas woman named Norma McCorvey (Jane Roe) filed suit to obtain an abortion.
LOUISVILLE -- Recognizing there is opposition to some of what it has proposed, but still confident that the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) needs a more flexible form of government to navigate in a post-modern world, the Form of Government Task Force is recommending significant changes in the denomination's constitution, but providing opportunities for amendment if the broader church disagrees.
The task force is recommending what its members think is best -- doing what it thinks is right for the church after a year and a half of hard work. But it's also providing options on some particularly sticky issues if the 2008 General Assembly comes to a different conclusion. It met Nov. 30 -- Dec. 2 in Louisville.
LOUISVILLE -- Hunter Farrell has learned a lot in his years serving the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) in Congo and Peru. One of the things he's learned: "There's a cost to being missional."
Now Farrell, the new director of world mission for the PC(USA), is challenging Presbyterians to think in new ways.
He's sending signals that the denomination's national staff is ready "to move into a new mode of doing mission," that it wants to work in real partnership with "mission initiators" from local congregations and presbyteries.
I am a veteran of all four New Wineskins Convocations. As a representative of the Office of Theology and Worship I attended the Visionary meeting in Minneapolis, the Angry meeting in Tulsa, the Legal meeting in Orlando, and the Moving On meeting in Sacramento. Dealing with New Wineskins Association of Churches (NWAC) puts me in an awkward place. I count some of the leaders and participants in New Wineskins as friends, but I work for the General Assembly Council and have a strong personal commitment to the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). The past three years have taught me that the New Wineskins Association of Churches is right about many fundamental issues in the PC(USA), tragically wrong about others.
"The Golden Compass" has generated a lot of "buzz" because of its supposedly anti-Christian content (propelled by reports that the author of the book on which the movie is based advertises himself as an atheist). But "The Golden Compass" is merely a fairy tale. Like all fairy tales, in places it is extremely creative, in other places practically plagiaristic, and its apparent purpose is simply to entertain.
We begin with a bit of overdubbing by way of introduction. There are several parallel universes, connected by some sort of cosmic dust. In each parallel universe, humans have different relationships to their souls, or spirits.
For the past few months moviegoers have had their imaginations piqued by armored polar bears, flying witches, blockbuster stars (Nicole Kidman, Daniel Craig, Sam Elliot, and Eva Green) and incredible digital animation, all packed into a three minute teaser trailer. The promise? A classic action-fantasy quest story, with compelling, imaginative characters engaged in a good vs. evil adventure of mythic proportions. The wait is over.
"The Golden Compass" is the film version of book one in a fantasy adventure trilogy (His Dark Materials) by Oxford's Philip Pullman, an award-winning British author of children's literature. New Line Cinema is following their familiar strategy: a December blockbuster release of British fantasy literature adapted for the big screen (who can forget the incredible three-year dominance of "The Lord of the Rings" movies?). Indeed, New Line's early promotional materials for "The Golden Compass" specifically mention the beloved Tolkien series to whet our appetites: "In 2001," the text scrolls, "New Line Cinema opened the door to Middle Earth." As the familiar "one ring" tumbles, slow motion, down the screen, it morphs into a golden compass. The text continues the promise: New Line will take you "on another epic journey."
I can see that little building in my mind's eye. It had been a modest residence, but our fledgling congregation had converted it into a place of worship. We knocked out walls to make a worship space, and various remaining rooms served for classrooms. We were a small group, but things looked promising, as World War II was bringing new people into the area all the time. For a kid who had spent the first nine years of his life in a small country congregation, the bustle was exciting.
We knew that when the fighting ended the congregation was going to move to a much larger place, just a few blocks from our small suburban home. This place was our tabernacle for a time.
JEFFERSONVILLE, IN -- Tapping the creative energy of potentially thousands of Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) youth in order to "connect" and "engage" the denomination around mission and ministry is the goal of a new effort of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) Foundation.
YMI Live (Youth Mission Initiative LIVE) is a Web-based project launched by the Foundation in November to create an Internet community of Presbyterian youth and adults joined to engage around the mission and goals of the denomination.
Resources for Year A
Hunger for the Word: Lectionary Reflections on Food and Justice, Year A, Larry Hollar, editor. Liturgical Press, 2004. Pb., 240 pp. $19.95.
In a world of hunger and starvation, Bread for the World's Larry Hollar has edited a resource that brings reflections on hunger issues to the forefront of consideration of lectionary texts. Through the perspectives included here, preachers and teachers will find their eyes opened to God's concern for the plight of the poor and hungry of the world.
Isaiah, Interpreted by Early Christian and Medieval Commentators, translated and edited by Robert Louis Wilken. The Church's Bible. Eerdmans, 2007. Hb., 590 pp. $45.
Wilken is the general editor of this series, which seeks to bring ancient readings of Scripture into contemporary conversation in the church. Such work provides a helpful reminder to the church that there is much value and insight into Isaiah from the likes of Augustine, Ambrose, Chrysostom and others who were actively engaged in reading and interpreting the prophet's work in the early centuries of the church.
At one level, faith communities are no different from other human assembly.
Opinions differ, interests collide, feelings get hurt, leaders fail, constituents renege on commitments, money has undue sway, and we store up grievances like currency for later use.
Moreover, churches tend to get as stuck as any other institution. Historic grievances are passed down from generation to generation, from old-timer to newcomer. Like a dysfunctional family that molds every new member to its self-defeating ways, we make sure that newness has the sour taste of oldness.
O little town of Bethlehem,
How still we see thee lie!
Above thy deep and dreamless sleep
The silent stars go by.
Yet in thy dark streets shineth
The everlasting light;
The hopes and fears of all the years
Are met in thee tonight.
This classic Christmas carol, written 140 years ago by one of America's greatest preachers, Phillips Brooks, captures so much thought in such few words.
When Brook visited there, Bethlehem nights did quiet as its agrarian residents slept off the day's hard work.
Rome/Geneva (ENI) -- Church leaders have cautiously welcomed a document issued by a joint Roman Catholic-Orthodox commission dealing with the papacy, among other things, as an important move towards overcoming a 950-year rift between the two Christian traditions.
"We must be clear this is only a first step, a modest step," said Cardinal Walter Kasper, president of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, after the November 14 publication of the document agreed to at a meeting the previous month in Ravenna in northern Italy.
A new issue has popped up in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)'s Mission Presbytery recently: should a person have to confess to the belief in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior in order to become a member of a church?
The issue arose when Robert Jensen, a journalism professor at the University of Texas at Austin, joined St. Andrew's Church in Austin, Texas, in 2005, and later declared in a published article that he does not believe in Jesus, or God, at all. When Mission Presbytery's Committee on Ministry researched whether or not there are questions in the Book of Order on joining the membership of a church, they found such questions -- at least as required in an explicit formula -- are not there.
I've always been a fan of Joseph. Maybe it is because he reminds me of my own father.
Later in the Gospel of Matthew we learn that Joseph was a tradesman, a carpenter. Jesus had returned home and had gone to the synagogue and he began to teach. He astonished them with his wisdom. He astonished them because none of us ever quite expect the people we know best to move beyond our expectations. They say of him, "Is not this the carpenter's son?" They are incredulous, but at least some new information surfaces about Joseph.
Pastor Susan Quinn Bryan first encountered the Church of the Saviour fifteen years ago. She was pastor of a small, struggling Presbyterian church in Houston, Texas. She was searching.
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He came a most unlikely guest
on night when air was cool and still
and people sought to hide from dark
amidst the shelter of an inn.
Some years ago my family was invited to attend a Christmas party at the home of one of our church members. It was to be a casual affair. We were asked to bring a salad to share. It was a potluck gathering for a number of people in the congregation. After an hour of visiting, our host asked for everyone's attention and he sat down in front of the fireplace and explained that what he was about to do was one of the greatest honors a person could have. He paused and a tear rolled down his cheek and then he began to read Luke's version of the birth of Jesus. He read it simply and quietly. The room was still. Even the children listened intently, because even they knew that to get to Bethlehem one has to hear the story.
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