A few less deaths: Volunteers give aid on Mexico border

Looking for dead bodies was not what they had in mind when they joined.  Whether they work with Humane Borders, Samaritans, No More Deaths or Borderlinks, each volunteer aims to save the lives of migrants struggling to survive the Arizona desert. But when the call came in, telling of the probable death of Prudencia Martin Gomez, an 18-year-old Guatemalan woman, they turned from rescue mode to recovery mode. They went searching for her remains.

The call came through channels from her fiancé, a resident of northern California. He had found steady work there, so Prudencia decided to surprise him by migrating there herself. Lacking the immigration papers, she linked up with a group of migrants who successfully made their way across the border and began their trek -- a hike of 60-70 miles -- to the area of Tucson. With the group she journeyed on foot nearly 60 miles through the dry, hot desert.  But she developed a heavy menstrual flow. Her strength began to give out.  So the others found a spot to leave her, an area of soft sand under a tree that provided some shade.  They left plenty of water and electrolytes with her. They studied the terrain around her, noting the numbered telephone pole not too far away. 

L.A. church helps launch New Sanctuary Movement

"Immanuel joined the New Sanctuary Movement as a pastoral issue first and as a political issue secondarily," says Frank Alton, pastor of Immanuel Church in Los Angeles.

The national debate about undocumented immigrants is not simply an "issue" for Immanuel Church. Undocumented immigrants not only represent a significant part of the congregation's membership but its leadership as well. "Their status in this country impacts every area of their life," according to Alton. Pastorally he has come to realize that "there is no way to minister effectively to that part of [the] congregation without addressing immigration as both a pastoral and a political issue."

As a response, the church has joined the emerging New Sanctuary Movement. The movement is "a coalition of interfaith religious leaders and participating congregations, called by our faith to respond actively and publicly to the suffering of our immigrant brothers and sisters residing in the United States," according to its pledge.

“Hope is in our midst” theme of 2007 Presbyterian Youth Triennium

More than 4,400 Presbyterian youths participated in the 2007 Presbyterian Youth Triennium July 17-22 sponsored by the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) and the Cumberland Presbyterian Church. The theme was "Hope in our midst."

The gatherings were held on the campus of Purdue University in West Lafayette, Ind.

Worship celebrations with lots of music, drama, and Bible messages were a part of their busy agenda. The drama group, Goose Chasers, Inc. led by Mark and Cheryl Goodman-Morris, a clergy couple from Portola Valley, Calif., presented different programs during the week. The theatre troupe has "performed" at every Presbyterian Youth Triennium since 1983.

Conference celebrates Multicultural church

(PNS) More than 600 persons attended "A Racial Ethnic Multicultural Event" in Los Angeles, July 12-14, sponsored by the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.),..

Voluntary simplicity is about both giving up and gaining in life

For some Presbyterians, the idea of stewardship connects to an underlying question: How do the decisions one makes about how to live influence what one has to give back to God's world?

Increasingly, Americans seem to be paying attention to environmental issues, partly as a result of growing concern about global warming and energy costs.

And in some congregations, that's leading to conversations about "voluntary simplicity" or sustainable living -- conversations including everything from how to cut back on energy use and live a "greener" lifestyle, to whether the benefits derived from having a fast-paced, all-consuming career are worth the costs.

Lutherans say No to changing gay clergy rules

c. 2007 Religion News Service

After five days of debate among delegates from the 5 million-member Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, voting members deferred any changes in clergy standards until a special task force on sexuality releases its report just prior to the next assembly, in 2009.

Phil Soucy, a spokesman for the pro-gay group Lutherans Concerned/North America, which brought dozens of supporters adorned with hand-knit rainbow scarves to the assembly, said the move to discourage discipline of gay clergy is a cause for celebration.

'We didn't get policy change now, but in the intervening two years we are not going to have people like Bradley Schmeling hauled up on charges simply for falling in love,' Soucy said.

Bradley Schmeling of Atlanta was taken off the ELCA clergy roster after making public that he is in a relationship with another man. His congregation, St. John's Lutheran Church, kept him as their pastor anyway. The actions taken by the church assembly will not affect his situation, Soucy said.

Brooklyn church’s large stained glass window blown out by tornado

The stained-glass window -- an image of Jesus standing before a multi-ethnic crowd -- shone at night, glowing from within Fourth Avenue Church in Brooklyn, New York like a visible witness to the community https://fourthavenuepresbyterian.org/.

And when the 25-by-12 foot stained glass window catapulted out early on the morning of August 8, dropping two stories and shattering on the sidewalk below, not a single person was hit. It was about 6:15 a.m., the start of the morning waltz to work, on a busy block just a block and a half from a subway stop.

That sidewalk is "incredibly busy in the mornings," said Fourth Avenue's pastor, David Aja-Sigmon. "People should have been going to work. ... No one was hurt. Thank God."

The tornado smashed about 10 blocks of Brooklyn in a brief, intense spasm.

Protestants dismayed at new Vatican document

(ENI) Rome-Geneva -- A new document authorized by Pope Benedict XVI restating Roman Catholic views that Protestant denominations are not churches 'in the proper sense' has been criticized as setting back the quest for Christian unity.

'An exclusive claim that identifies the Roman Catholic Church as the one church of Jesus Christ, as we read in the statement released today [10 July], goes against the spirit of our Christian calling towards oneness in Christ,' said the Rev. Setri Nyomi, general secretary of the Geneva-based World Alliance of Reformed Churches. The alliance groups together 214 churches with roots in the 16th century Protestant Reformation.

Nyomi made his comments in a letter to Cardinal Walter Kasper, the Vatican's top official for promoting Christian unity, following the release in Rome of the Vatican document, which sets down questions and answers about the doctrine of the church.

20 minutes with Baghdad’s Armenian Archbishop Avak Asadourian

"I come from a wounded Iraq and a severely wounded Baghdad," said the man in black habit standing in front of some 130 silent church representatives from six continents gathered for a peace conference on the Middle East. "The situation in my country is tragic," the man continued. "We were promised freedom, but what we need today is freedom to have electricity, clean water, to satisfy the basic needs of life, to live without fear of being abducted."

The man addressing the World Council of Churches (WCC) June 18-20 international conference "Churches together for peace and justice in the Middle East" in Amman, Jordan, was Baghdad's Armenian Archbishop Avak Asadourian, primate of the Armenian Apostolic Church (See of Etchmiadzin) in Iraq.

Asadourian was in Amman representing the Council of Christian Church Leaders in Baghdad. Created in June last year, it is a body made up of 17 church leaders, including two patriarchs, from four Christian families: Catholic, Oriental and Eastern Orthodox and mainline Protestants. The Armenian primate is its general secretary.

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